Simon’s Guide to Online Gambling in Wallis and Futuna

Online casinos, that offer classic casino games, slots and alike are prohibited to operate in France. The 2010 legislation did open up the market, but only for online betting and Poker sites. Regulators decided, that classic casino games hold too much potential for being addictive.

ARJEL, the governmental body trusted with the oversight of the market and issuing of licenses usually sends a notice to the operators to block access for French players to their site. If the operator is not willing to comply, ARJEL asks the Tribunal de grande instance of Paris to order the ISP to block access to the site in question.

As mentioned above, French law fully applies to all its overseas territories. However, there is no info on how this particular regulation is actually enforced on the remote islands of Wallis and Futuna.

Online Bingo sites, unlike online casinos with classic slots and board games appear to be eligible for a licence in France and all its overseas territories and departments.

That being said, there are not a lot of licensed Bingo sites in France, because the game is just simply not popular enough in the country and the strict regulations make the market entry cost very high. The FDJ (state owned gambling firm) does have and online Bingo platform, though.

Playing on an unlicensed online bingo platform is still no crime by French law, which applies to Wallis and Futuna as well.

Since the new law of 2010 was enacted, online Poker operators are eligible for a legit licence in mainland France and its overseas territories, although with serious restrictions and high taxes.

French players are not allowed to play at international tables and they also have to pay 2%* on all cash game pots, which is quite high by global  standards. In fact, many of the operators that originally received a licence, later pulled out from the French market.

Individual players of unlicensed sites are, again, not prosecuted in France, nor on its overseas territories.

Historically, sports and horse betting was a state monopoly in France, controlled and conducted by the Française des Jeux, or FDJ and PMU (Pari Mutuel Urbain) which was in charge of horse race betting.

In 2001 both of the aforementioned state-owned firms received licenses to operate an online platform, but by then unlicensed foreign sites garnered an enormous market share.

After the advantages of an open market became more and more apparent, in 2010, France opened up its online betting sector to private businesses, but the conditions are still very harsh and the system provides advantages to FDJ and PMU.

However, French authorities are after unlicensed operators and not individual players. The same applies to Wallis and Futuna and the other overseas territories as well.

The first lottery games in France were created by King Francis I. around 1505. After that, all lotteries were banned for two centuries and came back into fashion around the end of the 17th century.

In its current form, the French national lottery (Loto) conducted by the FDJ exists since 1976. The company also runs Keno games. People of France and all its overseas territories can participate in the Euro Millions as well, and all of the above are available on online platforms.

There are plenty of sites that offer services for buying lottery tickets for players on foreign lotteries, but I’m yet to do a detailed research on the quality and practices of these.

Although, Bitcoin is not recognised as a legal currency in France, transactions in the cryptocurrency can still be taxed by the state.

As for online Bitcoin casinos, it appears to be the case, that for licensed operators, it is possible to offer Bitcoin games on the French market.

Last year the French government, for the first time in European history shut down an illegal online Bitcoin exchange. The operator was also charged with running an illegal online gambling business for planning to set up an online casino dedicated to cryptocurrency.

The bottom line is, in France and all its overseas territories, for licensed sites it is OK to offer Bitcoin payment options, but unlicensed operators are prosecuted, regardless of the currencies they accept.