PokerStars Cancels French Poker Series Stop in Paris After Last Week's Police Operation

October 23, 2014 Giovanni Angioni

The ongoing battle between French authorities and part of the national gambling industry has a new victim, as PokerStars has decided to cancel the next leg of the French Poker Series (FPS), an event set to kick off in Paris on November 21.

The festival, which was supposed to bring hundreds of players to the French capital to compete in a series of events culminating in a $1,100 Main Event, that was planned to take place at the Cercle Cadet, the room French authorities decided to close down for an "undetermined amount of time" after an operation carried out by the French Judicial Police (DCPJ) on Oct. 14.

"The current situation and the closure of some gambling rooms in Paris damages the players and the industry, and this is unfortunate," the President of the France Poker Series Cédric Billot explained in a note sent to the press.

Billot added that the latest developments of the investigation that involved the Aviation Club the France and the Cercle Cadet forced the management to cancel the upcoming FPS as "it was impossible to find, in such a short time, another trusted partner that would allow us to organize the FPS in Paris and in optimal conditions."

In regards to the players who have qualified to the event on France's PokerStars.fr, Billot added that they will all be offered some form of compensation.

"We will propose some form of compensation to all the online qualifiers," Billot assured. "We will also obviously help all the players who have qualified via live satellites. We are really sorry to be forced to cancel this FPS stop, but at the same time we still have some other great events for our players as the ones in Deauville, Namur, Prague, or even the French Championship of Online Poker (FCOOP)."

According to that reported by France PokerNews' Johan le Mestre, all online and live qualifiers have now five different options to choose from, as they can trade their FPS Paris entry with a ticket for the FPS Final in Deauville, the Belgian Poker Challenge in Namur, the Eureka Poker Tour Prague or two different packages for the FCOOP that will run on PokerStars.fr Nov. 2-17.

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