French players, still reeling from recently being told they could no longer play online poker at PokerStars.com, the World’s largest poker room, due to the country’s new stringent online gambling regulations, can take comfort in knowing soon the familiar spade with a star will apparently once again be available to them.

French authorities, according to a recent press release from PokerStars, have granted their application- along with four others in a second wave of regulating- for a license for a French-only version of the site- PokerStars.fr- allowing french players to engage in online poker on PokerStars once again, though this time only with fellow French citizens and for a rake level established by the government. 

This arrangement is similar in design to Italy’s new regulated market, as is PokerStars’ response to it- PokerStars.it- and may be just one more step towards a future, highly segregated, online poker industry.

Currently PokerStars.fr is a play for free site only, though that restriction is expected to change in the very near future once certain obstacles, like challenges from other European Union countries regrading the legitimacy of France's new regulations, have been properly addressed.