France's National Sanctions Commission has fined a licensed online sports betting operator €20,000 ($23,500) and imposed a two-month suspended operating ban after finding failures relating to anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing controls.
The decision was published anonymously, with the operator identified as "GU".
The case began after the Autorité Nationale des Jeux (ANJ) detected in January 2024 that an individual had opened a player account in December 2023 despite appearing on France's national register of people and entities subject to asset freezes.
The account generated an alert when it was opened, but was subsequently confirmed by the operator.
The operator began an internal investigation after being informed of the ANJ investigation and closed the account the following day. However, the National Sanctions Commission found that its procedures had failed to prevent the account opening and that the Minister of the Economy had not been informed as required.
The Commission rejected a separate allegation concerning customer identification requirements, but upheld breaches relating to internal asset-freezing procedures and reporting obligations. It said the failures were serious despite only one non-compliant transaction being identified, while also taking account of measures subsequently introduced by the operator.
Alongside the operator's €20,000 penalty, a former executive was fined €20,000 and another individual involved in the compliance process received a €5,000 penalty. Both were given two-month suspended bans from managing online gambling activities. Two other individuals were cleared.
The enforcement action represents the first case referred by the ANJ to the National Sanctions Commission. French law requires online gambling operators to implement asset freezes without delay, establish internal procedures for identifying affected customers and inform the Minister of the Economy when a freeze applies.
The case comes as the ANJ increases its scrutiny of AML controls. Its 2026 assessment found that operators had generally strengthened customer identification, internal controls and reporting to Tracfin, while the regulator called for further improvements to alert systems and reporting practices.
In July, the ANJ also adopted revised technical requirements for checks against France's gambling ban register, giving operators until July 2027 to transition to the updated framework as part of its wider focus on player protection and regulatory controls.
The National Sanctions Commission can impose financial penalties of up to €5m for AML-related breaches, or twice the benefit obtained where that amount can be determined
