Consumer protection in licensed online gambling markets in France: the role of responsible gambling tools

Background: French online gambling markets were opened to licenced providers in May 2010. Under the new legislation and overseen by a state authority, licenced operators must comply to consumer protection measures. This paper presents and empirical analysis on the conformity of French operators to the requirements and the potential effect of these measures based on existing research.Method: Currently, 18 gambling websites operate in the French market. The data were collected by creating a player account on these sites, and taking note of the responsible gambling tools they proposed. The data were analysed thematically.Results: Results show that all licenced websites conform to the legal obligations that include verifying players' identity, displaying a warning banner on the risks of gambling, informing about a possibility to self-exclude, providing a limit-setting tool and providing information on players' account history. Most sites also provide additional tools, such as information on problem gambling or responsible gambling software such as Playscan. However, the proposed tools also have some shortcomings related to difficulties in using or in finding them, ineffectiveness because they are not mandatory, and their emphasis on player responsibility.Conclusions: The French law promotes consumer protection in online environments, but it leaves room for improvement. Governmentally imposed restrictions are systematically implemented, but levels of problem gambling have not declined. The paper suggests improving the implemented responsible gambling tools by increasing provider responsibility, making all tools mandatory and binding, active promotion of available responsible gambling features, and removing scientifically inaccurate information on problem gambling.