The French Supreme court on Tuesday overturned an appeals court's ruling from January 2006 banning Malta-based remote gambling company Zeturf from offering online race betting to customers in France.
The French race betting monopoly, Pari Mutual Urbain (PMU), filed the original complaint in June 2005 against Zeturf, which established its operations in 2001. The original ruling in PMU's favor cites the act of April 16, 1930, which granted PMU the monopoly to organize betting activities on horse races. And since 1964, PMU has held the exclusive right to take bets on horse races taking place outside France.
The Maltese government had appointed a task force comprising four senior members of the prime minister's cabinet to deal with the matter.
Zeturf was launched on the day of France's biggest trotting race, the Prix d'Amerique, in 2001, and has grown into one of the Internet's most popular sources of information on French racing; it now has more than 300,000 regular users.
Zeturf is a pool betting operator, and its Web site is available in French, English and Spanish. The company distributes up to 20 percent more of its pools to punters than its competitors distribute. It also offers betting on soccer, tennis and greyhound racing.
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