According to recent data from France's gambling authority, the Autorité Nationale des Jeux (ANJ), those who exhibit indicators of excessive gambling account for over 60% of the nation's online gaming revenue.

In the second half of 2025, around 600,000 account-based gamblers with a high likelihood of excessive play were discovered by a new risk-scoring algorithm.

That group produced €1.2 billion in gross gaming revenue, or 60% of the total for the monitored market, and accounted for 8.7% of all account-based players covered by the regulator, according to the ANJ.

The results seem to corroborate the assertion made by the gambling industry's detractors that a disproportionate amount of its profits come from a small number of patrons who might be suffering harm or losing control. It also refutes claims that recreational consumers generate the majority of earnings.

Risk Identification Instrument

According to the ANJ, there aren't 600,000 clinically diagnosed gambling addicts in France because the tool isn't meant to estimate prevalence the way a population poll would.

However, it gives the regulator a market-wide standard by which to assess whether businesses are fulfilling their legal obligations to identify and assist vulnerable clients.

According to the ANJ, the algorithm was constructed using account-based activity at FDJ and PMU in addition to continuous account-level data provided by authorized online operators.

It makes use of 23 risk indicators, such as player history, frequency and intensity of play, use of gambling limitations and moderation measures, and financial movements.One of four categories—recreational, moderate risk, extreme, or patently excessive—is assigned to each player based on their score.

300,000 "Serious Risk"

According to the ANJ, in the second half of 2025, almost 300,000 players were classified as "manifestly excessive." According to the regulator, those participants ought to receive priority intervention.

Additionally, it stated that although their portion of operator revenue has been consistently increasing since 2023, the total number of excessive players is growing more quickly than the total number of players.

According to the ANJ, the model was created starting in 2024 and introduced to operators in 2025. Under the supervision of a scientific committee, its performance was evaluated in relation to the Canadian Problem Gambling Index.

The ANJ stated that comparable research is being conducted in Spain and the Netherlands, but it claimed that its model was the first of its kind in Europe. According to the regulatory agency, operators have improved their ability to spot excessive gamblers, warning 89,000 in 2025 as opposed to 31,000 the year before. However, this number is still much lower than what the algorithm suggests.