Does anyone actually like nouvelle cuisine? It might look nice and fancy on the plate but a couple of mouthfuls and you’re left wondering what the serviette might taste like. Not that this has deterred the likes of Bwin, PartyGaming, Pokerstars and Mangas Gaming from fighting it out for the unedifying menu that is the soon-to-be-liberalised market in France. As Mangas Gaming vice-chairman Isabelle Parize says, the 8.8% betting tax is “catastrophic” and the only real winners will be Francaise de Jeux, which gets to keep its monopoly on lotto and casino games while the others do battle over the scraps of the over-exposed sports betting market. They must be in it for the long haul in the hope France eventually follows the far more generous Italian model. After all there are few things more satisfying than large helpings of an Italian model. Read more.
