How can minors be better protected against the temptation of gambling? The National Gaming Authority (ANJ) unveiled, on Wednesday February 23, an action plan aimed at preventing excessive gambling among the youngest, by regulating advertising practices by “Guidelines” and “recommendations”. The ANJ undertook to better supervise these practices in the light of a “strong and unprecedented advertising pressure from betting operators which accelerated in 2021”reminded AFP of its president Isabelle Falque-Pierrotin.
Six months later, following an online consultation that brought together gambling operators, advertisers, health professionals, care associations, sports federations, the educational community and the general public, the authority wanted to define clear rules , will be “fully operational” in September, before the next football World Cup.
The “Guidelines” unveiled on Wednesday, which interpret the decree of November 4, 2020 on commercial communications related to gambling, are “flexible legal tools” suitable for a “very fragmented digital environment”. “We will have a monitoring committee: if it doesn’t work, we will always have the legislative and regulatory response: but that would be a shame for the operators themselves”believes the president of the ANJ.
Thus, advertising is prohibited when “it encourages excessive gambling”the “trivializes” or the “enhances”according to the decree: for the ANJ, this prohibits “scenes of excitement or emotion of disproportionate intensity” or who equate the game with a “feat”bringing the player closer to“an extreme sportsman”.
Likewise, she cannot “to suggest that gambling contributes to social success”says the regulations, so the game cannot be associated with the “financial success”to “sentimental or sexual success”, “to the admiration of third parties”, completes the ANJ. The “outward signs of wealth”the “luxury products” such as “sports cars, dream villas”, “travel by private jet or yacht”will be prohibited.
Nor should advertising for gambling present it as an alternative to paid work, nor as a “solution to personal difficulties”that is to say, “an escape to support a breakup, an illness” or compensate for “repetitive and low-paying work”.
As it cannot target children or teenagers, advertising will not use activities or cultural works popular with them. The ANJ also makes recommendations aimed at reducing advertising pressure: for television and radio, it recommends a maximum of three communications per advertising break, all operators combined.
For websites and social networks, it also recommends a limit of “three commercial communications per day and per medium” and wants a “ad moderator”allowing the player to choose “the number, frequency and type of notifications” that will be sent to him, or set up on the applications or sites of gaming operators.