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France Is Considering Legalizing Online Casinos

by THEFUTURE.TEAM

October 24, 2024

62%. This is public support for the French authorities’ intentions to legalize online casinos, according to a survey by the French Association of Online Games (AFJEL). Very soon, such legal amendments may become a fact, writes the French publication Le Figaro.

Online casinos in France are prohibited by law. Along with Cyprus, it is the only country in the EU that completely bans online casino games. French authorities only allow sports betting, horse racing, and poker online. The online lottery is also legal in France, although there is only one operator – La Française des Jeux (FDJ).

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However, in 2023, illegal online casinos operating in France generated an impressive 750 million euros in turnover, a sign that legal restrictions are in no way preventing these businesses from thriving from the comfort of tax havens, in which are registered.

Now the government is proposing changes as part of the draft budget for 2025, which would make the activity of online casinos subject to control. The texts were presented over the weekend and considered by French MPs on Monday. If the changes are finally adopted, virtual casino games will be taxed at 55.6% of their turnover.

The government claims that legalizing online casinos will help tackle the presence of illegal sites that often operate from tax havens. This could contribute to limiting the risk to public health,

However, the proposed amendments are not being taken lightly by casino owners, who have come out strongly against the amendment, which will expose their establishments to unwanted competition.

“According to our calculations, the opening of online casinos to competition will lead to a drop in gross gambling revenue of land-based casinos by around 20 to 30% and the closure of 30% of establishments,” said Gregory Rabuel, president of the Casinos de France union. to the French media Les Echos.

THE BUDGETARY POLICY OF FRANCE

Last year, France’s government deficit reached 5.5% of the country’s GDP, significantly exceeding forecasts and breaching the EU’s target of 3%. Late last month, new budget minister Laurent Saint-Martin revealed that this year’s deficit could exceed 6%.

While the government hopes to rein in spending, it is also looking for ways to raise revenue. Part of the country’s current financial problems are related to reduced tax revenues. This is partly because economic growth has recently been driven by exports rather than domestic consumption, resulting in lower VAT revenues.

A review of the revenue side of the 2025 state budget, which calls for 60 billion in new tax revenue, began on Monday, kicking off the most important few weeks of Prime Minister Michel Barnier’s tenure, whose government enjoys fragile support.

In his opening speech, Economy Minister Antoine Armand advocated a budget that would allow the public deficit to be reduced to 5% of GDP in 2025, rejecting any “austerity” while predicting a 0.4% increase in public spending

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Anthropic Launches Claude Fable 5 With New AI Safety Controls

New Model Sets The Bar For AI Safety And Efficiency

Anthropic has launched Claude Fable 5, the latest public version of its Mythos model, expanding access to a system designed for software engineering, knowledge work and computer vision tasks. The company said high-risk requests involving areas such as cybersecurity, biology, chemistry and AI model distillation will be redirected to Claude Opus 4.8, which has been configured with additional safeguards.

Strategic Rollout And Broader Accessibility

Mythos was initially made available to a limited group of partners in April as Anthropic evaluated potential cybersecurity risks associated with the model. Access was expanded last week to hundreds of organisations across 15 countries, primarily those operating critical infrastructure. Claude Fable 5 is now available through Anthropic’s Claude API and usage-based Enterprise plans. Early access has also been included in selected subscription tiers ahead of a broader pricing rollout scheduled for June 23.

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Advancing Safety And Industry Standards

Anthropic said the model underwent extensive safety testing before release, including bug bounty programmes and red-team exercises conducted by external organisations. According to the company, more than 1,000 hours of testing did not identify any universal jailbreak vulnerabilities.

A mandatory 30-day data retention policy will apply to all traffic processed by the model, including accounts that previously operated under zero-retention agreements. Anthropic said the measure is intended to improve monitoring and protection against emerging security threats.

Outstanding Performance And Competitive Pricing

Independent evaluations, including testing by analytics company Hex, reported strong performance in complex reasoning and analytical tasks. Companies, including Base44 and Genspark, highlighted improvements in tool use and interface design capabilities. Pricing has been set at $10 per million input tokens and $50 per million output tokens, compared with lower rates for previous models. Some enterprise customers, including Rakuten, said the model’s ability to verify aspects of its own output could help improve efficiency in tasks that require higher levels of accuracy.

Implications For The AI Market

The release comes as Anthropic prepares for a potential public market debut, and competition among leading AI developers continues to intensify. Alongside performance improvements, the company has placed significant emphasis on model safety, reflecting broader industry concerns around misuse, jailbreak attempts and the risks associated with increasingly capable AI systems.