Online gambling firms brace for French crackdown

French authorities say they want to interview as many as 20 executives at Internet gambling firms that do business in France, raising suspicions that a US-style crackdown may be on the way, the Guardian reports. Partygaming denied it was on the list but closed its website to French customers last week. One major shareholder has since sold 123 million shares.

The once mighty Internet gambling giant later announced a 56 percent drop in annual profits, Forbes reports, largely attributed to its forced departure from the US market in September.