On 22 September 2026, France’s gambling regulator, the Autorité Nationale des Jeux (ANJ) called on licenced operators to strengthen anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing controls.
The warning comes after the ANJ’s first referral of a licensed operator to France’s National Sanctions Commission (NSC) in 2025. The case concerned deficiencies in asset freezing measures, including inadequate procedures for reporting suspicious transactions.
The breaches were confirmed by the NSC, which issued a fine of about €20,000 and a suspended ban on conducting operations for two months. A former officer had been punished similarly, but a senior officer of the compliance department faced a lesser financial penalty of about €5,000, still receiving a ban on being in charge.
According to the ANJ, operators are required to develop proper systems and employ enough specialists for establishing the identity of customers subject to freezing.
It is essential that operators do not provide the possibility for the people in question to open accounts or place bets. If the prohibition was unveiled after the account had been created, the funds shall be blocked immediately and the Minister of Economics informed.
The regulator claimed to be stricter in inspecting organizations with regard to AML requirements. The companies are requested to revise their systems of screening customers, escalation procedures, training of personnel, and reporting systems.
The ANJ is working on improving its AML procedures to enhance the system of notification and due diligence in respect to high-risk customers.
The regulator’s wider supervisory programme also includes player protection. It recently introduced an algorithm designed to identify excessive or pathological gambling. The tool is intended to provide a common benchmark for assessing operators’ own detection systems.
