On Friday December 14, the French court suspended any legal decision relating to prosecutions of the operators of the Mr Bookmaker website until the European court gives clarity on the compatibility of national and European laws. Director Didier Dewyn will now have to wait to find out if he is to face any penalties for organising “illicit lotteries and acceptance of illegal bets” or whether charges will be dropped.

A recent conference held by the French parliament on the future of its online gaming regime highlighted some of the obstacles the draft bill faces if a reform is to be adopted by the beginning of the football World Cup in June.

Attention has been focussed this week on the continued detention of Unibet CEO Petter Nylander on charges relating to the protection of the French betting monopoly markets. But Unibet’s best hope of persuading the French courts to halt action against them is likely to reside in the favourable decision secured by Maltese operator Zeturf in France’s highest court earlier this year.

A French newspaper reports that, in the wake of intensified pressure from the European Commission, the Sarkozy government is preparing to relax restrictions currently applied to online sports betting but will insist upon maintaining a certain degree of control over foreign-based operators.

France’s highest court, La Cour de Cassation, has abrogated a judgment delivered against Zeturf Ltd and told the French Court of Appeal that it must take into account guidelines set by the European Court of Justice when reconsidering the case brought by the PMU against the Malta-based bookmaker.

The French budget minister’s confirmation yesterday that France’s forthcoming online gambling regulations will be enforced via payments and IP blocking measures has left would-be operators contemplating an effective tax rate of 8.5 percent on total stakes for sports betting, 15.5 percent for horserace betting and 2 percent for online poker – the sole activities to be permitted under France’s ‘controlled opening’ of the market.

With indications suggesting that France is preparing to bow to European Union pressure over the licensing of online gambling sites, leading French Casino operator, Groupe Lucien Barrière, has confirmed that it is developing a casino website to launched early next year.

A Maltese Court has upheld Zeturf’s appeal against a French decision that would have forced online bookmaker to cease taking bets on horse racing in France.

GamblingCompliance spoke exclusively to French casino operator Patrick Partouche about the prospects for a liberalization of France’s online gambling market during the course of 2008, and the plans of the Partouche Group to bring existing land-based customers to their emerging online business.

Stockholm-quoted bookmaking business Unibet is considering what legal action it will take after the Unibet.com cycling team were ordered to compete in this week’s Grand Prix de la Marseillaise without its name on the cyclist’s shirts or the team’s support cars.