“These sites are firmly established and demonstrate great creativity” | EUROtoday

It needs to be borne in thoughts that the authorized provide market itself is rising. It is due to this fact not completely inconsistent to look at this enhance additionally in unlawful provide, even when I stay cautious concerning these figures that you simply put ahead, since I would not have the whole file. Illegal websites stay certainly current within the territory, however we’re finishing up more and more in-depth actions which permit us to be increasingly more efficient on this struggle.

In this Afjel examine, we study that 82% of the gamers surveyed have been unaware that on-line casinos constituted an unlawful observe. What prevention actions are you contemplating?

Regarding this determine of 82%, I can’t assure its accuracy. However, in our personal examine carried out in 2023, we had already famous a charge of fifty%. Whether it’s 50 or 82%, it’s sure that gamers don’t all the time know that they’re on an unlawful web site. We additionally see this by reviews from gamers who flip to the Authority pondering that we will intervene on their behalf, earlier than discovering that they have been working on unlawful websites of which they have been utterly unaware.

It is due to this fact essential to proceed consciousness campaigns to make gamers higher conscious of the existence of those unlawful websites. Obviously, these promoting campaigns characterize a major value. We launched one final 12 months and plan to relaunch one subsequent 12 months, finances allowing, with a deal with on-line casinos, that are essentially the most quite a few unlawful websites in the marketplace.

What are the concrete dangers for customers who play on these platforms?

There are a lot of them. First of all, minors can entry these websites as a result of most don’t require identification verification. Then, not all habit phenomena are managed: an addicted participant can spend appreciable sums with out the location limiting his exercise regardless of his habit.

The corollary is a major lack of cash. Sometimes, unlawful websites don’t pay out the winnings received by gamers, which represents a lifeless loss, 100% dropping in some circumstances. Players haven’t any attainable authorized recourse, since these websites are usually not accredited by us and are typically positioned overseas.

There are additionally circumstances of theft of non-public knowledge, set up of malicious packages – we discover all of the traditional frauds linked to web sites. There may be issues with financial institution playing cards: when the participant enters their card quantity on the location, it may be used fraudulently to cost extra funds.

There isn’t any security web. Hence the significance of our struggle: the participant is totally not protected towards these unlawful websites. Furthermore, we additionally wish to defend the accredited market to be able to keep away from any distortion of competitors.

How can a shopper rapidly acknowledge {that a} web site isn’t accredited?

This is certainly one of many difficulties, as a result of some unlawful sports activities betting websites look similar to a traditional authorized operator web site. The distinction lies in the truth that, usually, on the websites of authorized operators, the approval quantity and the ANJ emblem seem. But these parts are very simply falsified, which doesn’t make them an absolute assure of legality. The solely means to make sure that you’re on a authorized web site is to seek the advice of the record of accredited operators on the ANJ web site.

But for on-line casinos, the query doesn’t even come up: by definition, on-line casinos are prohibited in France. There are solely bodily land-based casinos.

Finally, are you optimistic? Do you suppose you have got good levers of motion to proceed to stem this illicit market?

I’m very optimistic. I’ve been coordinating the struggle towards unlawful provide for a number of months and we now have managed to establish new levers. We monitor this unlawful market carefully, we’re very attentive to their creativity and really current. We can all the time estimate that extra assets are wanted, however we’re acquiring outcomes. I’m due to this fact somewhat optimistic about our struggle towards unlawful provide.

That being stated, we additionally need to be real looking: these websites are current in the marketplace and, as you talked about, they display nice creativity and dynamism. But I insist on this level: we now have inside the ANJ a staff devoted to this struggle, really devoted to this mission.

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Kangaroo of the day

How many individuals make up this staff?

There are 4 of us: three investigators and a coordinator.