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Long-awaited study confirms estimates of illegal market as 3 million French players visit unlicensed sites , as study estimates play on illegal casino to be between €748m and €1.5bn in GGR…
Illegal online casinos targeting France are estimated to generate between €748m and €1.5bn in GGR, according to a study commissioned by the Autorité Nationale des Jeux (ANJ), the country’s gambling regulator.
The study, initially scheduled for this summer, was carried out by PwC between January and March this year and identified 510 sites and 14 mobile apps as offering online casino products in France, with 21 sites understood to be capturing around 60% of the traffic.
The report added that just over 3 million French citizens visit the sites out of a total gambling population of 9 million. The figure for the illegal market represents between 5% and 10% of the overall legal gambling market in France, which was worth nearly €13bn in 2022, with €2.9bn of that figure recorded by licensed online operators.
Of those 510 sites, ANJ identified the operators behind 440 of them, with 248 of them licensed in Curaçao, 63 in Malta and 12 in Cyprus. In terms of products, casino games such as roulette and craps accounted for just under half of all stakes, with online slot machines recording 54% of player wagers.
According to PwC, around 50% of those visiting the sites are unaware that the offer is illegal, while 79% of the GGR is generated by players considered to be at risk. Players are motivated by the absence of identity checks, the expectation of large winnings and the diversity of the games on offer.
In terms of prevention, the study noted that since March 2022 the ANJ’s administrative blocking orders have been “faster and less costly”, and since that date the Authority has blocked 1,230 urls. “Thanks to the introduction of this procedure, ANJ has managed to have almost as many urls blocked as in 12 years of judicial blocking procedures,” the report states.
The document also explains that at present “the law does not provide (ANJ) with specific tools to combat this illegal supply”.
Curaçao is one of the most popular jurisdictions for unlicensed operators to target regulated European markets. It has announced plans to reform its igaming regulations following pressure exerted on the territory by the Dutch government over the past three years.
The subject of online casino regulation has dominated the agenda for many months in France, first with the country’s project to regulate web3-fantasy betting operators and most recently SBC News media partner Gaming&Co revealed that Française des jeux (Groupe FDJ) was in talks with the government with a view to being granted an exclusive online casino license.
