“Online Gambling Threatens French Monopoly”

When the going gets tough the tough get going, and that’s just what PMU, a French government-sanctioned gambling monopoly is doing. Distressed by the advent of internet gambling, they have found and resurrected a law that they hope will stop foreign internet gambling from encroaching upon their territory.

PMU, which stands for Pari Mutuel Urbain, a government-sanctioned gambling monopoly, has dug up a 100-year-old law, written in 1891, in its efforts to prohibit foreign internet gambling from invading and taking over its territory. The law was originally intended to serve as a more viable alternative to an out-and-out prohibition on gambling, and it was this law itself that actually paved the way for the establishment of PMU and prevented non-government-sanctioned entities from taking over or operating gambling casinos! 100 years later, the issue has returned in the form of internet gambling.

On the other side of the argument are the companies who say PMU is violating international trade agreements. Sporting Bet and Stanley International (based in Britain), Bet and Win (Gibraltar), and Mr. Bookmaker (Malta) have been targeted by PMU in PMU’s efforts to ban them, but these companies are not planning to give in without a fight. They have all vowed to battle the ban that PMU seeks.