France imposes new player protection regulations

Content Team January 6, 2021

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France imposes new player protection regulations

The French government has introduced a number of player protection rules in a bid to create a safer gambling environment 

The new plans were presented to the European Commission which will require all operators to provide plans of action regarding safe gambling and measures such as deposit limits. 

The plan of action by the operators must be handed over to L’Autorité nationale des Jeux (ANJ), the new gambling regulator which was launched on the 22nd of June 2020. ANJ oversees all gambling activity in the country ranging from online gambling to lottery games. 

ANJ will ultimately determine whether these plans are suitable or not and will also guide those Responsible gambling | SiGMA Newswhose plans are deemed unsatisfactory by advising them with new recommendations.  

Back on 15th December, ANJ had signed an agreement with Unaf to prevent excessive betting and underage gambling and these new plans will definitely boost the purpose of this partnership. 

Furthermore, France’s lottery giant La Française des Jeux and horse racing operator – Pari Mutuel Urbain are required to submit their plans by 30 September 2021. Online operators are scheduled to hand in their action plans on 30 November. Moreover, a separate plan of action must be submitted by the 31st October showing the operators promotional strategies. 

When reviewing the operators’ plans, ANJ are authorised to withdraw any commercial strategies if it “directly or indirectly incites minors or persons banned from gambling to gamble or involves an excessive incentive to gamble”. 

The new measures will also call for operators to “limit the risk potential of addiction” and must “assess the addiction potential of the gambling offer and its attractiveness to minors, before and after providing it”. 

To make these assessments it is suggested that operators use ASTERIG (Assessment Tool to Measure and Evaluate the Risk Potential of Gambling Products).  It will give operators the chance to analyse their platform and structural features of their games. 

The French regulatory body, ANJ, has been constantly fighting addiction, imposing and enforcing a number of measures regarding the safety of their players, such as: 

Operators must offer game moderators. These moderators allow the player to: 

– limit bets; 

– limit the supply of their account; 

– limit playing time. 

Operators must also: 

– allow self-exclusion from the game; 

– systematically check the age of their customers at each account opening and every visit to the operator’s website – the player must submit a copy of his identity papers for the final opening of his player account. The player cannot receive his winnings or obtain the payment of the sums paid into his player account as long as he plays in an interim account; 

– Ensure that the identity of the player matches that of the holder of the payment account; 

– permanently mention the ban on gambling for minors on the pages of their website. 

Lastly, the Law on Online Gambling also provides a limit on the rate of return to players that operators are obliged to abide to when it comes to horse and sports betting. This rate of return paid out to players also includes bonuses and in-kind winnings. 

Source: IGBusiness

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