Some players can really become addicted to gambling and this addiction can cause them great harm. In certain cases, it can place them in disastrous situations both in their personal life ( divorce, debts…) and in their professional life ( loss of employment). So that this category of people can avoid these problems and find themselves marginalised, it is possible for them to have themselves prevented from gambling in French land based casinos, gaming circles as well as on online gaming sites that have a licence from the Authority for the Regulation of Online Gaming (Arjel). Only the person who wishes to be barred from gambling can take this step which is simple and confidential. He just has to send a letter to the Interior Ministry. The ban lasts for 3 years minimum but can be extended beyond that if the banned person does not ask for the ban to be lifted.Operators of French land based casinos, of gaming circles and of internet gambling sites ( online poker, horse racing and sports betting) are obliged to check if the players who visit their establishments are in the national barred from gambling file. According to a study based on last year and published by the Arjel, online gaming operators approved by the Arjel who number twenty, consulted this file just under 530 million times. Among those barred from gambling, 9.6% tried in spite of everything to log on to one of these sites in 2012.
The number of people banned from gambling continues to rise and has now reached 35 000 people which is causing the public authorities concern and this even more so since this number has increased by 6.6% since the opening up of online gaming in June 2010. In spite of everything, the new verification systems that have been installed are more reliable than in the past which provides maximum protection for players. So on average, each player is checked on 50 times in a year.
