France’s Gaming Regulator Unhappy with Gambling Ads during Euro Cup

L’Autorité Nationale des Jeux (ANJ), France’s gambling regulator, has issued a warning to all operators after reviewing their betting practices during the Euro Cup 2020 soccer championship. The review stated that operators crossed the line with their marketing as the number of ads was too great. The regulator expects operators to cut back, or new regulations could be implemented.

ANJ Unhappy With Gaming Operators

ANJ held a meeting on July 20, where it issued two important messages to the operators. The first one was about the high number of betting ads hand the second one was the effect on young people as they motivated them to bet on the games.

The regulator has stated that, during the Euro Cup that just wrapped up recently, the volume of promotional campaigns was just too big and it crossed a line that shouldn’t be crossed. The regulator also added that reducing the volume is of massive importance and these events might question the regulatory model in the next decade.

To add to that, ANJ asked the operators to control their campaigns by conducting mid-term reviews. But, in the event they do not comply with the rules, adequate sanctions will be in effect. This is something that all operators have agreed to address previously.

Several Measures To Tackle the Problem Are Announced by ANJ

ANJ will hold a seminar on September 21, 2021, hosted by numerous experts in the problem gambling area. The goal of the meeting will be to determine what excessive gambling is. In addition to that, five projects that will make sure that future sports events do not have issues like this one were announced.

The president of ANJ, Isabelle Falque-Pierrotin, stated that the one positive thing that came out of the problem with the European Championship is that it managed to shed light on all of the problematic practices that are connected to sports betting, and that is something that ANJ will act on.

She added that now that the ANJ is aware of the problems, it will answer adequately and with massive effectiveness by applying a plan of action that will make sure that operators are familiar with the rules, reinforce the control and sanctions if needed, but also implement new tools to achieve these goals.

Other Operators Also Targeted Young People, According to ANJ

ANJ reported that the 2020 European Championship resulted in $434 million being placed in online bets. The biggest problem is that this is not the first time where the ANJ stated that marketing campaigns by operators that are related to the gambling industry have targeted young people. In January, La Française des Jeux, a lottery operator, and Pari-Mutuel Urbain, the racing monopoly, were accused by the ANJ of using advertising tactics through which they targeted the younger population.

This conclusion came after the fact that both operators ran ads on TikTok and Snapchat. A massive part of the users on these two social media networks are young people. Due to this fact, gambling ads are not well-received by the public. Countries like the UK are already working on new regulations and, in a survey by YouGov, a majority of the participants stated that they want a total ban.