Sunday 18 July 2010

Here we are in France - Not without unforseen events!


So we have arrived in France safely ... that was not the unforseen event!

The engineer turned up to install the telephone line 3 hours early and the internet connection was live the same day ... that was not the unforseen event!

All happy with my connection it was time to fire up Betfair and test the connection speed!

Enter username ... enter password ....

"You are trying to access Betfair from a restricted country!" said the screen.

WHAT! I connected last time I was in France ...

Opened up a poker site ... Ladbrokes ... same message ...

Onto google to see what is happening!

With not much surfin I find out the French government have introduced a new online gaming law (begining of July for Betfair how about that?) allowing only approved sites to allow access from French soil.

Damn .. this is costing me £20 a day.

So what to do ....

First off I have joined http://www.partypoker.fr/ with a 200 euro deposit bonus to get me underway.

Secondly I am investigating whether or not a UK VPN will help .... one thing I do not want to do is something that can get my broadband cut off, so whatever I do needs to be legal.

Thirdly will be awaiting the Betfair european enquiry as to whether the French move is legal under European Law.

If any of my readers have any views of what I can do let me know ... it would be much appreciated.

So from my new life in France ... slightly marred by the unforseen gambling restrictions ... I will sign off this post.

Until next time

Keep it Tight!


4 comments:

Wildcat said...

Get a proxy server, google hide my ip, logmein.com, loads of things you can do to get round it.

Geoff said...

Hi Wildcat

Thanks for reading the blog and thanks for your comment.

I have been looking into proxy servers and this was one of my solutions. My concern is that if it was detectable I was connecting to non French gaming sites I could have my broadband disconnected.

Do you know if, once connected to a proxy server, your ISP can still see what you are connecting to?

Regards

Geoff

Anonymous said...

The VPN probably won't work for Betfair as one of the PR guiys who was out in Vegas for the WSOP had to email all his blog entries over to me as he couldn't even access the forum on the main Betfair page whilst in the US!

Geoff said...

Thanks for the response Yorkshire.

I haven't tried VPN yet but have been scouring the Forums.

It would appear VPN is a bit hit and miss from their responses.

This may be a blessing in disguise because since we have been here there has been 2 power outs (one due to a storm) ... imagine that happening with £500 of bets running.

I'm still investigating anyway ... let the dust settle first then I'll see what happens.

Geoff