France has implemented a regulatory structure for games that include monetisable digital objects, introducing a dedicated framework aimed at supervising emerging online formats that combine gaming mechanics, blockchain elements, and tradable virtual assets. Authorities initiated this model under legislation adopted in 2024, with additional decrees taking effect in early February 2026 to make the system operational.
Regulatory Structure and Scope
The framework stems from provisions contained in the Security and Digital Space Regulation law adopted in May 2024. Subsequent regulatory measures that entered into force on February 7, 2026 allow companies to operate games classified as Jeux à Objets Numériques Monétisables. The system will run as a three-year pilot programme designed to monitor how these products function in practice.
Legislation defines these games through several cumulative conditions. Players must commit money or something of financial value. Chance must play a role in gameplay. The activity must occur through online public communication services. Participants obtain digital objects that can carry monetary value, such as blockchain-based tokens or non-fungible tokens that may later circulate on secondary markets.
The model distinguishes these activities from traditional licensed gambling. Developers may provide digital assets and certain additional rewards, though authorities set limits on the value and nature of those benefits. Cash prizes equivalent to standard gambling winnings remain excluded under the rules.
Officials designed the framework as a compromise between market openness and consumer safeguards. Compared with gambling regulation, the system applies lighter obligations, while still maintaining oversight mechanisms that address financial flows, transparency requirements, and market monitoring.
Player Protection Measures and European Context
Consumer protection forms a central part of the regime. Operators must confirm player identity and age at account creation. Minors cannot participate. Platforms must also introduce controls commonly seen in gambling environments, including options for players to limit playing time, set spending caps, or request self-exclusion.
Companies planning to offer these games in France must submit declarations before launch. Regulators require regular reporting, access to operational data, and visibility over blockchain transactions where digital wallets form part of the system. Authorities intend these measures to support anti-money laundering monitoring and general compliance oversight.
The initiative places France among the first European jurisdictions to design specific regulation for blockchain-based gaming mechanics instead of applying traditional gambling law without modification. Other European markets have handled related features differently.
Belgian authorities previously concluded that certain paid loot boxes breached national gambling legislation, prompting some publishers to remove these elements. Dutch regulators have examined similar mechanics under existing gambling rules and encouraged adjustments when systems resembled games of chance. In the United Kingdom, regulators decided that most loot boxes fall outside formal gambling definitions because players generally cannot convert virtual items directly into real-world money, although government bodies encouraged industry safeguards to protect younger players.
The French approach seeks to separate blockchain-enabled gaming formats from conventional betting while still maintaining safeguards comparable to those imposed on licensed gambling operators. The pilot programme will allow authorities to assess how monetisable digital object games evolve and whether further legislative adjustments become necessary as the sector develops.
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