l’Autorité Nationale des Jeux (ANJ) has outlined its belief that France is Europe’s fourth largest gambling market, irrespective of the current exclusion of online casinos.
The gambling authority of France has published its Gambling Overview of 2024, in which ANJ observers that French gambling generated a record gross gaming revenues (GGR) of €14bn, up 4.7% on 2023’s €13.6bn.
Growth is led by a higher activity of online customers as France’s 14 licensed operators (sportsbook and poker) service 5.7 million accounts, of which FDJ assumes that 3.9 million are individual online players.
A breakdown of GGR, saw the online gambling segment achieve €2.7bn, 18% of the total market share.
2024 accounts for a direct €7bn GGR contribution by FDJ United, as the exclusive operator of the French National lottery, sports betting POS and Instant win games. The report cites that FDJ currently maintains a 51% of market share of French gambling (land-based and online).
Municipal casinos, long a fixture of France’s regulated gaming landscape, delivered €2.72bn in GGR, representing a modest 1.2% increase. These gains were largely attributed to steady visitor numbers and a slight increase in average spend per entry.
Paris clubs de jeux, which operate under a different licensing regime, recorded €123m in GGR, a 3.7% rise. Finally, the PMU, the licence responsible for horseracing and totaliser bets, generated €1.7bn, registering a 2% year-on-year decline, as ANJ notes that “for the first time, PMU was overtaken in market share by online sports betting operators.”
The most dynamic area of growth came from online sports betting, which soared by 19 %to €1.76bn. In contrast, poker, after two years of growth, declined slightly to €493m, while online horseracing increased marginally to €339m.
Isabelle Falque-Pierrotin, Chairwoman of the ANJ: “The French market is growing at a rate comparable to the major European markets. While operators were particularly active in 2024 due to major sporting events, the first few months of 2025 confirm this growth dynamic.
Against this backdrop, the regulator stresses two major challenges: the need to reorient the sector’s business model towards less intensive gambling that is less focused on high-risk players; and the need to mobilise all stakeholders to change the cultural representations associated with gambling, which have led to it becoming commonplace in French society.”
The warning arrives as France prepares for a sweeping overhaul of its gambling fiscal regime. Beginning in July 2025, operators will face a raft of new tax measures under the Loi de Financement de la Sécurité Sociale.
From 1 July, the French government will impose a new tax framework on French gambling activities taxing sports betting will rise from 10.6-to-15% of GGR, and poker will see the introduction of a flat 10 %levy, replacing the previous 0.2% charge on wagers.
The lottery, operated by FDJ under exclusive rights, will also face higher taxes, with the contribution on traditional draws rising to 7.2%.
The government has applied a further tax burden of a new 15% tax on promotional and advertising expenditures and marketing campaigns, to be taxed annually
Regulatory adjustments are aimed at tempering the market’s exuberance and reining in the spiralling marketing budgets, which hit €144.5m in 2024—an increase of over 23 per cent. Particularly notable was the 56 per cent surge in spending on social media advertising, as operators sought to acquire younger, digitally native players.
As the government eyes new frontiers, including the experimental rollout of monetisable digital items under the JONUM framework, the ANJ’s concerns reflect a deeper unease about the social entrenchment of gambling.
The normalisation of betting, particularly among 18- to 24-year-olds—18.8 per cent of whom gambled online in 2024—raises pressing questions about the balance between market liberalisation and public health.
For French licences, the question remains whether he market can sustain such expansion without further fuelling concerns over problem gambling and its cultural pervasiveness.
ANJ concludes that French gambling is “a sector of economic viability” , however the authority made no mention of any progress toward the legalisation or regulation of online casino (iCasino) games in France – a subject matter that divides opinion amongst French politics and gambling leadership.
