A cap without a number yet
France’s National Assembly has approved amendments to the Professional Sports Bill that create an age-specific loss limit for online betting customers aged 18 to 25. The exact threshold isn’t set: lawmakers left the figure to secondary regulation, to be issued by the government after consultation with the Autorité Nationale des Jeux (ANJ).
That leaves operators without a compliance number for now. The amendment establishes the mechanism, not the euro amount, and the government will define it later by decree. ANJ research cited in support of the measure found that two-thirds of under-25s in France have wagered on sports, a figure lawmakers used to justify targeting the age band specifically rather than all adult bettors. The timing is not incidental: the measure is being positioned as a response to youth risk ahead of the 2026 World Cup, when sports betting volumes typically spike.
Wider reform beyond betting
The loss-limit amendment sits inside a broader bill aimed at professional sport oversight. The legislation also modernises league governance, tightens financial controls and introduces new rules for professional football clubs. A parallel section targets audiovisual piracy, which lawmakers frame as a threat to the same commercial structure that funds domestic sport.
The piracy numbers are large. The Association for the Protection of Sports Programmes says 59% of France’s estimated 9.9 million football fans have watched matches through pirated platforms, and that roughly one in five supporters follows Ligue 1 without an active subscription to Ligue 1+ or beIN Sports. Lawmakers are citing that gap to justify stronger enforcement powers, arguing it undermines the media-rights revenue that keeps French clubs financially stable.
France joins a short list of markets with youth loss limits
If the bill completes its parliamentary passage, France becomes the second regulated European gambling market to adopt mandatory youth-specific loss limits, after the Netherlands. The Dutch regulator, the Kansspelautoriteit (KSA), caps monthly net deposits at €300 for players aged 18 to 24, against €700 for players 24 and older, with a default loss limit of €150 for the younger group unless a customer actively requests a higher one. Norway also applies compulsory loss limits to all bettors, but through a state monopoly rather than a competitive licensing market, which makes it a different regulatory model from France’s. The move sits alongside a broader wave of European regulators reworking national gambling rules, including Greece’s consultation on a gambling reform bill targeting the black market and a separate EU-level push to harmonise gambling taxation.
France’s proposal is also broader than the UK’s approach. The UK Gambling Commission’s £2 maximum stake for online slots played by customers aged 18 to 24 took effect on 21 May 2025, but it caps a single stake on one product. France’s loss limit would cap cumulative losses across online betting, a wider and potentially more restrictive control once the government sets the figure.
The ANJ itself is mid-transition. Pascal Chèvremont was formally appointed president by decree on 22 June, succeeding Isabelle Falque-Pierrotin at the end of her non-renewable six-year mandate. Chèvremont, a former Treasury official who has overseen state betting operator Française des Jeux since 2020, told a National Assembly committee he intends to tighten state oversight of betting and intensify action against illegal operators. He will now oversee the loss-limit framework alongside future advertising controls and the ANJ’s ongoing work on a potential regulated iCasino market.
What happens next
The loss-limit amendment still needs to clear the rest of the bill’s parliamentary passage, including a Senate reading, before it becomes law, and even then, the actual euro threshold won’t exist until the government issues the decree following ANJ consultation. Operators serving the French market will be watching that number closely: it will decide how much of the 18-25 segment’s current betting activity survives the new rule, and how quickly compliance systems need to change once it lands.
Source: French National Assembly
