Has Party Poker said "non" to French play?

Affiliates with French connections were wondering what the future had in store for them this week following the brief appearance of a notice on the Party Partners.com affiliate program site, suggesting that French player days on Party Poker could be numbered.

The notice, dated Friday 23 February said that PartyPoker will no longer accept deposits from new French customers, although existing players from France may continue to play. No reasons were given for the decision.

The full text read:

"Update on wagers from France
Posted by Affiliate Team @ 6:43 pm

Dear Affiliate,

With effect from 23rd February 2007, PartyGaming will no longer accept wagers from new customers based in France. New customers resident in France or accessing our servers from France will no longer be able to make a deposit although they will be able to able to use our play money services.

Please note that existing customers will still be able to use all our services.

If you have any questions regarding this, please do not hesitate to contact your account manager

Affiliate Team
PartyPartners"

We enquire to both Party Partners and Party Gaming's corporate communications directorate remained unanswered as we went to press