In 2025, the regulated gambling market in France delivered a steadily improving report card. According to the annual market assessment report recently released by the French National Gambling Authority, the gross gambling revenue of the entire industry reached 14.1 billion euros (approximately 16.6 billion US dollars), a year-on-year increase of 3% compared to 13.7 billion euros in 2024. This growth rate is in the middle range among mainstream European markets—behind the UK's expansion pace of 4.3%, but ahead of Italy's growth level of 1.9%. Looking closely at the growth structure, the online gambling sector sprinted at a rate far exceeding the overall market with a year-on-year increase of 8.5%, contributing 2.617 billion euros in revenue, and its market share climbed from 16.4% in 2023 to 18.5%. In the words of Isabelle Falque-Pierrotin, the chair of the French National Gambling Authority, 2026 is becoming a decisive year for the entire gambling market, whether it is integration and acquisition, reversing the downward trend, or dealing with intensified competition on the eve of the World Cup, all indicators are flashing red. Against this backdrop, this annual report not only records a year's growth trajectory but also reveals the delicate balance between encouraging innovation and guarding against risks by the French gambling regulatory layer.
The online sector is on the rise, with sports betting leading the growth
The three core categories of online gambling all recorded positive growth in 2025, with sports betting taking the lead. Sports betting contributed a gross income of 1.766 billion euros for the year, a year-on-year increase of 10.4%, with betting amounts growing by 12% to 11.517 billion euros, accounting for about 68% of the total online gambling revenue, a full 6 percentage points higher than two years ago. Football and tennis were the two main drivers of betting amount growth, contributing 49% and 30% of the increase, respectively. The number of active sports betting accounts reached 5.3 million, up 7.9% year-on-year, and the number of independent players reached 3.6 million, an increase of 8.6%.
Although horse racing betting grew at a relatively moderate pace, its gross income still increased by 2.4% to 326 million euros, with active accounts and independent players growing by 8.1% and 8.4%, respectively, reaching 718,000 and 604,000. The poker sector also performed notably, with revenue increasing by 6.5% to 525 million euros, driven entirely by tournament play, with the number of active accounts surging by 16.5% to 2.5 million, and the number of independent players growing by 15.1% to 1.9 million. More notably, the structural change in player behavior: the number of cross-category players increased by 25% year-on-year, indicating that users are moving from single-category play to diversified betting habits. The total number of online independent players grew by 7.5% to 4.2 million, and the number of active accounts grew by 7.1% to 6.1 million.
The physical sector shows mixed results, with FDJ holding half of the market
Beyond online, the performance of physical gambling showed a clear differentiation. The joint annual gross income of the French state lottery and retail sports betting monopoly operator FDJ reached 6.95 billion euros, up 2.8% year-on-year, holding a 49.2% market share. Among them, the French domestic lottery business was the main growth engine, while its online business in the UK and the Netherlands shrank by 8%.
The physical casino sector also showed signs of recovery, with annual gross income increasing by 3.4% to 2.816 billion euros, and the number of entries growing by 2% to 31.6 million. Slot machines remain the absolute cash cow of the casino, contributing about 82% of the casino's gross income, while traditional table games and poker/blackjack sectors remained stable. Group operations dominate this field, with about 93% of casino revenue concentrated in large groups.
However, not all traditional sectors could share the growth dividend. The situation for horse betting operator PMU was particularly difficult, with betting amounts declining by 3.3% to 6.4 billion euros, gross income shrinking by 2.8% to 1.65 billion euros, and the number of players plummeting from 3.5 million to 3.3 million within a year, a drop of 5.7%. This ongoing slowdown reflects the deep-seated difficulties of traditional offline betting modes in the wave of digital transformation.
The JONUM policy takes effect, monetizable digital games brought under regulation
The biggest variable in the French gambling regulatory landscape in 2025 came from the official implementation of a brand-new regulatory framework called JONUM. JONUM, short for "Monetizable Digital Object Games," is a unique legal category created by the "Digital Space Safety and Regulation Act" passed in France in May 2024, aimed at regulating products that straddle the gray area between traditional video games and regulated gambling—typically allowing players to acquire NFTs or blockchain digital assets, and these assets can be traded on secondary markets.
This framework operates as a three-year pilot, explicitly prohibiting JONUM games from distributing prizes in cash form, while setting a cap on the total value of digital assets a single player can accumulate. Minors are strictly excluded from participation, operators must complete age and identity verification at the account creation stage, and equip responsible gambling tools such as gaming time limits, spending limits, and self-exclusion. Any operator wishing to launch JONUM products in France must submit a declaration to the French National Gambling Authority and maintain detailed activity logs for reporting, involving blockchain or wallets must also grant regulatory authorities access to track fund flows to meet anti-money laundering and compliance monitoring requirements.
PASA's official website continues to track global gambling regulatory innovations, noting that France's JONUM framework is the first attempt in Europe to establish a dedicated regulatory channel for blockchain gambling mechanisms. Unlike Belgium, which directly classifies loot box mechanisms as gambling, and the UK, which chooses to exclude loot boxes from the "Gambling Act" and encourages industry self-regulation, France has chosen a "third path"—neither incorporating it into the traditional gambling license system nor letting it run its course, but rather creating an independent experimental regulatory space. The underlying logic of this approach is to recognize that the economic attributes of Web3 games have substantively intersected with traditional gambling, and instead of applying old laws to new business forms, it is better to pilot within a controllable range first.
Concerns about problem gambling and regulatory warnings on the eve of the World Cup
The other side of growth is the expansion of risk exposure. Estimates by the French Center for Drug and Addiction Monitoring in 2024 show that approximately 1.17 million people in the country exhibit problem gambling behavior, with about 360,000 classified as excessive players. The French National Gambling Authority specifically warns in the report that the continued rise in participation in the online sector may further exacerbate the exposure risks associated with gambling-related harms, and emphasizes that operators must strengthen their monitoring capabilities and the effectiveness of intervention tools for risky behaviors.
What makes the regulatory layer more vigilant is a study conducted by PwC commissioned by the French Online Gaming Association, showing that in 2025, about 5.4 million French players participated in activities on illegal gambling websites, exceeding the 3.5 million independent players in the legal market, and growing by 35% within two years. The total gross gambling revenue of the illegal gambling market is estimated to reach 2 billion euros, up 25% from 2023. These illegal platforms acquire customers on a large scale through social media advertising, internet celebrity endorsements, and sports sponsorships, with over 80% of illegal gambling players unaware that the websites they use are illegal. Falque-Pierrotin, chair of the French National Gambling Authority, issued a clear warning in the report: "2026 is becoming a decisive year for the entire gambling market. In the tense backdrop of continuously emerging new forms of gambling, it is necessary to continue promoting the transition to low-intensity gambling models and propose adjustments to the current regulatory framework to reduce the perceived risks of gambling activities." Facing the 2026 World Cup, a major event window, French gambling regulation stands at the crossroads of encouraging market vitality and building a protective net.
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This article is from "PASA-Global iGaming Leaders," a gambling industry news channel: https://t.me/pasa_news
Original in-depth gambling channel: https://t.me/gamblingdeep
Free data reports: @pasa_research
PASA Matrix: @pasa002_bot
PASA official website: https://www.pasa.news
