L’Autorité Nationale des Jeux (ANJ) – France’s national gambling regulator – has publicly reprimanded Stake.com and cbet.gg for operating ‘aggressive illegal gambling websites’ that target the French public.
The rebuke was made as ANJ secured a ‘blocking order’ by the Paris Court of Justice demanding French internet providers to immediately cease IP access to Stake.com and cbet.gg domains.
In its notice, the ANJ stated that it was forced to ‘publicly disclose’ Stake.com and cbet.gg as illegal properties following reports by internet monitor Similarweb that the websites had attracted more than 560,000 French visitors during June.
Both operators were accused of promoting illegal games of chance to the public, as French online gambling laws prohibit online casino games.
The ANJ further accused cbet.gg of attempting to circumvent its initial French IP ban, by operating ‘mirror websites’ promoting the operator’s online gambling services under different URLs.
Meanwhile, Stake.com was chastised for promoting unauthorised cryptocurrency services as a payment and wagering method as the operator allows players to transact with Bitcoin, Ethereum and Dogecoin.
“The ANJ wishes to draw the public’s attention to the dangerousness of these illegal sites which record particularly high audiences. This is the reason why we have decided, for the first time, to give an echo to these judgments,” the ANJ statement read.
Last week, the regulator warned licensed operators to prepare for a new ‘Action Plan’ on French gambling advertising.
It stated that it was forced to launch new regulatory actions as French incumbents had failed to maintain their duties during June and July’s coverage of the Euro 2020 Championships.