France, Spain and Italy: Where Online Casino Gambling Is Licensed
Key Takeaways
- •France's ANJ licenses online sports betting, horse racing and poker, but no license category exists for online casino games, an exclusion maintained since 2010 due to concerns about higher addiction risk from house-banked games.
- •'s online gambling market generated about €3.72 billion in GGR in 2021—nearly twice France's roughly €1.9 billion—reflecting its broader range of licensed products under the ADM concession system.
- •Spain's online gambling market grew roughly fivefold, from €470 million in 2014 to more than €2.6 billion, driven by parallel growth across its casino, betting and poker verticals.
- •No EU-wide gambling license exists, so operators must obtain separate national authorizations in each country, and licenses from jurisdictions such as Malta, Gibraltar or Curaçao carry no legal standing in these three markets.
- •French proposals to expand online casino licensing, debated between 2024 and 2026, remain unresolved deliberations rather than scheduled legislation, leaving players to turn to offshore sites with no domestic regulatory recourse.
Of the three largest Western European gambling markets, Spain and Italy currently authorize online casino games—including slots, live-dealer tables and the full range of random-number-generator (RNG) products—under national licensing frameworks. France follows a different legal model. Its regulator, the ANJ (Autorité Nationale des Jeux), permits online sports betting, horse racing and poker, but explicitly excludes casino games from the licensed verticals.
The distinction is significant because a European gambling license does not provide uniform access across the continent. France, Spain and Italy operate separate national frameworks, each with its own permitted products, tax structure and compliance requirements. An international operator cannot use a single EU license or passport to cover all three countries. Each market requires a separate authorization, and in France that authorization does not cover casino products, regardless of what other regulators permit.
Three markets side by side
France licenses betting and poker but excludes casino games. Slots, live tables and bingo are not available through any licensed operator. Spain and Italy both authorize the broader range of products.
The figures below cover licensed-operator activity only. Offshore and retail channels are excluded unless otherwise stated.
France’s licensed market generated roughly €1.9 billion in gross gaming revenue (GGR). Sports betting accounted for 62%, poker for 24% and horse racing for 14%. Casino games contributed zero because no license category for them exists. Under the current rules, €1.9 billion represents the ceiling for France’s licensed online market.
Italy’s online GGR reached about €3.72 billion in 2021, distributed across casino games, poker, sports betting and bingo. That was nearly twice France’s total, in line with Italy’s wider product range.
Spain’s online market grew from €470 million in 2014 to more than €2.6 billion in the same period, an approximately fivefold increase driven by parallel growth in its three main verticals. The market includes a product category that is absent from France’s licensed framework.
France: betting and poker, but no licensed online casino
France’s gaming license permits online sports betting and poker, but not casino games. When France opened its online gambling market in 2010, it deliberately excluded house-banked games such as slots, roulette and blackjack. The stated reasoning was that these formats carry a higher addiction risk than games involving an element of skill. Those exclusions have remained in force ever since and still define what a French license covers today.
The ANJ issues licenses for fixed-odds and live sports betting, pool betting, horse-race betting and poker. There is no license category for online casino games—neither a restricted category nor a provisional one.
An operator is authorized to serve French residents if it holds a current ANJ license, displays that license on its website and accepts only players located in France. Offshore sites that offer casino games to French users fall entirely outside this framework. A license from Malta, Gibraltar or another jurisdiction does not change their status under French law; they are unlicensed in France.
Spain: authorization for casino, betting and poker
Spain licenses online casino, betting and poker, giving operators access to a broader scope than France. The verticals are regulated separately. Slots, live casino, poker and sports betting each require DGOJ (Directorate General for the Regulation of Gambling) authorization, along with their respective compliance obligations.
Spain’s framework does not contain product-level exclusions comparable to France’s ban on online casino games. Operators must nevertheless maintain multiple authorizations, comply with local requirements for each vertical and observe advertising restrictions introduced in 2021.
DGOJ authorization is strictly territorial. It covers Spain and does not extend to other countries. Operators seeking to target additional EU markets therefore require separate licensing in those jurisdictions.
Italy: a concession-based market with broad coverage
Italy’s ADM (Agenzia delle Dogane e dei Monopoli) administers a concession-based framework covering sports betting, casino games, poker, bingo, lotteries and virtual betting. The system operates under one national regime, but operators hold individual concessions for each product vertical rather than a blanket authorization.
Italy’s permitted product range is broader than France’s, which does not license standard online casino games, and broader than Spain’s as described in the source comparison. Casino games and slots are legal online. Players pay no tax on winnings or stakes, while operators pay a 20% GGR levy. The rate is considered mid-range by European standards but applies broadly across verticals.
Italy also enforces a nationwide ban on direct and indirect gambling advertising and sponsorship. There are no carve-outs for sports partnerships of the type permitted in some other markets. ADM uses domain-level blocking against unauthorized operators and requires identity verification at registration.
