French gambling regulator warns of illegal operators using licensees’ branding

The ANJ says unlicensed operations were using other brand names to trick players.

France.- The French gambling regulator l’Autorité Nationale des Jeux (ANJ) has issued a warning about illegal gambling websites using the brands of licensed operators on Facebook. It said it had become aware of a number of illegal operators using the method to try to trick players into gambling on their sites.

The ANJ said that it was working with Facebook on the issue and was monitoring the platform on a daily basis. It said it had reported 400 website URLs to parent company Meta, resulting in the suspension of 137 Facebook accounts. It said Barrière and JOA were the licensees that had most been targeted by the use of their branding in promotional images for unlicensed sites, including for online casino, which is illegal in France.

The ANJ said: “If in doubt about the legality of the gambling site on which you are about to bet, consult the list of sites approved by the ANJ. You can also consult the blacklist of sites that have been administratively blocked by the ANJ. We invite anyone who notices the presence of fake advertisements to report them.”

French gambling regulator outlines strategic plan for 2024-26

Meanwhile, the ANJ has called on licensed operators to work with it towards the objectives of its new strategic plan for 2024-26. Its focus for the next two years will be reducing excessive gambling and protecting minors.

This plan involves three pillars: to “drastically reduce the proportion and number of excessive gamblers in the gambling market”, to ensure transparency and integrity and to enhance “the economic dimension of regulation to gain a better understanding of market balances and provide solutions to the changes it is facing today”.