French Parliament Approves Gambling Bill

The French Parliament has passed the new gambling bill, which will reform the tax regime for the country’s gambling operations. The change basically will alter the way gambling tax is calculated. The new method of calculation will be based on gross gaming revenue (GGR).

As per the existing taxation method, gambling tax is calculated based on turnover. The 2020 budget’s projections estimate that by 2020 France would perceive €586 million from sports betting taxes, €787 million from taxes on casinos, €420 million from horse race betting and €66 million from poker. However, Française des Jeux (FDJ) would be the biggest contributor as it would make €2.48 billion from taxes.

If those changes are approved, sports betting’s rate would increase to 33.8% and an additional 10.7% would be applied to the online segment. Horse race betting tax would be 19.9%, while online poker’s would rise to 36.7%. If combined, operators would have to pay 55.2% for online sports betting, 44.5% for retail sports betting, 40.8% for online poker and 37.7% for horse racing.