France’s gambling regulator, L’Autorité Nationale Des Jeux (ANJ), announced the removal of a significant number of offerings from its “Liste Sport.” The list, which contains all sports betting offerings authorized by the authority, has now been reduced to 772 entries.

The ANJ said that it reviewed its list in December, following extensive market research. According to the regulator, the removal of several dozen competitions will help to prevent the manipulation of results in professional sports.

The Liste Sport’s objective is to provide a comprehensive list of all authorized offerings in France, as well as to prevent match-fixing, limit bets on certain competitions and prohibit knowledge-based bets.

The ANJ emphasized that it needed to actualize this list since it was last modified in 2010. The authority explained that the Liste Sport was no longer clear and coherent enough, prompting the review. In addition, some competitions no longer exist, the ANJ pointed out. Some, such as the Tunisian soccer league carry an increased risk of match manipulation. Others, such as the Armenian soccer championship, no longer respond to ANJ’s criteria.

In total, 179 competitions have been removed from the list, bringing it to 772 entries.

The New List Is Clearer and More Concise

The ANJ added that only the final of the First Division (March Madness) of the NCAA will be an authorized offering going forward because of its attractiveness. However, the ANJ still opted to introduce NCAA-related restrictions because of the increased dangers of match-fixing related to the league.

However, the ANJ added that it has also lifted a number of restrictions that no longer seem justified. A major change, for example, is that basketball bets can now be placed on the number of points scored by players, even if this score is less than 20. The handicap bet ban in tennis is also being removed.

The ANJ explained that the review of its Liste Sport seeks to make it easier for operators to comply with the local regulations. The new version is clearer, removing unnecessarily complex wording and placing types of bets in broader categories.

To conclude, the French regulator said that the general principles of the list have not been affected by the aforementioned changes. Authorized bets must always relate to sporting stakes, while bets on negative actions remain prohibited. In addition, bets must always be executed as per the first announcement of results by the event organizer.

The new sporting list will come into force from March 1, 2024.

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Part of this effort has been the establishment of an accessible self-exclusion program that allows residents who struggle with controlling their gambling habits to filter gambling content and websites online and restrict their access to land-based properties.

More Than a Decade of Being There for Players

During a meeting of the state’s regulator, the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board, this Wednesday, the watchdog announced that it has now entered the 20,000^th voluntary request for enrollment in the Casino Self-Exclusion Program. This comes at a time when places such as Washington D.C. have decided to all but nix funding for problem gambling.

PGCB director of the Office of Compulsive and Problem Gambling Elizabeth Lanza hailed the milestone and said that it demonstrated the program’s success. She explained that such programs made it possible for players to regain control over their lives and that ultimately, a self-exclusion list was an effective tool in addressing the problem. Lanza added:

The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board encourages anyone who thinks they may have a gambling problem to seek treatment and consider taking advantage of the voluntary Self-Exclusion Programs.

PGCB’s Elizabeth Lanza

The self-exclusion program has been around for a long time now, launching in 2006 originally, but mostly being slow going over the years. It was significantly expanded in 2019 when Pennsylvania adopted legislation allowing the arrival of online gambling, with the program also covering fantasy sports and video gaming terminals to offer more comprehensive and robust protection. Such expansions have been tied to higher rates of problem gambling.

The program puts the onus on establishments to refuse to accept bets from people who have registered with the program. Furthermore, self-excluded individuals may face criminal trespass charges if they try to access gambling products on the premises of a licensed venue in the Keystone State.

In terms of who enrols in the program, the PGCB provided a detailed breakdown of this information as well, arguing that there were 12,811 men enrolled, along with 7,189 women. Men still seem to be more likely to fall into bad habits with gambling, but the number of women who suffer from similar issues has been steadily growing, indicating that more needs to be done to help protect that particular cohort.

The program also saw 1,026 entries of people who quit the program but returned later on. Effective as these tools can be, addressing problem gambling requires a more comprehensive approach that includes treatment and awareness.

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