- Cash game revenue the only decliner in ARJEL’s Q1 report, enough to pull down all online gaming tax revenue by 13% compared to Q4 2012.
- All other games, including poker tournaments, saw increases.
- Total active poker players did increase during the quarter, though weekly activity levels down.
The latest quarterly report on the French market from ARJEL shows total tax receipts down €1m after poker ring game revenues fell 13% against the same period in 2012.
Revenues increased for all other regulated gambling activities including poker tournaments, which were up 2%. The €222m fall in the Gross Gaming Revenue from poker cash games was simply too large to be completely offset by other increases.
ARJEL pointed out that the increase in tournament entries would have to have been 61% to fully compensate for the cash game decline.
The total number of players active each week fell by 9% from 327k to 299k. Though tournament entries were up, the number of active tournament players was down 6%.
The total number of recorded active poker players has actually increased from 770k to 780k. ARJEL blamed the fall in revenues on the departure of “réguliers” and explains that the players who have remained are the “occasionnels.”
Winamax is the dominant operator in the French market. Its cash game traffic numbers hit a low around September last year, but has recovered most of the lost ground to end up with approximately the same number of players as a year ago. 
The Winamax figures suggest that although player numbers may have recovered, player revenues have probably dropped. In second place in the traffic rankings, PokerStars France has had a less volatile year than Winamax, but its traffic has declined, and presumably its revenues have followed suit.
In October last year, ARJEL released figures showing that not only was poker becoming less popular, but that the average age of players was increasing. There was a notable reduction in the number of 18-24 year olds playing the game, suggesting that this demographic had turned away from poker.
Concerned by poker’s decline, and even more by the decline in tax revenues, the French regulator has called for changes to the law to permit shared liquidity pools with other nationally regulated markets. As it stands, the high taxes levied on poker have turned away the young and the regulars and there seems little chance of the market growing until the regulatory environment changes.