The French gambling authority has issued a $572,799 penalty against an unnamed operator that the company argues has breached existing gambling laws in the country.
The case against the online betting operator, although not mentioned explicitly by name, has been detailed by the regulator, which went to great length to explain the exact nature of the offense.
Gamblers Were Allowed to Play Excessively
Overall, the company failed to act in the case of 29 high-risk players who were not identified as such. At least six players were not detected at all, while another 23 were misclassified at a lower risk tier, the regulator said.
The company was investigated from October 1, 2023 through March 31, 2024, when the instances of non-complaince were detected, eliciting an enforcement action.
To help identify the cases where the operator had failed to act, the ANJ deployed a complicated scoring system of its own, identifying self-excluson history, deposits, betting intensity and loss patterns, allowing it to conclude issues in close to 70 cases.
Current laws in France expect operators to intervene and act in cases where gambling harm is detected. More importantly, operators have an actual obligation to protect consumers by not allowing them to fall in pathological patterns or/and intervene when such are detected.
The onus is on operators to establish that a gambler may be gambling more than they can afford to, which is why the penalty occurred in the first place. Detecting at-risk players is important and it should come with robust built-in mechanisms, with any failure to meet those obligations resulting in enforcement and subsequent penalties.
Previous Offenses and the Duty of Obligation
The operator tried to argue that it had a system in place that sent automated messages to people it suspected of gambling excessive, but the ANJ did not agree with this argument, saying instead that the operator must have acted proactively and identified the risks, intervened sooner, and generally not have allowed players to gamble to the extent they have.
Furthermore, this is not the first time the unnamed operator has been targeted by regulatory action, with a similar investigation looking into the company back in 2024 when the company was fined. The issues dated back to 2022 and had to do with the allowable maximum payout to players.