| National Gaming Authority | |
| Jurisdiction: | France |
| Map: | EU-France (orthographic projection).svg |
| Map Size: | 250px |
| Motto: | At the service of a safe, honest and controlled game |
| Preceding1: | ARJEL |
| Agency Type: | Independent administrative or public authority |
| Headquarters: | 15th arrondissement of Paris |
| Employees: | 350+ employees |
| Chief1 Position: | President |
| Chief1 Name: | Isabelle Falque-Pierrotin |
The French Autorité Nationale des Jeux (English: "National Gaming Authority"), usually referred to as ANJ, is an independent administrative authority, specifically designed to regulate online gambling in France. It was created by Article 34 of Law No 2010-476 [1] of the 12 May 2010 (French Gambling Act)[2] introduced to enhance the competition and sector regulation of gambling and online gaming.
The members of this authority are currently:[3]
The term office of all members is 6 years and can't be extended or renewed.
In Article 35 of the French Gambling Act, it prescribes that ANJ should consist of:
The mission of ANJ is to:[4]
Currently only online operators offering sportsbooks betting, horse racing betting and poker games can get ANJ's license. At ANJ's site there's a list of approved operators and their websites. Also, a special section of the site is reserved for published decisions of the board (approvals and rejections).
In June 2010, ANJ contacted unlicensed gambling operators that accepted French players and requested that they stop doing so. That was the first step towards banning those sites that didn't get ANJ's approval and operated without licenses. Then organisation focused on blocking access to these sites rather than attempting to prosecute operators based overseas. It turned to French ISPs asking them to block the unlicensed sites in August, 2010. Despite the initial reluctance of ISPs to obey ANJ, the Tribunal de grande instance de Paris held that they must act towards preventing French gamblers from accessing such websites. The fine for the failure to block the domain was estimated at €10,000 per day. Although ANJ can fine the unlicensed operators (up to €100,000), it was more effective to act through ISPs.[5]
ANJ's predecessor ARJEL was the subject of Parliamentary debate as to whether or not to it should be maintained. An amendment introduced by the deputy Jean-Luc Warsmann (LR) to the draft law on the general status of independent administrative authorities and public authorities aimed to dissolve ARJEL in February 2020. ARJEL was supposed to be merged with another entity or institution FDJ and the PMU.[6]