France’s gambling regulator, the Autorité Nationale des Jeux (ANJ), has warned licensed operators to strengthen their anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing (AML/CFT) controls following the first sanctions imposed on a gambling company through the country’s National Sanctions Commission.
The warning follows an investigation into failures to comply with asset-freezing requirements, which resulted in financial penalties and suspended operating restrictions against an online gambling operator and two individuals.
The ANJ is now preparing to intensify compliance inspections, with particular attention to customer screening, suspicious transaction reporting and the ability to identify individuals subject to financial sanctions.
Operator and Compliance Officials Face Financial Penalties
The case began in July 2025, when the ANJ referred a licensed gambling operator to the National Sanctions Commission after identifying deficiencies in its financial crime prevention procedures.
Following a hearing on 8 July 2026, the Commission confirmed that the company had failed to implement adequate asset-freezing controls and internal procedures for complying with financial sanctions.
The operator received a €20,000 fine and a suspended two-month prohibition on conducting online gambling activities.
A former executive was fined €20,000 and received a suspended two-month management ban. A senior compliance official was also fined €5,000 and received an equivalent suspended restriction.
The Commission ordered the decision to be published anonymously. However, SBC News reported that the company involved was understood to be Betsson France, which had established operations in the French market by 2024.
The ANJ’s official announcement did not identify the sanctioned operator.
Stricter Customer Screening and Financial Reporting
The regulator has reminded gambling companies that they must maintain sufficient staffing, technology and internal procedures to identify customers and organisations subject to asset-freezing measures.
Operators must prevent sanctioned individuals from opening gambling accounts or placing bets. If an existing customer becomes subject to a financial restriction, the operator must immediately freeze the relevant assets and notify the Minister for the Economy.
The ANJ has specifically identified failures to understand asset-freezing requirements, inadequate internal procedures and the absence of mandatory notifications to the authorities as breaches uncovered during its investigation.
The regulator has confirmed that inspections of AML/CFT compliance will intensify. Licensed businesses are consequently expected to review their customer verification systems, employee training, internal escalation processes and financial reporting arrangements.
The ANJ is also strengthening its approach to customer risk assessments and suspicious transaction monitoring.
Particular attention is being directed towards customers whose professional positions may expose them to corruption risks. Operators are expected to improve the classification of higher-risk customers and the quality of suspicious transaction reports submitted to TRACFIN, France’s financial intelligence unit.
These requirements form part of a broader supervisory framework under which the ANJ reviews operators’ financial crime prevention arrangements annually and provides individual compliance support through two meetings each year.
Player Protection Technology Expands Regulatory Oversight
Alongside its financial crime enforcement programme, the ANJ is expanding its use of data analysis to assess whether gambling companies are identifying customers displaying signs of excessive or pathological gambling.
In May 2026, the regulator introduced an algorithm that analyses 23 financial and behavioural indicators, including account transactions, gambling frequency, the use of player protection limits and previous gambling activity.
The system classifies customers into four categories according to their estimated level of gambling risk, providing a common benchmark against which operators’ existing detection procedures can be assessed.
According to the ANJ, analysis of account-based gambling activity during the second half of 2025 identified approximately 600,000 customers with a high probability of excessive gambling.
These individuals represented 8.7% of account-based players and generated approximately €1.2 billion in gross gambling revenue, equivalent to 60% of the total measured during the period.
The regulator has made the algorithm available to operators as an additional tool for improving their own player protection systems.
The financial crime enforcement programme and player protection initiatives are now being overseen by Pascal Chèvremont, who was appointed ANJ President by presidential decree on 22 June 2026.
Chèvremont succeeded Isabelle Falque-Pierrotin, the regulator’s inaugural president, as the authority continues to strengthen its supervision of licensed gambling businesses through financial compliance inspections and data-driven player protection measures.