Pauline Hot imposes strong regulation for 2026

Tougher rules in the run-up to the World Cup, financial warfare against the black market, French market under close surveillance. In an interview with Les Enjeux, Pauline Hot set out the ANJ’s roadmap for 2026.

The days of pedagogy seem to be over. If Isabelle Falque-Pierrotin’s mandate was that of institutional construction of the ANJ from the ashes of the ARJEL, the Pauline Hot era promises to be one of technical and coercive anchoring. Appointed in the summer of 2025, the new Director General makes no secret of her ambitions. She wants to make French regulation a model of balance, which she theorises under the concept of ‘barycentre’.

In an interview with Les Enjeux, the woman who cut her teeth at the Conseil d’Etat outlines the contours of a French market under intense scrutiny. She confirms a tougher stance towards operators in the run-up to the World Cup and dashes hopes of a relaxation of the Rate of Return to Players (RTP), while promising a real financial war against the black market.

The ‘Whistle to Whistle ban’: the threat looms over the 2026 World Cup

This is the announcement that is likely to send shivers down the spines of sports betting operators’ marketing departments. After the saturation of advertising for Euro 2021, the ANJ is preparing the ground for the 2026 World Cup with even greater severity.

Pauline Hot has put forward a radical proposal: the ‘whistle to whistle ban’. Isabelle Falque-Pierrotin, former President of the ANJ, had already mentioned this measure in our exclusive interview.

In practical terms, this would mean banning all advertising for sports betting from 5 minutes before kick-off until 5 minutes after the final whistle. This measure, if adopted by the legislature on the recommendation of the ANJ, would take the wind out of the sails of live betting strategies.

The authority does not stop there and also targets :

• Strict control over the naming of competitions.
• The introduction of compulsory loss limiters for 18-25 year olds.
• Increased monitoring of promotional strategies, which will now be validated or rejected by the ANJ’s college.

TRJ and taxation: operators turn a deaf ear

 Operators were hoping for a sympathetic ear on the question of capping the RTP at 85%, often criticised as a brake on competitiveness against the grey market. Pauline Hot’s response was scathing: the subject is not on the agenda.

‘The basis of this rule is player protection, and it is not on the agenda to call it into question’.

She also dismisses the argument that the cap would prevent new entrants, citing the recent approval of a new player at the end of 2025. The ANJ acknowledges the complexity of the French tax system, but puts the ball back in Bercy’s court, stressing that the market remains attractive despite these constraints.

JONUM and Web3: the regulator’s impatience

While France is trying to position itself as a hub for Web3, with unicorns such as Sorare, legal uncertainty persists. Pauline Hot is pointing the finger at the delay in the decrees implementing the JONUM law (Games with Monetisable Digital Objects).

The ANJ says it is ready to receive the first declarations and to support players’ compliance, but the ecosystem is undermined by the wait. This pragmatic stance contrasts with the firm stance taken on prediction markets.

 For Pauline Hot, players such as Polymarket are purely and simply illegal. The geo-blocking recently introduced by the platform is welcomed, but the ANJ remains alert to the risks of money laundering associated with crypto-assets.

War on illegality: the wallet attack

It is perhaps in the fight against illegal supply that the most notable developments have taken place. While administrative blocking orders (DNS) have increased tenfold since 2022, their technical effectiveness remains relative in the face of VPNs and mirror sites.

The ANJ is therefore changing gear and is now targeting financial flows.

Pauline Hot talks of a desire to ‘hit the wallet’ by directly blocking bank transactions to unlicensed operators. This strategy would require greater cooperation with payment service providers and legislative changes to enable real-time action, inspired by the strictest regulatory models in Europe.

GAFAM and Advertising: The myth of self-regulation

While Pauline Hot welcomes the opening of dedicated channels with the digital giants (Google, Meta, TikTok), she points to the structural limits of the current system. Collaboration today is more akin to efficient after-sales service than to genuine preventive moderation. The ANJ finds itself obliged to act as a watchdog, manually reporting advertisements for illegal casinos or betting scams, which the platforms then remove with some diligence.

The problem lies in the question of proactivity. In passing the quid to the Digital Services Act (DSA), the Director General highlights a major shortcoming: platforms still too often operate on the basis of ex-post removal after distribution rather than filtering beforehand.

For the French regulator, the burden of proof and surveillance therefore rests almost exclusively on its own teams, a makeshift approach in the face of the algorithmic firepower of the illegal operators flooding the social networks.

Market concentration: post-merger vigilance

The year 2025 saw the birth of giants with FDJ United (following the Kindred/Unibet takeover) and Banijay Gaming. While Pauline Hot applauds the ability of French players to project themselves internationally, she warns that the ANJ will be keeping a close eye on these behemoths to ensure that they do not unbalance the market to the detriment of player protection.

Growth in the sector, while real, is not an objective in itself for the regulator.

‘The major challenge remains that this growth should not be driven by the intensification of gambling.’

Pauline Hot’s interview with Les Enjeux confirms that 2026 will not be a year of transition, but one of confrontation and structuring. Between the pressure on GAFAM to remove illegal advertising and the tightening of the screws ahead of the World Cup, the ANJ intends to prove that it is one of the most active and toughest regulators in Europe.