L’Autorité Nationale des Jeux (ANJ) has approved the La Française des Jeux’s (FDJ) gaming and betting program for 2026, setting out new measures for combating gambling excesses, while the French regulator has sanctioned another operator for breaching rules on data archiving.
Each year, ANJ is required to approve the annual programme for operators FDJ and Pari Mutuel Urbain (PMU). The two operators hold the exclusive rights for specific online verticals in France like lottery.
Included in this approval process are measures to support responsible gambling across both FDJ and PMU. In the case of FDJ, data the operator shared from the Canadian Problem Gambling Index showed the proportion of problem and excessive gamblers had increased in 2024. This followed a period of stability between 2020 and 2023.
Although ANJ approved FDJ’s betting and gaming plans for 2026, this came with several conditions, as part of the regulator’s programme to reduce excessive gambling among players.
These include ensuring marketing messages avoid statements such as “best chance of winning”.
Wider targets include limiting the share of revenue generated by excessive and problem gamblers across all online products. ANJ ordered FDJ to remove or modify the online scratchcard games with the most excessive gambling levels.
FDJ limited on new game launches
In terms of draw-based games, ANJ rejected a request to expand FDJ’s Amigo game and to reduce risks associated with it. It also said the freeze on the range of draw-based games implemented in 2025 will be maintained in 2026. FDJ was also directed to reduce revenue share from excessive gamblers on its BingoLive.
ANJ also placed a freeze on the launch of certain new physical scratchcard games. Only three new games or relaunched offerings priced at €3 will be permitted in 2026, and €5 launches will be capped at two. Also on €5 games, FDJ’s total offering in this area cannot exceed nine games online and in retail.
In addition, for games marketed exclusively online, ANJ requested FDJ to reduce its offering. This primarily relates to titles in the €2, €3, and €5 game ranges.
ANJ issues €75,000 penalty over data issue
In other news, on Friday ANJ penalised an unnamed operator for breaching rules on data in France. The unidentified company has been ordered to pay €75,000 ($87,663) by the regulator.
ANJ ruled the operator failed to fulfil obligations for the real-time archiving and permanent data availability. This took place over a period of 25 months between 2022 and 2024.
All licensed operators are required to archive customers’ gaming data and data for player accounts in real time. This must be made permanently available to the ANJ so that it can monitor the activities of operators.
The first failure related to not sending certain data concerning players’ bets. This, ANJ said, led the operator to exclude bets totalling several million euros from the physical archiving system. Meanwhile, a second breach related to the provision of inaccurate data across more than 900,000 defective records.
“As well as the ANJ’s exercise of its mission to regulate and monitor the online gaming and betting sector,” ANJ said. “A failure to transmit this information also has a significant impact on the controls carried out by the ANJ, particularly regarding the monitoring of player return rates and the detection of pathological gamblers.
“Given these repeated failures lasting more than two years, the Sanctions Committee imposed a financial penalty of €75,000.”
ANJ has imposed a limit on the number of games FDJ can launch in 2026 and ordered it to remove or modify scratch card games with excessive gambling levels.