The French lottery operator Francaise des Jeux has been rejected by the French regulator l’Autorite Nationale des Jeux.
This yearly report assesses promotional strategies for the 17 approved online operators, as well as the exclusive operators including FDJ. ANJ says it aims for a balanced approach between advertising legal gambling operations in a legitimate manner and excessive promotional activities that could be harmful.
The regulator stated that it would focus on digital levers as well as strengthening the protection of minors and vulnerable group – while also highlighting all media channels.
ANJ rejects a strategy
The ANJ rejected the proposal because of the more restrictive framework for monopolies, which states that its promotion policy should be applied with greater caution. The regulator does not allow monopolies to actively promote the game.
The ANJ stated, firstly that FDJ did not respond comprehensively enough to 2022’s reservations about promotional strategy. Three key rejection reasons were given by the regulator in regard to the 2023 lottery: the large number of promotions that would be planned, creating concerns about saturation, a plan to turn the lottery into a daily product, and a promotion strategy which made a link between gambling interest and the public.
FDJ must submit a fresh request to the ANJ for its approval within one month. The ANJ has noted that it may propose additional measures to the local authorities to enforce advertising regulations.
The French government sold 50% of its ownership in FDJ to the public on July 1, 2018. It kept the monopoly by paying EUR380m to France to keep exclusively offering lotteries, retail betting and PS325.0m.
