France’s ANJ seeks results on problem gambling by 2027
Table of contents
- France’s ANJ has approved operators’ safer gambling plans but warned that more concrete outcomes are required before 2027.
- Excessive player identification by online operators rose from 31,000 in 2024 to 89,000 in 2025, reflecting improved detection systems.
- Around 42.6% of 15 to 17-year-olds gambled at least once in 2025, up nearly 8% since 2021, despite a legal ban on underage play.
France’s national gambling authority, l’Autorité Nationale des Jeux (ANJ), has published a review of licensed operators’ prevention action plans, acknowledging measurable progress in curbing excessive play and underage access but insisting that further action is required ahead of a 2027 deadline.
The review was conducted between November 2025 and March 2026, assessing plans submitted by all licensed gambling operators in France.
Scale of the problem
The French Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction estimated in 2024 that approximately 1.17 million people in France exhibit problematic gambling behaviour, with roughly 360,000 classified as excessive players.
The financial stakes are significant. 2019 Gambling Observatory data, cited in the ANJ’s 2024–2026 strategic plan, found that problem gambling accounts for more than 38% of the sector’s turnover, with excessive gambling alone responsible for 21%. Those figures are pre-pandemic and due to be updated, but the ANJ has used them as a baseline for its harm-reduction targets.
Underage participation remains a critical concern. The ARPEJ’s ENJEU-Mineurs survey, supported by the ANJ and drawing on 5,000 respondents, found that 42.6% of 15 to 17-year-olds had gambled at least once in 2025, up nearly 8% since 2021, despite a strict legal prohibition on sales to minors.
Isabelle Falque-Pierrotin, President of the ANJ, set out the regulator’s position in the authority’s 2024 annual report, saying:
“Driven by a very dynamic market that digitalisation has fostered, gambling, which is not a product like any other, has nevertheless become a product of everyday consumption. The objective of reducing excessive gambling set by the ANJ must now be translated into an obligation of results that involves reducing the number of excessive gamblers and their contribution to the revenues of gambling operators.”
Progress across sectors
Detection of excessive behaviour online has improved significantly, with operators identifying 89,000 excessive players in 2025, compared with 31,000 in 2024.
The ANJ noted this reflects greater sensitivity in detection systems rather than a confirmed rise in problem gambling prevalence. The regulator nonetheless demanded that identification rates keep pace with the actual size of each operator’s player base and produce measurable outcomes.
Over 2,200 staff at casinos and gaming clubs completed an ANJ e-learning prevention module launched in November 2024. Despite this, one casino’s prevention plan was rejected outright, indicating ongoing deficiencies.
Racecourse operators, coordinated by the National Federation of Horse Racing, have increased player information provision, volunteer training, and controls. The ANJ pressed for stricter separation between family areas and betting zones at racecourse venues.
Operators led by FDJ United and PMU, which together account for close to two-thirds of French gambling activity, face increased pressure to enforce underage sales bans at retail outlets.
Wider regulatory context
The ANJ warned that prediction market platforms operate around the clock and often lack safeguards such as spending limits or identity verification. In 2024, the regulator investigated Polymarket and concluded that its services could constitute unauthorised gambling, stating that such platforms “are not authorised in France and are considered illegal gambling services.”
The illegal market poses a separate but related challenge. Industry body AFJEL estimated, as of November 2025, that the unlicensed online market in France had 5.4 million players generating approximately €2bn in gross gaming revenue, far exceeding the 3.5 million active in the regulated sector.
The ANJ has also called for a whistle-to-whistle ban on gambling advertising and intends to use the 2026 FIFA World Cup as a platform for a large-scale responsible gambling campaign. France already bans gambling ads from World Cup hydration breaks, following pledges by broadcasters M6 and beIN Sports.
With the 2027 deadline approaching, operators across all verticals face mounting pressure to demonstrate not just process improvements but measurable reductions in excessive gambling.
For licensed operators in France, the regulatory expectation has shifted from effort to outcome, a standard that will test the depth of commercial commitment to player protection.
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