France’s FDJ launches new safer gambling campaign

The operator has produced four short films emphasising the importance of gambling rules.

France.- The French gambling operator La Française des Jeux (FDJ) has launched a new responsible gambling campaign that aims to reduce gambling harm. The campaign involves four 30-second films that stress the importance of gambling rules.

They highlight the 18 plus age limit of gambling and FDJ’s safer gambling tools, including the ability to set limits. The tools include Playscan, which informs players about the level of risk of their gambling practice, plus online gambling moderators to set financial and time limits on gaming.

The films are lighthearted in tone, linking the message to errors that would be made if rules are not followed in sports – they show someone playing darts with a javelin, bowls with a bowling ball, chess with both players moving at the same time and a game scrabble featuring the word “xytoplaf”.

The launch of the campaign comes after the French gambling regulator L’Autorité Nationale des Jeux (ANJ) warned that operators need to do more to reduce the “intensity” of their marketing.

Having completed its second annual review of operators’ promotional strategies, it approved all but one operator’s campaigns but said it had added “demanding conditions” for some, which will be checked in a mid-year progress report.

It also said more needed to be done to avoid the oversaturation of gambling ads it saw during Euro 2020 last year, raising concerns about operators’ plans to up advertising spend by 7 per cent. It is also concerned about the use of social media platforms like TikTok, Snapchat, Twitch and Instagram that are popular with younger people.

Last month, the ANJ for the first time used its powers to order a gambling operator to withdraw a marketing campaign. It told Winamax to halt a campaign for breaching France’s rules for gambling ads.