ANJ instructs French casinos to revise terms
The Autorité Nationale des Jeux (ANJ), the French gambling regulator, has directed French online casino operators to examine and modify their terms and conditions in order to...
France’s gambling sector sees growth despite regulation
The Autorité Nationale des Jeux (ANJ) has reported a 3.5 percent annual growth in GGR reaching €13.4 billion in 2023.
This increase was credited to the major sporting events returning in 2022 following a stability phase brought on by COVID-19. The ANJ emphasized that this was the sector’s greatest level of activity ever noted.
The ANJ cautioned operators to actively monitor gambling activities notwithstanding this development in order to prevent an escalation of intense playing patterns in 2024, particularly with the approaching Olympic Games in Paris and the Euro 2024 football competition.
Although France’s gambling industry is growing at a slower rate than the 5.5 percent rate of the European market, at 3.5 percent, ANJ pointed out that this growth rate is comparable to that of Germany, the UK, and Spain. The growth varied from +0.9 percent to +14 percent in different verticals.
The President of ANJ, Isabelle Falque-Pierrotin, stressed that the industry’s robust expansion shows that strict regulation does not impede progress. In the upcoming years, the ANJ hopes to lower the number of compulsive gamblers.
PMU, which produced 62.7 percent of the total GGR, and Francaise des Jeux (FDJ) are two significant participants in the French gambling market. Online sports betting at FDJ increased by 10.4 percent to reach €1 billion, while PMU’s GGR increased by one percent to €1.7 billion, bringing it back to pre-pandemic levels.
Record GGR of €2.7 billion was also reported by French casino operators, with most land-based businesses returning to greater levels than in 2019. Sports betting, online poker, and online horse racing tote betting drove a 7.2 percent rise in online operators’ GGR to €2.3 billion.
Online sports betting was the only industry to have a decline in the number of active accounts, even if the overall number of unique players increased to 3.6 million. ANJ called on operators to properly monitor player conduct and issued a warning about increased intensive gambling behaviors among specific age groups.
Both land-based and online gambling are driving expansion in the French gambling industry overall across a number of verticals.
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