The result is a comprehensive but tightly controlled system. Market entry is restricted, and compliance obligations remain active throughout an operator’s participation rather than being limited to the initial authorization process.
Product-by-product comparison
Sports betting is licensed in all three countries, but the products that can be offered alongside it differ substantially.
France authorizes sports betting, horse racing and peer-to-peer poker through the ANJ. It does not provide a licensing route for slots, roulette, blackjack or live casino. A French-facing operator offering those products is operating illegally rather than in an intermediate regulatory category.
Spain’s DGOJ covers the major verticals through a two-tier general-license and single-license structure. Esports betting falls under the sports betting license and does not require a separate category.
Italy has the most granular framework of the three. ADM issues separate concessions for casino games, sports betting, poker and bingo. Each product operates under its own authorization category instead of being bundled into one general permission. The broader range of permitted verticals comes with a corresponding set of separate compliance obligations.
Why one EU license does not cover all three markets
The three countries regulate gambling at the national level. Gambling is not a harmonized EU policy area: member states retain the authority to decide which products to permit, and no EU-wide gambling license exists. A license in one country does not authorize operations in another. ANJ in France, DGOJ in Spain and ADM in Italy each issue their own authorizations, set their own technical standards and enforce their rules independently. An MGA or Curaçao license has no legal standing in any of the three markets.
Operators must implement geolocation blocking to restrict access by users in unlicensed jurisdictions. Their KYC and AML systems must satisfy local specifications rather than relying only on general EU standards.
National self-exclusion systems also require direct integration. These include ARJEL’s BANQUE DE France exclusion list in France (ARJEL was the regulator that preceded the ANJ), Spain’s Registro de Auto-Exclusiones de Jugadores (RGIAJ) and Italy’s Registro dei Soggetti Autoesclusi.
Italy’s advertising rules are the strictest of the three in the comparison because they prohibit all direct and indirect gambling advertising nationwide. France and Spain restrict bonus advertising to the general public but do not impose a blanket ban.
For operators, offshore activity can result in fines, domain blocking and payment-processing bans. For players, it can mean that disputes are not enforceable and that no national regulatory complaint route is available when a problem occurs.
France’s reform debate and the offshore gap
France has debated expanding the ANJ’s remit to include casino products, but no reform bill has passed. Proposals discussed between 2024 and 2026 remain unresolved deliberations rather than scheduled legislation. Online casino gambling remains prohibited in France, and that position has not changed. The indicator to watch is procedural: whether any proposal advances from deliberation to scheduled legislation. Until then, the ANJ’s public register continues to list only betting, horse racing and poker as authorized online verticals.
French players seeking slots or live casino games therefore turn to offshore sites, creating a gap in regulatory protection. Offshore operators are outside the ANJ’s jurisdiction. Disputes are referred to foreign regulators that have no obligation to French players. Card payments to unlicensed sites are regularly declined, withdrawals may be delayed and there is no domestic recourse. The ANJ actively blocks unauthorized domains, making access unreliable.
Accessing a site through a VPN or using an alternative payment method does not provide the protections associated with a licensed operator. Legally, the relevant question is whether the site holds French authorization. No operator is authorized to offer online casino games in France.
Payments, withdrawals and taxes
Licensed operators in France, Spain and Italy accept credit and debit cards, bank transfers and major e-wallets, although payment details and tax rules vary by country. All three markets use the euro, so residents do not incur currency-conversion costs for domestic transactions.
The key distinction is between licensed operators, which are subject to payment-compliance requirements, transaction reporting and withdrawal timelines, and offshore sites, where delayed or blocked payouts may have no regulatory remedy. Italy’s concession model and Spain’s competitive licensing system produce consistent and predictable withdrawals from authorized operators.
France is different because its restricted product framework does not permit any licensed operator to offer online casino games. Players seeking slots or table games consequently turn to offshore platforms. If a withdrawal problem occurs, no French regulator can intervene.
How to verify an operator’s authorization
Verification should cover the national regulator, the operator’s legal entity, the product scope and the domain—not just the brand name.
An operator licensed by DGOJ in Spain is not automatically authorized in France or Italy because it holds an EU-equivalent credential. Each country requires a separate national authorization, and that authorization is product-specific. For example, an operator may hold an Italian ADM concession for sports betting without having a concession for online casino games. Its slot games would therefore be unlicensed despite the operator’s broader compliance record.
In France, users should search the ANJ public register and confirm that the operator is listed for the relevant vertical, such as betting or poker. The source states that no authorized online casino entries exist in France.
In Spain, users should consult DGOJ’s published operator list, confirm that the authorization covers the chosen product—casino, betting or poker—and ensure that the registered domain matches the domain being used.
In Italy, users should compare the ADM concession number displayed on the website with ADM’s official register and verify that the legal entity name and licensed domain match exactly.
Across all three markets, self-exclusion, deposit limits and a route for complaints to the national regulator should be visible and functional. A missing license number, an unrecognized regulator, or a license number associated with a different legal entity or domain is a warning sign.
