French gambling regulator hands out €500,000 fine for duty-of-care breaches
The ANJ investigated the gambling activity of 30 players and found the operator to have failed to meet obligations in “almost all” of cases.
France.- The French gambling regulator L’Autorité Nationale des Jeux (ANJ) has announced that it has fined an operator €500,000 after finding serious failings in its duty of care obligations to players showing signs of excessive gambling. It said the company had failed to comply with requirements to identify and support problem or pathological gamblers.
The ANJ did not disclose the operator’s identity but said the case involved the gambling activity of 30 players between October 1, 2023, and March 31, 2024. Its Sanctions Committee met on June 30 to review the matter, applying seven indicators to assess whether a penalty was appropriate: frequency of deposits, the number of lost deposits, frequency of play, the volume of bets, modification of legal gambling moderators, use of self‑exclusion tools, and the number of accounts opened by the players.
The committee concluded that the operator had failed to meet its obligations for “almost all” of the players involved.
“Some players were not identified as posing a risk, while others were classified as having an insufficient risk level based on their gambling habits,” the ANJ said. The committee also noted that the operator failed to implement graduated and proportionate support measures aimed at curbing these players’ gambling.
In its defence, the company reportedly argued that French law lacked a definition of excessive or pathological gambling, meaning that it cannot have failed to meet its obligations. It also argued that the number of bets placed could be used as an indicator of excessive or pathological gambling without taking into account cancelled bets.
It also claimed that it was incorrect to consider all limit changes as an indicator of excessive or pathological gambling.
However, the ANJ deemed the €500,000 fine to be proportionate given the seriousness of the breaches, their impact, and their duration.
Last month, Pascal Chèvremont took the helm as the ANJ’s new president, promising a tough line on compliance and enforcement. The regulator has also introduced a new algorithm to measure problem gambling in France, with the early findings raising concerns after players flagged as high-risk were found to be responsible for 60 per cent of total operator gross gaming revenue (GGR).
