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The French gambling regulator (ANJ) has asked the government for permission to enforce a whistle-to-whistle ban and loss limits for young people.
The ANJ unveiled its wish-list of new regulatory limits in a report released on Wednesday (June 26), confirming it has petitioned the government for new powers.
The ANJ wants to prevent gambling advertising from appearing from five minutes before kick-off until five minutes after the final whistle of sporting events.
It has also called for the ability to “control and supervise the volumes and advertising methods” used by its licensed gambling operators and powers to force the withdrawal of gambling products when they present a “manifest and excessive risk”.
Operators would also need to require gamblers aged 18-25 to set loss limits and display for all players an “activity counter” that would display information such as a player’s net loss, under the ANJ proposals.
Other planned changes include requiring gambling companies to donate 0.002 percent of turnover to fund academic studies.
Online Casino Ban Under Review
France remains one of the few European countries to explicitly outlaw online casino gambling.
Efforts to overturn this ban have come and gone over the past few years, but this May saw a renewed effort in the form of a bill introduced in the National Assembly that would have legalised online casinos, albeit with some bizarre regulatory conditions that were unlikely to pass.
However, it has succeeded in reinvigorating the conversation around online casinos. At a recent conference, ANJ senior advisor Eric Sjöden responded to an audience question by saying the regulator needed more data before giving advice on the possibility of opening up the market.
In this week’s report, the ANJ revealed that it will release a study in September on the size of the online casino black market and suggested it had not yet formed an opinion on continuing the ban.
The document will also consider the effectiveness of website blocking and what new “regulatory options” could be deployed to combat illegal online gambling.
With France’s current gambling legislation now three years old, ANJ president Isabelle Falque-Pierrotin has said that now is the time to tentatively consider opening the online casino market.
“The extension of the gambling market to new gaming offers … can destabilise or, on the contrary, reinforce [the gambling market],” she said.
“What should guide reflection is the absolute need to reduce the number of excessive gamblers, which today constitutes a social problem that goes beyond the individual dimension of addiction.”
