First day for legal french poker

The first of what will undoubtedly be many thousands of online poker tournaments launched on French-licensed Bwin.fr Thursday morning, making July 1st a red letter day in French gambling.
 
Cardplayer magazine reported that in launching its first French-licensed tournament on its French website, Austrian-listed giant Bwin has achieved first-mover status in an important European market.  The initiative follows the much applauded recent liberalisation of the French gambling market.
 
The game took place at 12:30 a.m. and Norbert Teufelberger, co-chief executive of Bwin said.: “As with sports betting, we were able to launch poker at the earliest possible opportunity because we were well prepared. We have thus achieved our goal of becoming the very first mover in the newly regulated French market.”
 
The company offers both cash and tournament games in no-limit hold’em and pot-limit Omaha poker variants under the bwin.fr and SAjOO brands in a joint venture with media company Éditions Philippe Amaury.
 
Bwin sounded a note of caution regarding illegal competition in the sector, saying: “Operators licensed in France are still up against illegal providers who are neither willing to comply with statutory requirements nor inclined to pay taxes.
 
“To warrant a successful market opening, bwin expects the responsible authorities to give highest priority to stamping out the existing black market.”