France’s regulator approves harm reduction action plans
Since October 2019, French gambling operators have been obligated to submit to the ANJ action plans to prevent excessive play and underage gambling for review and approval.
Between January and March this year, the ANJ examined the action plans of the country’s monopolies PMU and FDJ United, as well as its online operators and land-based sites. France has 16 licensed online gaming operators and 203 casinos.
While the French regulator has approved the industry’s action plans, it wants stricter compliance, in particular on the ban of sales to children. It has proposed this could be done by implementing more “demanding” policies on monitoring points of sale.
It has also called for the strengthening of systems that identify and support excessive gamblers. This could be achieved by identifying excessive gambling at point of sale and implementing a training and monitoring plan for retailers.
The ANJ set out the reduction of excessive players as a regulatory priority in its 2024-2026 strategic plan.
ANJ touts success of regulation of online gaming market, calls for more action
The ANJ noted its objective-based regulation strategy for the online gaming market has “generally proven to be successful”.
It pointed to an increase in protection standards for identifying and supporting excessive online gamblers that has resulted in increased numbers of players detected and support by operator systems. The ANJ added operators had implemented individualised supported measures that are “better adapted” to risks.
However, the ANJ stated despite these strides forward, it believes problem gambling still holds too large a segment of the online gambling market. As a result, it has asked operators to identify more excessive gamblers in order to bring the number in line with the player counts and studies.
The ANJ added operators will have to detect and intervene “as early as possible” in severe cases, as well as implement additional gaming limits for high-risk offerings such as live betting or fast-pace poker tournaments.
Land-based casinos
When approving the harm prevention action plans for land-based casino operators, the ANJ noted only one casino’s submission out of the 203 in the market was not approved.
The ANJ stated the sector had an “overall improvement” in compliance with regulations. It reported while some establishments were seeking and adopting best practices in the industry, others have not differed in approach since 2021.
In order to help casinos improve their harm reduction operations, the ANJ created an e-learning programme that launched last year that hosts “concrete solutions” to identify and address industry harm reduction challenges.
In the first half of 2024, the ANJ reported the overall turnover in the French gambling sector increased by 3.8% to reach €5.5 billion ($5.25 billion/£4.13 billion) year-on-year.