The French National Gaming Authority (ANJ) has launched a fresh prevention campaign ahead of Roland Garros, the French Tennis Open.
High-profile sporting events inevitably lead to more people placing bets, and the ANJ has launched a new prevention campaign to encourage people to take a pause before they gamble. In a new campaign, the organization seeks to reduce gambling-related harm.
The posters include a deliberately large portion of gambling posters, with a yellow banner taking over the visuals and a message reading: “Two lines at the bottom of an ad will never be enough to tell the story of the spiral of sports betting addiction.”
Some posters also include true stories of those affected by sports betting addiction, with similar stories also highlighted on the ANJ’s website. This prevention campaign won gold in the Print Advertising Campaign category at the 2024 Grand Prix Stratégies du Sport et de l’eSport.
Beyond a prevention campaign
To offer real help to those who might be at risk of gambling-related harm, the Evalujeu website, run by the ANJ, also has tools that help you to evaluate your gaming habits and get tailored advice on how to stay in control.
The site also provides all the useful information on different types of support available to both players and their families.
The campaign echoes a similar one that the ANJ also ran in June 2024 around the Euro football championship. The aim is to bring more attention to the mandatory legal notices on gambling ads, encouraging people to take notice of them rather than simply brush past them.
A French public interest group, the OFDT, estimated that there would be 1,170,000 problem gamblers in 2024, including 360,000 playing at an excessive level. Sports betting was also labelled as the greatest risk of problem gambling on an individual level, particularly around major events like the French Open. In numbers, the proportion of excessive gamblers is six times higher than for lottery games.
Featured image: ANJ (National Gaming Authority)
