A new regulator is now overseeing the French gaming industry. A “unified era” has begun under L’Autorité Nationale des Jeux (ANJ), which replaced l’Autorité nationale de régulation des jeux en ligne (ARJEL).
ANJ will act as a single regulatory body overseeing all forms of gambling in France, including at 200-plus casinos and 228 racetracks, along with iGaming and online and retail lottery sales. According to SBC News, ANJ will not be responsible for anti-money laundering protocols or the integrity of the games offered; those will come under the purview of the Ministry of the Interior.
However, ANJ will have the authority to withdraw advertising materials and carry out on-site controls.
The transfer of powers from ARJEL to ANJ was formalized in March 2020, at which time Isabelle Falque-Pierrotin became chairwoman of the body.
“The ANJ is not an enlarged ARJEL,” pointed out Falque-Pierrotin. “It is a new project that requires rethinking regulation. It has to adapt its intervention to monopolies (FDJ and PMU) and to players gambling mostly anonymously in points of sale.
“I would like to set up a regulation that combines support and control in order to better serve and protect players.”
The ANJ is said to be developing two reference frameworks the first of which prioritizes the prevention of problem gambling and the protection of minors, while the second looks at the prevention of fraud, money laundering and the financing of terrorism.
In 2019, the French Senate ordered the En Marche government to form a ‘unified regulator’ for French gambling, having agreed to allow the government to sell its majority stake in lottery operator Francaise des Jeux.
The Senate stated that French gambling laws had been undermined by ‘double guardianship’ in which incumbents were governed by three separate bodies.
