Best 27 Live Casinos in France

Officially known as the French Republic, this is a country that is located in Western Europe and is one of the most developed nations not just on the continent, but in the world, as well. Its territory consists of the mainland country, as well as overseas territories – French Guinea and several islands in the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans. The capital is Paris, which is also France's largest metropolitan area.

When it comes to the borders, the neighbouring countries of France include Belgium, Germany, and Luxembourg to the northeast, Switzerland, Monaco, and Italy to the east, Andorra and Spain to the south. The combined area that France occupies is a little more than 643,000 square kilometres. AS for its political system, France is a unitary semi-presidential republic.

As for the economy and culture, France has a centuries-long status of being an art, cultural, science, and philosophy centre. It has the world’s 7th-largest economy by nominal GDP and the 10th-largest by PPP. As for household wealth, France ranks 4th in the world. On the international scale, this country remains a great power and it is a founding and leading member of the European Union. Additionally, it is a member of many other international organizations.

Even though France has had a massive contribution to the general gambling industry throughout the years, a surprising fact about live casinos is that they are actually very restricted in this country.

The government is very strict on the regulations and operators cannot be licensed here. Additionally, unlicensed sites that try to offer their services to the French players face very serious penalties. Most forms of live casino games in France are deemed illegal due to the fact that they are considered as heavily-addictive by lawmakers.

But, thanks to the efforts of the European Union, France has made some live casino games such as poker legal, but the problem is that it is hard to run a successful operator in the country due to the fact that the taxations are enormous. That is the reason why a majority of the casinos that have managed to gain licenses have left this market. The only forms of live casino games that can be offered by private operators in France are poker, live betting on sports, and live betting on horse races.

All other forms of live casino games and regular casino games, for that matter, remain illegal. L’Autorité Nationale des Jeux ANJ is the regulatory body that oversees these activities and makes sure that the operators offer their services according to the laws.

As stated earlier, France is one of the countries that are considered as founders of casino games. Numerous popular casino games of today have their roots in this country. These games include the likes of roulette, baccarat, and pari-mutuel betting trace their origins here. Some reports even state that poker's roots also come from France.

Many early forms of gambling were legalized in France during the 1900s. After spending a lot of time being banned, slot machines were legalized in 1988. Due to the popularity of these activities, in 1997 a revolutionary act was made as the legal age for gambling was reduced from 21 to 18.

But, as time went by, France ended up having a major problem with addictive gambling, which is why the government was forced to come with numerous restrictions for the gambling industry. One of those restrictions was making all forms of online casinos illegal in the country.

However, all of that changed in 2010. After being pressured by the European Union, France had no other choice but to introduce that French Gambling Act. With this new law, the restrictions were still high for the online gambling industry, but the government has decided to legalize poker, sports betting and horse racing bets as they were perceived as games that rely on skill far more than luck.

These days, the gambling industry still remains oppressed in France. Although some forms of online gambling are legalized and land-based casinos are legal to operate, there are tons of restrictions and strict laws that are applied.

One of those laws concerns taxes. The high taxes for online casino operators, live casinos included, are gigantic and they make it almost impossible for them to operate on French soil. Hence, more than half of the online casinos that were licensed back in 2010 have decided to leave the market and offer their services offshore. The high taxes reduce their profits by a huge margin and that is why it is extremely hard for them to be profitable here.

The good part is that French players still have a decent amount of options at their disposal, but not as nearly as players in other countries.

The future of online casinos in France is hard to determine. But, the good part is that the government has received a lot of pressure from its residents as well as from international organizations like the EU, to further loosen the laws and regulate the industry in a much better way.

Experts believe that a point where the French government will no longer be able to withstand the pressure will be reached, hence they will have no other option but to legalize these sites and come up with new laws that will regulate them and allow French players to gamble at these platforms safely.

Live casinos are set to be the future of online gambling as they provide players with a unique gaming experience. Not only that, but most of the casino games that trace their roots back to France are featured in this category and the players are more than fond of accessing and playing them.

The legal landscape of gambling in France is now extremely complicated. Tracing back to the beginnings, land-based casinos are legal to offer their services to the people. All forms of land-based gambling are well-regulated by the government.

But, the situation with online and live casinos is different. The lawmakers decided that French residents may have a problem with addictive gambling, which is why they decided to ban these games. The ban was loosened in 2010, though. After the changes in that year, poker, sports betting, and betting on horse races have been legalized and private operators can provide these services to players that register on their sites.

However, there is a major problem in this situation. The taxes on online casino operators are massive. They make it very hard for the operators to be successful and record a profit on the French market. That is why more than half of the private casinos that were licensed in 2010 are no longer operating in this region.

