Proposals for a French whistle to whistle ban on gambling advertising have been rejected, but with presidential elections looming next year, Budget and industry settlements enter a crucial period…

Consumer protection, social responsibility and responsible gambling have always been key topics surrounding online sports betting and gaming in France and, increasingly, they are gaining in salience as part of the debate around the organisation, management and financing of professional sport in the country.

They came into sharp(er) focus during the debates on the country’s professional sports bill that took place at the Assemblée nationale before the summer recess. The bill seeks to modernise oversight and financial controls over sports leagues, introduce new governance rules for professional football and strengthen enforcement against audiovisual piracy. According to the Association for the Protection of Sports Programmes (APPS), nearly 60% of France’s estimated 9.9 million football fans watch matches via illegal streaming platforms.

The discussions have also cleared the way for the introduction of loss limits for 18-to-25 year olds, whose levels of exposure to gambling products represented one of the key concerns of the Autorité Nationale des Jeux, the country’s gambling regulator. Should it complete the legislation’s parliamentary passage, France would become only the second regulated gambling market in Europe after the Netherlands to legislate for mandatory youth-specific loss limits for young adult consumers aged under 24.

Those measures would also give ANJ the ability to increase the number of games moderators and supervise the loss levels players can be exposed to.

Finance comes first

The bill seeks to strengthen the long-term financial sustainability of professional sports bodies in France, where even the country’s leading football clubs are not immune to the financial uncertainties faced by broadcasters and other would-be commercial partners.

This has been particularly apparent over the past eight to 10 years, where the country’s Ligue de Football Professionnel has had to deal with the Mediapro fiasco around 2020 and DAZN’s uncertain entry into the market in 2024, before it finally decided to launch Ligue 1+, its own direct-to-consumer service, in 2025.    

When it comes to gambling, the parliamentary discussions included an amendment to implement a whistle to whistle ban on advertising and operators being forbidden from sponsoring sports federations and clubs. The calls for a whistle to whistle ban and, in general, stricter advertising restrictions are all part of an ongoing hardening discourse towards the gambling industry that can be seen in many European countries over recent years.

Spain and Italy banned gambling advertising six or seven years ago and the Netherlands and Belgium followed suit in the past couple of years. The measures in the Benelux countries passed despite repeated warnings from operators that banning them from promoting their brands only helps illegal operators, who of course don’t have to respect any existing or new regulations. 

But issues related to the finances of professional sports organizations and the role gambling plays in providing them with significant funds have never been far from the surface. Rejecting the amendment to ban advertising, Belkhir Belhaddad, rapporteur for the commission overseeing the French sports bill, told MPs who supported it: “Whether you like them or not, sports betting companies are a genuinely useful source of funding for the sporting world at a time when money is hard to find.”

Politicking

The calls for whistle to whistle and sponsorship bans echo the Évin law, which came into force in the early 1990s and banned alcohol and tobacco advertising and sponsorship from sporting events and clubs. The country’s gambling regulator, the Autorité Nationale des Jeux, backed the whistle to whistle ban and in its post-World Cup report lamented the fact that it was rejected.

It’s noteworthy that ANJ, which is usually so careful not to opine on sensitive topics linked to the sector’s regulation, felt able to openly call for the adoption of this measure. Indeed, it has been extremely careful not to give its views on another highly sensitive topic: whether online casino should be regulated in France.

In any case, the events also reflect how the industry is viewed and portrayed by French political parties.  Although unsurprising, there is a clear split along ideological lines as to how online betting and gaming is being talked about. This was evident three years ago when the government pushed through its web 3-JONUM regulations and the Socialist party and La France Insoumise were vociferous in their opposition to the project; and the tendency is only likely to increase in the run up to the 2027 presidential elections.

Broadly speaking, France’s left wing parties are against the industry, calling it “a tax on the poor”, while right wing and far right parties, although not particularly friendly towards the sector, adopt a more pragmatic approach to the different questions and debates that are raised.

Cigarettes & alcohol

Beyond the technicalities of getting such amendments passed, it’s also worth noting that gambling is now mentioned in the same breath as products like cigarettes and alcohol. In other words, the politicians putting forward the amendment to ban gambling advertising are placing the health harms caused by sports or casino betting on a par with those caused by smoking 20 cigarettes or a bottle of wine a day.

Without dismissing the health impacts of gambling, there are key differences between those practices, while access to (regulated) gambling products is strictly limited via age and identification checks. 

Still, ANJ’s support of a whistle to whistle ban is an echo of its calls to fight the normalisation (banalisation in French) of gambling, especially among younger demographics. Its former president Isabelle Falque-Pierrotin also said she was not opposed to general industry advertising from operators, while the authority’s new president Pascal Chèvremont has said he considers existing advertising regulations to be robust enough and any regulatory changes should be a matter for lawmakers.

France is still in holiday mode, but, with discussions on its 2027 Budget set to start in September, will enter a crucial period when it gets back to work. And with a key presidential contest that could see a far right politician for the first time become president of the European Union’s second largest economy, its legislators and parliamentarians will have their work cut out to thread a needle between all these highly sensitive topics.