France

Historically, the French government limited gambling to a lottery, run by state-owned operation Groupe Française des Jeux, and horse racing, run by state-owned operation Pari Mutuel Urbain (PMU). All other forms of gambling were illegal. However, this changed when the French government passed and enacted the Gambling Act in spring 2010, allowing regulated online gaming. The purpose of this law was to thwart gambling addiction and money laundering, and to shelter existing French operators' market share, including the government-owned monopolies.

Autorité de régulation des jeux en ligne (ARJEL) was created to regulate the online gaming industry and opened its doors to foreign operators with the stipulation that operators adhere to a strict set of guidelines. On 1 June 2010, ARJEL began offering licenses for online poker (Texas Hold'em and Omaha), online sports betting and online horse betting. Online casinos are still illegal. In 2020, ANJ replaced ARJEL and now supervises all online gambling (sports, horse betting, poker) plus the state lotteries and land-based betting, but online casino games such as slots and roulette remain prohibited, with players turning to unlicensed offshore sites.

Even though the new law opened up France's online gaming market to foreign operators, it came with restrictions. Only limited types of online gaming would be available to the operators, and the incumbent French monopolies were to get preferential treatment.

ARJEL also implemented extensive requirements for dealing with problem gambling. Players must have the option to self-exclude from play and to limit how much they can gamble, and links to problem-gambling resources must be displayed on the site in a prominent position.

All of the newly licensed operators stopped accepting French players at their online casinos to stay compliant with French gambling law. Additionally, the pool for online poker players was restricted to France, and online operator file servers storing player account information had to be located in France to be eligible for a French operating license. Since 2018, France has been part of a shared-liquidity pool with Spain, Italy and Portugal for licensed poker, and technical rules now allow some flexibility on server location as long as ANJ oversight and data access are guaranteed.

France has shifted from turnover-based taxes to heavy levies on GGR: public charges on online sports betting currently total around 55% of GGR and are scheduled to rise to roughly 59% from mid-2025, while retail betting tax will reach about 42% of GGR. Online poker, previously taxed at a tiny percentage of stakes, will instead be taxed at 10% of GGR, significantly increasing the burden on operators. Payout ratios are now controlled through GGR caps and RG obligations rather than a strict 85% payback ceiling.

While France is now increasing gambling taxes further for 2025, political debate has shifted toward possibly legalizing online casino under a “tightly controlled” model, with ANJ arguing that any opening should come with very strict conditions on advertising, bonuses and licensee suitability.

Two French online poker rooms, Barrière and Partouche, pulled out of the market in 2013, citing the soft economy and a poor tax structure.

The government has also consistently rejected the idea of changing the onerous tax structure.

In 2017, France, Italy, Spain and Portugal signed an agreement that allowed shared player pools for online poker.