Online Gambling France: Is Online Casino Legal in France?

Yes. Gambling in France is legal and long established: more than 200 land-based casinos, a state lottery, and legal online sports betting, horse-race betting and poker. 

The catch is that online casino games, the slots and virtual tables that dominate the rest of Europe, sit outside that framework. So "gambling is legal in France" and "online casino is illegal in France" are both true at once.

Let's explain the nuance and dive into the fine detail.

The line is set by the ANJ, the single regulator created in 2020 (absorbing the old online watchdog ARJEL), under the 2010 French Gambling Act (Loi 2010-476 of 12 May 2010).

Online sports betting is fully legal and is the biggest legal online product in France. Online casino simply has no licence to exist.

When Parliament passed the 2010 Act it opened only sports betting, horse-race betting and poker. As the Conseil constitutionnel put it when it upheld the law, the legislator "chose not to open access to approved operators to games of chance," adding that lawmakers acted "with a view to limiting gambling and combating the risks of addiction and fraud." 

Poker made the cut because it is treated as a game where skill shapes results over time. Slots, roulette and blackjack are pure games of chance, viewed as more addictive with no skill element. Excluding them also protected land-based casinos' monopoly on those games and fit France's long tradition of "prohibition, exclusivity, exception."

France is a top-five European market. Per the ANJ 2025 annual report:

Online is now 18.5% of the market (up from 12.8% in 2019), with FDJ (Francaise des Jeux) holding an exclusive monopoly on the lottery and retail betting and close to half the total. On land, France runs Europe's biggest casino network, more than 200 venues, led by Groupe Partouche and Groupe Barriere (whose Enghien-les-Bains is the largest French casino). 

The third force, JOA Groupe (33 casinos, ~EUR 430m revenue), was agreed for sale to Betclic owner Banijay Gaming in July 2026.

Not yet, and not for want of money on the table. France's illegal online-casino market is already worth around EUR 2bn in gross gaming revenue with about 4m players, about the size of the entire legal online market, per a study by Asteres for the online-operators body AFJEL. That is the prize, and the fight:

Michel Barnier's government put legalisation into the autumn 2024 budget and the ANJ was due to open working groups in January 2025. The measure was pulled amid fierce opposition led by Casinos de France, whose chairman, Groupe Barriere CEO Gregory Rabuel, called a legal online market a "death warrant" for land-based casinos. Barnier's government then collapsed in December 2024, FDJ carries quiet clout, and the 2026 finance act left it untouched while operators absorbed steep July 2025 tax rises (online sports betting to 59.3% of GGR, plus a new 15% ad levy). One compromise floated by land-based operators: a US-style model tethering any online licence to a physical casino.

The direction of travel is not uniform across Europe. Denmark, for instance, has just reopened its land-based casino licensing to new operators, while France keeps its online-casino door shut.

Because France treats Polymarket's real-money event betting as unauthorised gambling. On 16 July 2026 the ANJ ordered internet providers to block the site, ruling that its live, constantly updated odds amount to advertising an illegal gambling offer. 

France had already banned financial transactions to Polymarket in November 2024, but punters kept betting, logging more than 578,000 French visits in a single month. Advertising any unauthorised gambling site is a criminal offence carrying fines up to EUR 100,000, and France now joins Germany, Italy and Spain in restricting prediction markets. 

It fits a wider crackdown: a PwC study for the ANJ estimated three to four million people in France gamble on illegal sites, with online casinos the most popular illegal product, and the regulator ordered 1,290 URL blocks in 2025 alone.

No. Crypto casinos are simply unlicensed online casinos, and therefore illegal, VPN or not. The one crypto-adjacent opening is JONUM (jeux a objets numeriques monetisables), a three-year experimental regime for blockchain and NFT games under Decree 2026-60 of 4 February 2026, overseen by the ANJ, not a route to legal crypto casino play. 

The illegal-casino problem runs close to home, too: a Le Monde investigation (4 February 2026) reported that an FDJ subsidiary, through B2B supplier Relax Gaming (acquired with Kindred), had obtained a licence from Anjouan in the Comoros, where gambling is itself prohibited. FDJ said Relax operates solely as a business-to-business provider.

VPNs are legal in France, and about a third of illegal gamblers use one to reach blocked sites, but a VPN changes nothing about the law: reaching an unlicensed casino stays illegal, with no consumer protection, no ombudsman and no recourse through the ANJ. Offshore sites lean on crypto wallets, e-wallets and cards processed abroad, and on software from low-oversight licences, none of it carrying the safeguards of a licensed French account.

