French regulator fines unnamed operator €500,000 over player-protection failures

France’s gambling authority, the Autorité nationale des jeux (ANJ), has levied a €500,000 ($572,797) fine against an unnamed online betting operator, designated as Company X, for failing to properly identify and support players showing signs of problem gambling.

The penalty, announced on Thursday, follows an administrative investigation covering 1 October 2023 to 31 March 2024. The ANJ scrutinised account data stored in Company X’s secure data vault, using a multi-indicator scoring system that tracked deposit frequency, betting intensity, loss patterns and self-exclusion history. This process singled out the 30 highest-risk accounts; from these, the regulator formally charged the operator with failing to correctly classify 29 players. Six of those had been missed entirely, while 23 were placed at an inappropriately low risk tier.

Investigation details

Beyond misclassification, Company X did not deliver adequately graduated or proportionate support measures to 25 of those high-risk players. During the inspection period, the combined net losses of the 29 affected players totalled €683,355, from which Company X derived net gains of €190,501.86.

The sanction rests on several legal pillars: the amended gambling law of 12 May 2010 and the Code de la sécurité intérieure, which oblige licensed online operators to detect excessive or pathological gambling and to assist affected players. Additionally, the ministerial reference framework (cadre de référence) of 9 April 2021—though non-binding—sets out expected detection indicators such as betting frequency, chasing losses, voluntary limit adjustments, multiple accounts and time spent playing. The sanctions commission emphasised that detection and accompaniment are separate, independently enforceable duties, and failure in either alone suffices for a penalty.

Operator’s counterarguments

Company X pushed back, arguing that French law lacks a statutory definition of “excessive” or “pathological” gambling, making obligations vague. It also disputed the application of specific indicators—for example, how “completed bets” were counted and how voluntary limit portability across reopened accounts was handled, claiming possible false positives. The operator further contended that automated warning emails, exclusion from certain promotions and temporary fraud-related suspensions already constituted appropriate graduated interventions.

As evidence of improvement, Company X highlighted that it had upgraded its detection algorithm and expanded its player-protection team, and that net losses among the affected players fell by an average of 28% over a 90-day before-and-after comparison. It argued this should mitigate the fine.

Commission’s decision

The sanctions commission rejected all these defences. It affirmed that the 2021 reference framework is clear and enforceable because it has been directly incorporated into law. It upheld the ANJ’s indicators and scoring methodology, dismissing technical objections as without merit.

Regarding operator responses, the commission acknowledged that automated emails contribute to harm reduction but found them inadequate in most cases. It also criticised Company X for continuing to send bonuses to high-risk players, which could incentivise further gambling.

Previous penalties

Company X had already been fined in 2024 for breaching the statutory payout rate ceiling in 2022. However, the commission treated the current violations as separate and did not escalate the fine cap based on that prior sanction.

The decision is dated 10 July 2026 and will be formally notified to Company X, which has a two-month window to file an administrative appeal with the relevant courts.