French General Tax Code
In forceA levy of 5.1% is charged on the gross proceeds of lottery games marketed in physical distribution networks and online mentioned in I of Article 137 of Law no. 2019-486 of 22 May 2019 relating to the growth and transformation of businesses. Gross gaming revenue is made up of the difference between the sums wagered by players and the sums paid or to be paid out to winners. The sums wagered by players from 1 January 2020 are defined as the sums wagered from the date of the event or events on which the game is based, including those provided by the operator free of charge. The sums paid or to be paid out to the winners are made up of all the winnings in cash or in kind paid or to be paid out to the players from the date of completion of the event or events on which the game is based, excluding sums in cash or in kind awarded free of charge to certain players as part of commercial actions.
To calculate the levy, the amount of gross gaming revenue is multiplied by the ratio between, on the one hand, the amount of bets placed on the game in mainland France and the overseas departments and, on the other hand, the total amount of bets placed on the game.
The proceeds of this levy are allocated to the National Sports Agency responsible for high performance sport and the development of access to sport, up to the ceiling set in I of Article 46 of Law No. 2011-1977 of 28 December 2011 on finance for 2012.
The levy is payable when the event or events on which the game is based take place. For lottery games where chance intervenes before the game medium is made available, the levy is payable when the bets placed by players are allocated to the game.