Unlicensed sites are also targeted by the authorities and those who attempt to offer the French players any gambling-related services will be prosecuted and penalized very harshly. The government has a very effective system that makes sure that all unlicensed sites do not succeed in this region.

The latest law that regulates all of the gambling-related activities in France is the French Gambling Act of 2010, which was brought after the French government was under a lot of pressure from the European Union. According to this law, all forms of land-based gambling are legal in the country, while poker, sports betting, and betting on horse races are the only forms of legal online gambling.

The French Gambling Act 2010 deems games such as roulette, slots, blackjack and baccarat as illegal due to the fact that they are considered games of luck. The three legal online gambling games are viewed as games of skill by the law.

As for the regulatory body, the L’Autorité Nationale des Jeux (ARJEL), or also known as the Regulatory Authority for Online Games is in charge of overseeing all gambling-related activities. This regulatory body also licenses private operators and makes sure that unlicensed sites do not operate in the region.

The legal age for gambling in France is 18.

Since poker, sports betting and betting on greyhound races are the only three forms of legal online gambling in France, they are the favourite games of French players. The good part about all of these games is that they can be found at live casinos.

In fact, live poker is one of the most popular live games, in general. This is a game that relies extremely on skill, rather than luck. With live poker, players are competing against other real people from France and the world. These games can have massive prize pools but come with higher risks than all other live games, which is why they are accessed by more experienced players. As for the skills that are required, players must know how to bluff, read opponents, use their hand to the best of their knowledge, and know when to continue and when to fold.

When it comes to live betting, football is by far the most betted sport in France. It is no secret that football fans are also very fond of placing bets on the games and France is one of the countries where sports and betting have a very close relationship.

Finally, betting on horse races is one of the oldest gambling-related activities and remains popular in France to this day. The odds on the horse racing festivals are always big and very attractive to the players.

When French players access licensed live casinos, they always make sure that the sites are supplied by some of the best world providers. Every reputable game provider creates HD games that feature unique gameplay and French players are all about having a pleasant gaming experience.

Hence, some of the providers that they are always on the lookout for are Evolution Gaming, iSoftBet and Betsoft.

The three most preferred casino bonuses in France are casino welcome packages, loyalty programs, and sportsbook welcome packages. Casino and sportsbook welcome packages are the most popular due to the fact that they are the first bonuses that players come across. They work similarly but offer the players different bonuses.

Casino welcome packages are awarded to players after they register at a certain site. They are only applicable to casino games. In most cases, they reward the players with a match deposit bonus on their first deposit. Some sites may even reward the players on the first three or four deposits. Usually, casino welcome packages offer Free Spins as well, but since slot games are illegal in France, Free Spins cannot be used.

The sportsbook welcome packages are offered to the players that register and are willing to bet on sports events. They too come with a match deposit bonus that can reward the players on their first few deposits. Additionally, they even offer Free Bets on selected games. But, it is worth noting that these bonuses have a lot of terms and conditions.

Lastly, loyalty programs are popular due to the fact that they reward players with bonuses that are applicable for both casino games and sports betting. Loyalty programs usually provide the players with higher cashbacks, higher withdrawal limits, VIP support, exclusive gifts and unique bonuses, etc.

To claim these bonuses, players must be registered at the chosen casino sites. Casino and sportsbook welcome packages have numerous terms and conditions such as a minimum deposit, the timeframe in which they can be used, as well as wagering requirements. Once the player meets all of these T&Cs, they will be eligible to claim the bonuses.

As for loyalty programs, they require the player to play for real money at the chosen site. The more he or she plays, the higher they move up the scale, thus the more rewards they receive.

When claiming the bonuses, some online casinos might even require the players to either contact Support or enter a bonus code. Some casinos may even require both of these things. So, it is vital for players to check the Promotions tab and read the T&Cs carefully.

Credit and debit cards are widely known as the securest and most commonly accepted payment methods at live casinos and online casinos in general, hence they are the most preferred methods for French players. Deposits are instant, while withdrawals take up to 3 business days to be processed, which is faster than the average processing time.

Next up, e-wallets such as PayPal, Skrill and Neteller are the second-most popular and most preferred payment method in France. But, even though they provide the players with faster transactions since the withdrawals are mostly instant, operators often have a lot of restrictions for these methods. In most cases, they are not considered as eligible to claim the bonuses. Additionally, some operators might even apply fees when withdrawing money.

Less popular payment methods in France include bank transfers, mobile pay, and cryptocurrencies. Out of all cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin is the one that managed to spike in popularity recently. The reason for that is because it provides the players with a lot of advantages such as extremely safe and instant transactions. By using Bitcoin, players also void all types of fees.