ANJ Orders Operators to Cut Revenues from Problem Gamblers
The French gambling regulator, the Autorité Nationale des Jeux (ANJ), has ordered online operators to prioritize minimizing the percentage share of gross gaming revenues (GGR) earned from players with gambling-related problems.
The order was issued jointly by the unified regulator in order to reduce pathological or excessive gambling cases. The order requires French online casinos and sportsbooks to implement firm actions and best practices in a bid to strengthen an ideal recreational model.
The operators will then be required to demonstrate the tangible outcomes of their actions.
To assist the operators in carrying out this order, ANJ has promised to publish a useful guide on spotting problematic players. The practical guide will be available later this year.
Order Specifics
The regulator identified four key areas on which each operator must concentrate. The first is to keep minors from gambling. Each operator must clearly state the age limits for all of their products and thoroughly verify the players' ages.
The regulator has ordered Frenche des Jeux (FDJ) and Pari-Mutuel Urbain (PMU) to improve their control mechanisms to ensure compliance with the ban on selling to underage gamblers in all of their retail locations.
Secondly, the unified regulator requires operators to develop alert systems capable of detecting and intervening when a player engages in excessive gambling.
The safeguards used should record whenever they intervene and customer playing activities for review by the regulator.
Thirdly, each operator must incorporate safety precautions into game designs. The ANJ mandates that games warn players of the percentage of risk involved.
Gambling companies must also revise and tweak their game portfolios to encourage recreational play. Finally, the ANJ requires operators to "promote excessive gambling awareness campaigns from commercial communications, by promoting moderation and protection tools, and prioritizing them to customers".
Additional Conditions
The online platforms must ensure that each customer is informed about the "tools favoring control" each time they choose to gamble and that they are informed of their "gaming activities, including losses," each time they play.
The ANJ requires licensed gambling companies to deliver data and feedback to the regulator's dashboard. The ANJ Dashboard will then monitor their activities and ensure that all results can be measured quantitatively and qualitatively.
Later this year a manual will be released to help people identify and help people with gambling problems. In addition, the guide will provide perspectives and successful methods from various participants working to reduce compulsive gambling. The document will be created with input from multiple parties, according to the regulator. It will include vital information such as identifying warning signs for potentially harmful behavior as well as a comprehensive list of operator assistance options. ANJ believes that reviewing the action plans will allow it to support the examples of proper practices suggested by the operators.
Previous Progress
ANJ believes it can meet the 2023 goals because it made similar progress in 2022. French operators implemented the regulator's 2022 plans, demonstrating significant advances in preventing underage gambling, identifying vulnerable gamblers, and enhancing intervention procedures carried out by customer care teams.
The National Gambling Authority expressed satisfaction with the results of its 'World Cup assessment' in 2022 because licensed operators in France had heeded the regulator's orders to reduce advertising pressure.
Each of the gambling companies had been told to submit their "marketing action plans" in order to facilitate regulation and the reduction of "excessive advertising."
The ANJ issued the order in response to public and political concerns about the negative portrayal of sports betting advertisements during Euro 2020.
When signing the report in 2022, ANJ President Isabelle Falque-Pierrotin stated that the ANJ's regulatory framework, established prior to the World Cup, allowed for the regulation of advertising intensity using available resources and that the operators largely cooperated with the directive.
However, despite efforts to reduce advertising intensity, the executive noted that the pressure remained, particularly in light of the recently reported increase in problem gambling. To that end, the ANJ was supposed to establish stricter policies and put them into effect in 2023.
The ANJ's working group on advertising and marketing was still deliberating and was expected to issue recommendations this year. The new recommendations would specifically address betting sponsorships and other areas not addressed in 2022. The 2023 version builds on the goals and actions established in 2022.
Summary
The French gambling regulator's success in limiting excessive advertising in 2022 prompted the new orders, set to go into effect in 2023. By the end of the year, ANJ will most likely have created a better and safer gambling environment for all types of gamers. The French regulatory model stands out in global markets as a viable blueprint for safeguarding consumer interests in the fast-paced modern gambling industry.
