The French Gambling Authority (ANJ) is making it easier for people in France to step back from gambling by redesigning the national register, the “Interdiction Volontaire",...
ANJ demands whistle-to-whistle gambling ad ban
L’Autorité Nationale des Jeux (ANJ) calls for a whistle-to-whistle gambling ad ban, plans stricter gambling sponsorship supervision, and the introduction of loss limit tools.
ANJ has just proposed these measures, and no timeline has been set for their implementation. ANJ intends to run a large-scale campaign at the FIFA World Cup 2026 to promote responsible gambling.
In January, ANJ ordered France’s 4 biggest operators to cut their marketing and sponsorship spending. Within its report, ANJ required “stricter supervision of sponsorship to combat the trivialisation of gambling.”
France’s football league, Ligue 1, is not as heavily connected with gambling operators as other major football leagues. Winamax is the only gambling-related shirt sponsor in the 2024-25 season via its deal with Le Havre. However, Betclic is the official sportsbook sponsor of the Fédération Française de Rugby.
In 2023, ANJ released new regulations on the use of images of athletes in promoting gambling. If the athletes are popular with minors, operators aren’t allowed to use their image.
Simone Alexe, Head of the Addiction Prevention Office at the Directorate General of Health, said that messages to warn players of gambling harm should come into force for the FIFA World Cup 2026. She noted that France’s players’ information service website recorded more than 8 million visits in 2024, a 44% increase compared to 2023, with one-third of them coming from players’ friends and family members.
ANJ highlighted the need for additional player protection tools as well. An annual monitoring program has been implemented to identify excessive gamblers.
ANJ shared in their report:
“Cultural changes are finally necessary, and the 2026 FIFA World Cup offers us a good opportunity to offer a large-scale campaign. More generally, it’s about repositioning gambling as an entertainment economy (and not a game), which collectively involves deconstructing the myth of ‘easy money’.”
The ANJ considers developing tools that will enable the systematic identification of problem gamblers and is forming an algorithm for detecting excessive gamblers, with the system to be live by 2026.
France’s gambling regulator, the Autorité nationale des jeux (ANJ), has reported record growth in the first half of 2025, with gross revenue reaching €5.7 billion, a 3.5%...
