France, the Netherlands and Belgium each announced distinct gambling oversight measures in the same week, reinforcing a pattern of regulatory tightening across core EU markets.
The three developments span different policy priorities: France is creating a new regulatory category for blockchain-based gaming products, the Netherlands is taking direct enforcement action against an unlicensed prediction market, and Belgium is raising baseline standards for licensed operators on player protection. Taken together, they point to regulators moving beyond licensing administration and into active market shaping.
France formalises the JONUM framework
France’s gambling regulator, the Autorité Nationale des Jeux (ANJ), has operationalised its regulatory framework for games with monetisable digital objects, known by the acronym JONUM (Jeux à Objets Numériques Monétisables). Decree no. 2026-60, published on 4 February 2026, entered into force on 7 February.
The framework covers online games that combine a financial stake, an element of chance, and the award of digital objects that can be transferred or resold — including NFTs and other blockchain-linked items. JONUM products are treated as a distinct category separate from licensed gambling: they cannot offer cash prizes, but their digital rewards can hold real monetary value on secondary markets.
Operators wishing to offer JONUM products to French users must declare in advance to the ANJ before launching. The declaration must cover details of the legal entity, the game offer, marketing approach and the technologies used, including any blockchain infrastructure or wallet systems, which must provide the ANJ with tracking access for AML monitoring. Only companies with registered offices in EU or EEA member states with which France holds a tax assistance agreement are eligible to operate.
The framework imposes per-player annual reward caps. Non-monetary digital rewards are limited to €1,000 per player per year. For cryptocurrency-denominated rewards, the ceiling is €25,000 per player, with total crypto rewards across all players capped at 20% of the game’s annual revenue. Minors are excluded from participation, and operators must implement age and identity verification at account creation.
The regime runs on a three-year experimental basis, with the ANJ retaining authority to inspect compliance, adjust requirements and impose sanctions. Penalties for operating an illegal JONUM without declaration include up to three years’ imprisonment and a €90,000 fine, with financial penalties of up to 5% of turnover available in addition.
“Any legal entity intending to offer the public a game with monetizable digital items must declare it in advance to the National Gaming Authority and provide the required information regarding the legal entity, the game offer and its marketing, and the technologies used.” — Article 6, Decree no. 2026-60
France is the first major EU market to create a purpose-built legal category for monetisable digital object games rather than applying existing gambling law to them by analogy. The framework is widely understood to have been shaped in part by the profile of Sorare, the French fantasy football platform that allows users to buy, sell and trade NFT player cards. The ANJ held an information session for Web3 companies on 19 February and has committed to publishing a public list of declared JONUM offers.
KSA orders Polymarket to cease Dutch operations
The Dutch gambling regulator, the Kansspelautoriteit (KSA), has ordered prediction market platform Polymarket to stop making its services available to users in the Netherlands. The platform was accessible without the required licence under the Wet op de kansspelen (Betting and Gaming Act), and the KSA has warned that substantial financial penalties could follow if the operator fails to comply.
The action is consistent with the KSA’s ongoing enforcement posture against offshore and unlicensed platforms. As the regulator has noted repeatedly, channelisation in the Dutch market has been under pressure, with licensed operators competing against platforms that face no equivalent compliance costs. The KSA has pursued multiple enforcement actions against operators testing the market’s boundaries, including AML compliance notices against licensed operators as well as takedown orders directed at offshore services.
Polymarket, which operates as a decentralised prediction market platform based on blockchain infrastructure, has faced regulatory pressure across several jurisdictions. The KSA order adds the Netherlands to that list and signals that the regulator views prediction market platforms as subject to existing licensing requirements where Dutch users are targeted.
Belgium renews Duty of Care charter
In Belgium, the Belgian Association of Online Gambling (BAGO) has renewed and expanded the sector’s Duty of Care charter, with five licensed operators — Ardent, BetFirst, Golden Palace, Napoleon and Star Casino — signing unified commitments on player protection standards.
The renewed charter moves player monitoring from a compliance obligation to a structural operational requirement. Operators are expected to enhance behavioural tracking, implement earlier intervention protocols and maintain clear escalation procedures with trained staff. A central aim is to establish a common minimum protection baseline across the licensed market, reducing the risk of standard differences between operators that could allow higher-risk players to move between platforms without consistent safeguards applying.
BAGO has framed the initiative in part as a channelisation argument. Players who migrate to unlicensed operators lose access to all monitoring and intervention mechanisms. The association has argued that a credible, well-regulated licensed environment is the most effective tool for reducing exposure to offshore platforms that carry no equivalent obligations.
Belgium already operates one of Europe’s stricter gambling environments, including a €200 weekly cap on online gambling accounts and near-total restrictions on gambling advertising. The Duty of Care charter adds a layer of voluntary collective commitment above the existing regulatory floor. European regulators have increasingly focused on proactive harm prevention rather than licensing infrastructure alone, and Belgium’s approach positions its licensed operators as part of that shift.
The broader pattern
The simultaneous announcements from three markets are independent developments rather than a coordinated initiative, but the direction they reflect is consistent. Regulators are closing definitional gaps, pursuing unlicensed platforms more directly, and raising the standard of what compliant operators are expected to do on player protection.
For operators active across multiple European jurisdictions, the cumulative compliance load is rising. Product design, platform access, harm prevention and enforcement exposure all require active management. The ANJ’s JONUM framework in particular introduces obligations for a product category that has until now largely operated in a regulatory grey area across the EU.
Source: ANJ (Autorité Nationale des Jeux), Kansspelautoriteit (KSA), Belgian Association of Online Gambling (BAGO)
