Part-two of Jake Pollard’s exit interview with the ANJ President Isabelle Falque-Pierrotin. The influence of FDJ and PMU on the French market is examined, as evidence of the growth of the illegal market leads to the constant looming question of whether time to regulate online casino.
The rise of the illegal iGaming market is an inevitable topic of discussion when interviewing the regulator of a major European market. Does Isabelle Falque-Pierrotin as ANJ President think that some countries’ regulations help, however inadvertently, illegal operators to strive because of their restrictive compliance requirements?
“Indeed, it’s a question that can be asked,” she acknowledges, “there is a balance to be found between the illegal market and the constraints imposed on legal operators”. As an example she mentions how the Netherlands tax rises introduced at the start of 2025 contributed to the growth of illegal operators that target the market.
Numerous observers point to payments as an obvious area to target, but she says it is not easy to convince banks to act. “We can work with the banking sector to that end, but it doesn’t necessarily want to act within that logic because it would probably lead to even more requests from other industries. Across many markets there is a certain inertia to cooperate on the topic.”
Another inevitable topic of discussion whenever the issue of illegal operators in France is raised is online casino regulation. As the country’s gambling regulator, does she feel it’s time to regulate the vertical?
“The question should be asked, it would be dishonest to say that isn’t the case,” she says.
“But key considerations have to be assessed: it’s one of the most addictive products in the market, so if we legalise it would have to be within a very strong regulatory framework.
“In addition, legalising online casino will not kill off the illegal market, as we can see with the online sports betting market in France. When it comes to tax revenues, yes it will likely generate some income, but what will be the impact on (France’s 202) land-based casinos?”
Nonetheless, she also agrees, with caveats, that being unable to completely eradicate the illegal market should not be a major reason against regulation of the vertical. “But the decision is not that straightforward. There are major public health issues that must be considered and it would be as important a decision as the opening of the market in 2010,” she notes.
Power Players
Moving the discussion on to FDJ and PMU, two historic and very powerful operators in France, and remarks that she has not been shy about pulling them up, whether on their marketing strategies or ID verification procedures throughout their retail networks.
Reading between the lines, one gets the impression that she wouldn’t mind seeing more competition between the commercial online operators and the monopolies. Is that accurate and how does she view their lobbying power, especially that of FDJ United, in relation to her objectives as a regulator?
In addition, does the fact that FDJ offers games that to all intents and purposes are online casino products (albeit with much lower RTP ratios) mean it has a vested interest in not seeing iCasino regulated, despite having the assets to exploit the vertical via Kindred’s casino brands?
“We don’t reason that way and we are not the Competition Authority,” she says calmly. “FDJ United is an extremely powerful operator that generates half the market’s revenues (through its lottery activities). Our only concern is that it acts within the parameters of its status as a monopoly operator.”
As an example, Falque-Pierrotin points to the work ANJ carried out on FDJ and PMU’s retail activities, which until recently were largely carried out by anonymous players, much to the displeasure of land-based casinos and online operators, who face stringent demands on their ID verification and KYC processes.
“For both companies, 80% of their business comes from anonymous players. In effect there was a grey zone where minors or problem gamblers could participate” in lottery or horse racing through FDJ’s and PMU’s retail networks.
“We received criticism from both casinos and online operators for this state of affairs, who pointed out that they were under all kinds of obligations to verify the identities of their customers. We therefore worked with them to develop measures and tools to identify their retail players. FDJ has carried out its project on this and PMU is currently doing its own.”
The rest is politics
Looking towards her next career move, a potential foray into politics is often mentioned. In the manner of a skilled politician, Falque-Pierrotin said there were still many objectives she wanted to reach before her mandate ran out. One of those was the recent launch of ANJ’s new algorithm, which will no doubt be the subject of much discussion in the coming months.
Nonetheless, the fact that she has supervised the gambling sector of the EU’s second largest economy can not be discounted. Furthermore, ANJ regulates Europe’s largest land-based casino sector, while France’s racing sector, despite PMU’s travails in the past two years, is one of the few breeding centers left in Europe alongside Ireland.
Meanwhile, its OSB market leader Banijay Group-Betclic has just taken a majority stake in Germany’s largest sports betting brand and entered the top five of listed gambling companies in Europe. Not bad for a country that is often criticised and characterised (not always unfairly, it must be said) as being overly fond of administration and taxes.
Just like FDJ United’s acquisition of Kindred Group before that.
Concluding the interview, she notes that France’s channelisation rate is high at more than 90%, which is higher than in Germany or the Netherlands; and “the French market is in relatively healthy condition and sufficiently attractive to international operators (such as Bet365), so overall we are pleased with what we have achieved.
“But,” she concludes, “we are not going to pat ourselves on the back and we will continue to focus on maintaining our framework that keeps excess gambling rates at a minimum, while ensuring the market remains dynamic and evolving.”
