French study links hybrid video games to gambling risk among 15-17 year olds, ANJ and ARPEJ report

France's gambling regulator, the Autorité Nationale des Jeux (ANJ), and the Association for Research and Prevention of Excessive Gambling (ARPEJ) have published a study on how video games with gambling-like features affect adolescents. The research was released on Monday and is based on interviews with 5,000 teenagers aged 15 to 17.

The study focuses on what it calls hybrid digital games, known in French as jeux numériques hybrides (JNH). These include social casino games that imitate slot machines, card or table games using virtual currencies, and titles where gambling is a side feature, such as the casinos in the Grand Theft Auto series. It also covers games with randomised reward purchases, including EA Sports FC Ultimate Team and Genshin Impact, as well as fantasy sports games such as Mon Petit Gazon and Fungiball.

According to the findings, 39% of respondents had played such games in the previous three months, including 42.4% of boys and 35.4% of girls. Some 15.6% had made a financial transaction linked to the games. Although most are free to play, ARPEJ said they often include mechanisms that push young players toward microtransactions to progress faster or gain advantages. Nearly 69% of those playing hybrid games reported seeing advertising encouraging real-money betting, mainly on TikTok and Instagram.

ARPEJ described a gateway effect: two thirds of minors who took part in hybrid games, and specifically hybrid casino games, said they did so before gambling for real money. Using the Canadian Adolescent Gambling Inventory, the study found a higher severity score of 26% among minors who played both traditional gambling and hybrid games, compared with 3.9% for those who only played traditional gambling games. The research also noted sleep disturbances, stress and difficulty regulating mood.

The study follows a February ARPEJ announcement that nearly 43% of respondents had played a real-money game of chance in the previous 12 months, such as scratchcards or draw games, up eight points from 2021. The report notes that Grand Theft Auto VI is due to launch on 19 November 2026.

The ANJ is one of three European regulators, alongside those in Sweden and Denmark, running dedicated research on links between video gaming and gambling among young people. Regulators in Spain and the Netherlands have looked at game design but concentrated on loot boxes. The European Union has no common framework on whether loot boxes count as gambling, so classification is left to national authorities. That gap has led to disputes, including in the Netherlands, where Electronic Arts overturned penalties of up to €10m over FIFA loot boxes in 2022.