Online sports betting, horse-race betting and poker are the three verticals you can legally play, through an ANJ-licensed operator such as FDJ/ParionsSport, Betclic, Winamax, Unibet, PMU or bet365 (licensed since May 2026). 

Before you can deposit, French law requires full identity checks. The ANJ says operators must carry out verification of players' identity, their age and address, and identification of the payment account into which winnings are paid, and must screen every new account against the national gambling-ban register. In practice that means real-name (a passport or ID card, proof of address and a payment method) completed before your first bet, and a minimum age of 18.

Accounts are geolocated to France, so you generally need to be physically in the country to bet with a French licence.

Bonuses exist but are modest by UK bonus standards. 

Welcome offers, free bets and deposit bonuses are legal, but since October 2022 the ANJ's guidelines on financial incentives force operators to spell out the real terms (wagering conditions, whether a reward is withdrawable cash or locked game credit, duration and opt-out) and to exclude self-excluded and at-risk players. 

Tighter still, in 2026 the regulator for the first time capped operators' total promotional budgets, telling them "not to exceed the overall budget they announced" for the year. So expect smaller, plainer bonuses than in the UK or Malta-licensed markets, and no online casino welcome package at all.

Land-based casinos are the legal, in-person alternative, and they are busy: 31.6m visits in 2025 at an average spend of EUR 88.30 a head, with slot machines (machines a sous) generating more than 80% of casino revenue. The ANJ's first in-depth study of French casino players (by Verian, March 2025) paints two very different crowds: by day, a convivial, largely senior, female and retired clientele of regulars playing slots alone and valuing the social side and non-gaming perks like a free lunch; at weekends and evenings, a mostly younger crowd. The study also flags that 18-to-24s, 24% of players surveyed, make up 38% of high-risk gamblers.

If you are visiting, the practicalities are strict and standardised:

Both big groups run free loyalty clubs worth joining for a longer stay: Groupe Barriere's Le Carre VIP (points on spend, a EUR 5 welcome, 10% off group restaurants and show tickets, faster entry) and Groupe Partouche's Players Plus (points on play, visits and dining, a gift catalogue, and after 24 hours a card that lets you skip the systematic ID check). The rewards lean toward hospitality, dining, shows, hotel stays, rather than the cashback and bet-back deals online players know.

Horse-race betting is one of the three legal online verticals, and French racing is world class, so a punter in the UK, US or Canada can bet France's biggest races through their own licensed operators and tote pools (France Galop):

The Arc is one of the three great races of world flat racing, alongside the Epsom Derby and the Japan Cup.

For the industry, France is the biggest online casino market that does not exist: a regulated launch would be one of Europe's most valuable openings, but between land-based opposition, an addiction-wary regulator, high taxes and political churn, 2026 has brought talk and no law. Watch the next budget, the incoming ANJ presidency, and whether the Banijay-JOA deal reshapes how France's most powerful gambling groups lobby.

Is online casino legal in France?
No. Online slots, roulette and blackjack are illegal in France. Only sports betting, horse-race betting and poker are legal online, all licensed by the ANJ.

Is gambling legal in France?
Yes. Land-based casinos, the lottery and legal online sports betting, horse-race betting and poker are all permitted. Online casino gaming is the main exception.

Can a tourist bet online in France?
Yes, on sports, horse racing or poker with an ANJ-licensed operator, but you must pass identity, age and address checks (KYC) before your first bet, be 18 or over, and be in France, as accounts are geolocated.

Are betting bonuses legal in France?
Yes, but they are tightly regulated. Since 2022 the ANJ forces full transparency on terms and, from 2026, caps operators' total promotional spend, so bonuses are smaller than in the UK. There are no online-casino bonuses because online casino is illegal.

Do I need ID to enter a French casino?
Yes. A valid passport or national ID is checked at the entrance to the gaming floor every time. Under-18s cannot enter, even accompanied.

Why did France block Polymarket?
The ANJ ruled its real-money event betting an unauthorised gambling offer and its live odds a form of advertising, and ordered internet providers to block it on 16 July 2026.

Will France legalise online casino?
Not in 2026. A 2024 legalisation push was pulled after land-based-casino opposition, and no law has followed.