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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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Google Cloud Outage Disrupts Banking And Digital Services Across The UK

by THEFUTURE.TEAM

October 20, 2026

A power outage at a Google Cloud data centre near London disrupted services across the UK on Tuesday, affecting banks, businesses and other digital platforms. Google said the incident was caused by a power event at its cloud operations, with full recovery expected by around 1300 GMT.

The disruption began at 0608 GMT and affected Google Cloud services in the europe-west2 region, which is hosted in London. In an initial update, the company reported elevated error rates and intermittent network failures across multiple services as engineers worked to restore operations.

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Banking Services Hit By The Disruption

Revolut was among the most visibly affected companies, with customers reporting problems with ATM withdrawals, bank transfers and card top-ups. A source close to the matter linked the issues to the Google Cloud outage.

Traditional banks also reported disruptions. Lloyds said some customers were experiencing problems with its app and online banking, while HSBC confirmed difficulties accessing its services. HSBC added that it was monitoring the situation and noted that other organisations were affected as well.

Disruption Spreads Beyond Finance

Downdetector, which tracks online service disruptions, recorded hundreds of reports involving other businesses, including property website Rightmove and the Royal Mail postal service. The reports suggested that the outage was affecting multiple parts of the UK’s digital economy.

The incident highlights the risks facing businesses that depend on shared cloud infrastructure. Even a temporary failure at a single provider can disrupt services across several sectors, from banking and payments to logistics and consumer platforms.

Companies Reassure Customers

Revolut said it had been working to resolve the issue since it was identified and apologised to affected customers. The company also confirmed that customers’ money and data remained safe.

As cloud platforms underpin an increasing share of digital commerce, the outage illustrates how disruptions to critical infrastructure can spread far beyond the provider itself, affecting businesses and customers across the economy.