ANJ partners with Unaf to provide gambling addiction support

France
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France’s national gaming authority, Autorité Nationale des Jeux, has agreed to a partnership with Unaf, the National Union of Family Associations.

The collaboration between ANJ and Unaf strengthens their shared goal of preventing excessive gambling and protecting minors. It is also a follow-up on their previous partnerships in 2020 and 2023.

The ANJ’s 2024-2026 strategic plan has a priority objective of reducing excessive gambling and effectively protecting gamblers via training and prevention actions, which aligns with Unaf’s campaign to support families where gambling has affected minors, caused addiction consequences such as financial, as well as impacted family budget and vulnerable populations.

Through the partnership, the focus will be on developing tools for professionals who support vulnerable groups, prioritising budgetary support systems and providing resources to these groups.

They will be structured around different areas of intervention, including: 

  • Studies and the publication of awareness-raising materials
  • Development of tools to support families and professionals supporting users in the prevention of underage gambling and the management of addiction to gambling and games of chance
  • Designing and intervention in training programs for professionals or volunteers

In 2024, the ANJ and Unaf will act on designing awareness-raising materials for budget support professionals and the audiences they support.

Back in January, the ANJ published its 2024-2026 strategic plan to tackle several objectives in the country’s gambling market, including problem gambling, calling on support from all industry stakeholders.

The authority noted at the time that operators have made substantial progress when it comes to player protection in the past three years since the authority was established, but more work must be done. 

The strategic plan is broken down into three pillars to improve regulation and preserve the sector’s transparency and integrity.

These three pillars are: drastically reducing the share and number of excessive gamblers within the gambling market; fighting against illegal gambling; and strengthening the economic dimension of regulation to better understand market balances and provide solutions.