At the conclusion of the First World War, the victorious powers met in Versailles to hash out terms of the peace agreement. France wanted to see a defeated Germany severely punished by (amongst other things) forfeiting territory and paying monumental sums in reparations. When England’s then prime minister David Lloyd George sought to soften the blow France wanted to inflict on Germany, French premier Georges Clemenceau accused Lloyd George of being France’s enemy. Lloyd George coolly replied: “That is our traditional policy.” BURN!
So how disappointing is it to read that less than a week after the Sunday Times saw fit to honor PKR.com as the UK’s most successful privately-owned technology company, PKR turns around and announces it’s French-facing online poker room was open for business, albeit under terms that David Lloyd George would presumably have found unduly restrictive.
The PKR.fr site will only be accessible to French residents, in accordance with the ring-fenced scheme dreamed up by French immigration authorities, er, gaming regulators ARJEL. Personally, we hate to see this kind of Balkanization of online gaming becoming ever more popular across the European ‘free’ market. Lest we forget, the aforementioned First World War was sparked by ‘some damned fool thing in the Balkans.’
