The French gambling regulator, l’Autorité Nationale des Jeux (ANJ), continues its efforts to combat illegal online gambling in the country. Recently, it announced the blocking of access to Polymarket.com, a platform using cryptocurrencies for betting.

The regulator revealed that it had been monitoring Polymarket.com’s operations over the past month and concluded that some of the gambling activities offered by the platform might violate French law. Among these activities are online slots, which remain unregulated in France and are managed by Adventure One QSS, a Panama-licensed company.

At the end of November, ANJ reached out to Adventure One QSS, and the operator agreed to implement geo-blocking to restrict access for French users. These measures came into effect on November 21. The regulator also advised French players, who can no longer access their accounts, to contact the operator directly.

In 2022, Polymarket faced a $1.4 million fine from the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) for operating without proper registration, leading to a temporary suspension of its activities.

In France, online casinos remain unregulated, but authorities are working to change this. Initial plans aimed to implement regulation by early 2025 to reduce the budget deficit. However, opposition from land-based casinos delayed these efforts. To address the issue, the government initiated a six-month consultation process involving three working groups to gather stakeholder opinions and outline future steps.

The first group, led by the Ministry of Health, began its work on December 3, focusing on gambling addiction prevention. Other groups will examine consumer protection and the economic implications of online casino legalization for land-based operators. Traditional casinos demand an exclusive operating period if the online market opens.

Currently, the French gambling authority ANJ has blacklisted nearly 950 URLs for offering unlicensed gambling, including many online casino platforms. Violating gambling laws in France can result in up to seven years in prison and fines of up to €200,000 ($211,540).  

To raise public awareness that this sector remains illegal, ANJ conducts educational campaigns to highlight the risks of using unauthorized platforms.

“The ANJ would like to warn people who play on illegal sites because they are exposing themselves to particularly serious risks,” it said in the latest update. “These include the non-payment of winnings, payment method fraud, identity theft and installation of malicious computer programmes.”

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