For French Online Poker Players, 'Grand Frère' is Watching
BY Haley Hintze
Tres Bien? As mentioned previously on this site, the United States
is far from the only country whose legislators persist in taking passionate
stances against what they view as the 'evil' of online gambling. Without
even considering those countries where Internet gambling has always
received blanket prohibition (typically based on the decrees of an
official state religion), legislators of several 'open' Western countries
have sought either to severely crimp gambling over the Internet or
ban it in its entirety.
Examples of this in recent years include measures passed
or under consideration by Italy, Sweden, and more recently, Russia.
Now, word comes via a recent Poker News France story that French legislators
are considering a new measure,
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a portion of which bears strong similarities to that bane of U.S.
online gamblers, the UIGEA.
The French anti-gambling language is part of an omnibus
nanny-state measure carrying the overall tag of 'delinquency prevention,'
and was introduced by France's Minister of the Interior, Nicholas
Sarkozy, following France's 2005 riots. The overall measure tries
to claim the moral high ground with passages noting, among others,
the 'delinquency among minors of an increasingly young age.' Another
section of the law, providing for a large expansion of mayoral security
powers, has brought thousands of protestors to the streets in the
past week.
Two "amendments," numbers 254 and 255, target
online gambling specifically. The first, Amendment 254, is the attack
on the financial tools and conduits online gamblers use. It is intended
to 'allow' (read: force) banks to put into place 'specific tools'
that will allow banks to prevent transfers to and from known gambling
sites or, presumably, known gamblers themselves. The law's purpose,
to freeze asset flow, targets the 'physical or moral persons involved
in the organization of gambling, betting or lotteries prohibited by
French law.'
Amendment 255, by comparison, would attack the Internet
itself, forcing information providers such as AOL or Club Internet
--- or presumably, any web portal or site with a French presence ---
to provide a message to all French visitors that a desired, click-through
link would go to a site 'identified as reprehensible by the minister
of the Interior.' These access providers would be forced to inform
these surfers (and presumed online gamblers) of the risk in participating
in 'games operating unlawfully,' and non-complying access providers
would face hefty fines --- up to 75,000 euros --- and possible imprisonment.
One could make light of the fact that within the greater
measure, online gamblers are lumped in with some of the defining issues
of our time --- delinquents on public transportation, pit bulls loosed
in bad neighborhoods, and the like --- but there's a greater issue
here of which all online gamblers should be aware.
Online gambling is one of a very small number of hot-button
issues that sits at the very crux of a slippery slope, helping to
define the proper role of government in a freedom-of-information,
Internet-driven age. Anti-freedom absurdists invariably trot out the
old saws about terrorism prevention and child pornography, but as
we've seen here in the U.S., the real motivation for their posturing
is financial more often than not. Governments want to control the
Internet because it is profitable for them to do so; freely allowed
electronic-transaction capabilities lay bare all the bogus protectionist
policies of our day.
We all just want to play poker, but we're stuck with
this greater truth: Whatever online gambling's fate, it is one of
the key factors that will determine the shape of --- and control over
--- the Internet itself.