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Investigation found dozens of high-risk players were overlooked
France’s gambling regulator has fined an unnamed online betting company €500,000 after concluding it failed to properly identify customers showing clear signs of harmful gambling and did not intervene effectively once those risks emerged.
The case stems from an ANJ investigation covering activity between October 2023 and March 2024. During that review, regulators analysed player account data stored in the operator’s secure archive and ranked customers using a risk model based on factors including betting intensity, deposit frequency, losses and previous self-exclusion.
The regulator selected the 30 highest-risk accounts for closer examination. It ultimately based its case on 29 of them.
Six players had not been identified as at-risk at all. Another 23 had been placed in lower-risk categories than the regulator considered appropriate.
The commission also concluded that 25 of those customers received insufficient support designed to reduce harmful gambling behaviour.
Over the investigation period, the 29 players lost a combined €683,355, while the operator generated €190,501.86 in net revenue from their gambling activity.
Operator challenged the legal basis
The company disputed both the regulator’s methods and the legal framework behind the investigation.
Its defence argued that French legislation does not provide a precise definition of excessive or pathological gambling, making compliance obligations difficult to interpret. It also questioned parts of the ANJ’s risk-scoring model, warning that some indicators could incorrectly classify players.
The operator maintained that automated warning emails, promotional restrictions and temporary account suspensions should count as appropriate intervention measures. It also pointed to upgrades made after the inspection, including improvements to its detection algorithm, a larger responsible gambling team and internal data showing player losses had fallen following those changes.
The sanctions commission dismissed those arguments.
It ruled that operators have two separate legal duties: identifying risky gambling behaviour and taking proportionate action once it is detected. Meeting one obligation does not compensate for failing the other.
The commission also confirmed that regulators were entitled to consider events that occurred before the inspection period, including recent voluntary self-exclusions, when assessing player risk.
Bonuses for vulnerable players drew criticism
Although the commission accepted that automated emails can contribute to player protection, it found they were not enough in most of the reviewed cases.
It also criticised the operator for continuing to offer bonuses to customers already considered high risk, concluding those incentives could encourage further gambling rather than reduce harm.
The ruling relies on France’s gambling legislation and a 2021 ministerial framework outlining the indicators operators are expected to monitor. While that framework does not prescribe a single detection system, the commission found operators must demonstrate they are making every reasonable effort to identify and protect vulnerable customers.
The decision comes as the ANJ continues to expand its technical oversight of the online gambling market. Earlier this year, the regulator introduced a new algorithm designed to identify significantly more potential problem gamblers than operators currently detect through their own systems.
The operator, previously fined in 2024 for breaching France’s payout-rate rules, has two months to challenge the latest decision before the administrative courts. The commission treated the two cases as unrelated and did not increase the financial penalty because of the earlier sanction.
Sources: igamingbusiness.com
