French Poker

The Prohibition Act n° 83-620 of July 12, 1983 specifically states that games of chance are prohibited under French Law. The French Supreme Court has decided that when played for money, the game of poker is a game of chance, and is therefore prohibited in the country. You can’t put together a game without authorization, and they can only be held in private gaming circles where public access is restricted and authorization has been given from the Home Affairs ministry.

But a new amendment to that law says that poker games can be held in casinos, and the new classification is “stud poker.” If you break the law you will do jail time and pay a fine. As of the date of the signing of the law, if you break it you will to jail for three years and you will have to pay 45,000 euros in fines. However, if you break the law in an organized group, you will be looking at seven years in jail and a 100,000 euros fine. Even advertising for the games is illegal.

They say that games of chance will only lead to the downfall of those who are playing it. They say that if chance alone decides the winner and the player themselves, whether physically or intellectually, does not have an affect on the game. With poker, it mixes chance and skill together – for if you have no idea how the game is played, even if you get the best cards you can still lose because you don’t know what you are doing. Conversely, you can be the best poker player in the world, but if you have terrible cards you will have a harder time winning.

The second criterion for deciding if it is a game of chance is the idea of social risk. This takes into account the losses that a player might suffer and thereby its social consequences. If the stakes are low, and people are playing it simply to waste time, it is not a game of chance. However, if there are negative social consequences from the game, or the stakes are high, it is now considered a game of chance and is illegal.

Back to Monthly Archive // Main Slot Machine News Index