ANJ fines operator €500,000 over high-risk player protection failures

France's gambling regulator has imposed a €500,000 (£432,000) fine on an unnamed online betting operator. This is after finding significant shortcomings in how it identified and supported customers displaying signs of gambling-related harm.

The decision was made by the Autorité nationale des jeux (ANJ). It follows an investigation into the operator, referred to only as Company X. This concluded that the business had failed to properly assess high-risk players and implement adequate customer protection measures.

The ruling highlights the growing regulatory emphasis across Europe on proactive player protection and data-driven monitoring. Regulators increasingly expect operators to demonstrate effective intervention strategies. It’s not just about maintaining responsible gambling policies.

Investigation identified high-risk player failures

The  ANJ's investigation examined customer account data covering the period between 1 October 2023 and 31 March 2024.

It used a risk-scoring methodology. This is based on indicators including deposit frequency, betting intensity, loss patterns and previous self-exclusion. The regulator identified the 30 customers considered to be at the highest risk of gambling harm.

Investigators found that 29 of those customers had not been managed appropriately by the operator. Six were not identified as high risk at all. A further 23 had been placed into lower-risk categories than the regulator considered appropriate.

The regulator also concluded that 25 of the players had not received sufficiently proportionate or graduated interventions designed to reduce gambling-related harm.

Collectively, the 29 customers recorded net gambling losses of €683,355 during the review period. The operator generated net revenue of €190,501.86 from those accounts.

"The ruling reinforces that identifying vulnerable customers and taking meaningful action are separate regulatory obligations."

Regulator rejects legal challenge

Company X disputed both the regulator's methodology and the legal basis for the enforcement action.

The operator argued that French legislation does not provide a sufficiently clear statutory definition of "excessive" or "pathological" gambling. This makes compliance obligations difficult to interpret. It also challenged several of the indicators used by the regulator, including completed bets and the treatment of spending limits following account reopenings.

Company X maintained that automated warning emails, restrictions on promotional offers and temporary fraud-related account suspensions represented appropriate graduated interventions.

The operator also highlighted improvements it had since introduced. These included enhancements to its player risk detection systems and an expansion of its safer gambling team.

However, the sanctions commission rejected those arguments. It concluded that France's 2021 responsible gambling reference framework provides sufficiently clear expectations and that operators are required to make every reasonable effort to identify customers at risk.

The commission further emphasised that detecting high-risk behaviour and providing appropriate support are distinct legal duties, meaning operators can face sanctions for failures in either area.

Wider regulatory implications

The decision comes as the ANJ continues to strengthen its technical approach to gambling regulation.

Earlier this year, the regulator unveiled a new algorithm designed to identify significantly more potential problem gamblers than those currently detected by operators.

The commission acknowledged that automated communications can contribute to harm prevention. It found they were insufficient in many of the cases examined. It criticised the continued provision of bonuses to some high-risk customers, which it said could encourage further gambling.

Although Company X had previously been sanctioned in 2024 for breaching France's statutory payout limits, the commission treated the latest breaches as separate offences and did not increase the penalty on that basis.

The operator now has two months to appeal the decision before the French administrative courts.