It was announced today that the world’s second largest online poker company FullTiltPoker.com is going to pull out of the French market. This is a decision that was expected to happen already a while ago as for an example the world’s number one poker site PokerStars has already banned the French players from playing there site and instead re-directs them to PokerStars.fr.

Full Tilt is not the only major online gambling company that announced a similar action over the weekend. London Stock Exchanged listed 888 (trading name 888 PLC) also announced that they are no longer accepting players from France.

The reason behind these pull outs is the fact that France recently moved into a regulated license system which requires online gambling companies to apply for a license. However before a company can be granted a license they must stop accept French players. However as the licenses seem to be given out like free poker merchandise at the WSOP you can pretty much rest assured that both of these companies will have the license soon.

The only thing slightly weird about the Full Tilt’s announcement is the fact that they are still taking players from Italy, despite of the fact that Italy moved to somewhat similar licensing system already couple years ago. One might speculate for some reason Full Tilt is rather certain that they wont get a license in the Italy but will get one in the France.

Many online poker players from other countries have taken the pull outs with great sadness as it appears to be widely believed that the French players are among the worst on the planet (though the evidence available doesn’t seem to support that) and some are even pondering, at least half seriously, moving to France just so that they could take advantage of the fishy poker games that are filled with our beloved wine drinkers and French bread biters.