Partouche Presses ahead Online, Government Mum, Lawyer Says

As promised, Patrick Partouche, the flamboyant French casino proprietor, has launched a real-money Internet poker offering that one lawyer says has yet to draw any enforcement action from the French government.

"Indeed, as announced, Partouche has gone online for money," Anouk Hatab-Abrahams, a lawyer with the Brussels branch of Ulys, told IGN in an e-mail. "So far, no reaction from the government."

Mr. Partouche has been a vehement critic of the French government for not allowing his casino business to compete online with illegal foreign operators like Bwin Interactive Entertainment A.G. and Unibet. Currently, Française des Jeux and Pari Mutuel Urbain hold the exclusive rights to operate online gambling in the country.

"We have the monopoly on offering casino games in the country and pay dearly for it, having a tax of 58 percent to pay," Mr. Partouche railed at a Paris gambling conference in late October. "However, we are the only group here today that is unable to offer online casino games."

Adding to the tax-related woes, the French casino industry was further burdened in January 2008 when a smoking ban, which took partial effect in 2007, was extended to casinos and other public places. At the conference, Mr. Partouche said his chain -- France's largest -- had experienced double-digit losses as a result.

Performance Bourse, a French-language financial news site, reported this week that Mr. Partouche intends to add backgammon and sports betting to his Web site, which is licensed in Gibraltar.

The news source called Mr. Partouche's timing "odd." It said Michelle Alliot-Marie, the country's interior minister, had just this week loosened regulations on land-based poker tournaments.

"The minister has promised to make it easier for casinos to organize poker tournaments outside their premises and to hold them more frequently than is currently permitted," Ms. Hatab-Abrahams said.

Just before Mr. Partouche launched his Web site, she said, the country's three major land-based casino trade associations solicited the government for tax relief until online gambling licenses are issued in late 2009 or early 2010 -- this to cope with significant declines in attendance and turnover.

"So, it could be that if they obtain the expected tax relief, Partouche will put his Web site on hold in exchange," Ms. Hatab-Abrahams said. "But so far, it's pure speculation."

Mr. Partouche, who threatened to launch his site last month, is certainly no stranger to controversy. In March 2007 he was given a 12-month suspended prison sentence and a 40,000 euro fine after being accused of illegally operating an online casino in France via a connection in Belize.