Q3 figures in context
Published on 3 November, ANJ's quarterly report pegs French-origin crypto deposits into offshore gambling operators at roughly €512 million for Q3 2026 alone. That is a 38% jump versus Q2 and a 164% leap versus Q3 2025. The figure is not a guess: ANJ built it by cross-referencing on-chain analytics with French bank filings on crypto on-ramp activity.
By jurisdiction, roughly 58% of the flow lands at Curacao-licensed operators, 24% at Anjouan-licensed brands, and the remaining 18% is scattered across smaller offshore regimes. Stablecoins dominate: USDT and USDC together carry the bulk of the value, with a modest Bitcoin tail and a near-vanishing Ethereum share once gas costs come out.
How Paris reacted
The report dropped into an already warm room. Three Senate committees had hearings on online gambling enforcement penciled in for mid-November, and in a press briefing on 4 November the Minister of the Economy called the €512 million figure "clearly outside the French regulatory perimeter."
Speaking to Les Echos, the ANJ president said the data lays bare "the limits of civil enforcement against operators physically outside French territory." Two sources inside the Ministry separately confirmed to Faders that a bill criminalising the facilitation of offshore gambling payments on French soil is being drafted.
Inside the proposed bill
Faders has seen the draft in outline. It goes after three categories of facilitator. First on the list are crypto exchanges and on-ramps that knowingly process French user conversions into stablecoins bound for flagged gambling wallets. Second are VPN providers marketed explicitly as a way around French gambling blocks. Third are payment aggregators offering fiat gateway services to offshore operators.
Player conduct is left alone. A French player depositing at Stake or any other offshore brand would face no criminal exposure under the current text, though the civil position still treats that activity as sitting outside French consumer protection. The crosshairs are on the plumbing, not the people using it.
What it means for our testing
Our testing playbook for France mirrors the one we use elsewhere: real-money deposits and stopwatched withdrawals. Gabriel, who runs our French desk, leans on Revolut and Qonto fiat rails for ANJ-licensed tests. For offshore brands relevant to French audiences we have historically used a blend of crypto rails and international fiat cards.
If the bill passes in its current shape, exchange-level enforcement could put more friction on the crypto leg of our offshore testing, even though the testing itself remains lawful on the subject side. We have already opened a conversation with compliance counsel about whether anything needs to change in how we document crypto deposits originating from France.
ANJ's current toolkit
ANJ already maintains a public blocklist, issues cease-and-desist notices to payment processors with any French nexus, and coordinates with the Autorité des Marchés Financiers on crypto-specific cases. The hole the Ministry wants to plug is the one left by operators and facilitators physically based outside France, where ANJ has no direct jurisdiction and extradition is slow when it works at all.
An ANJ spokesperson told Faders the authority is "not seeking to criminalise players, who are often victims of aggressive offshore marketing." Any new regime, the spokesperson added, would come with a strengthened self-exclusion pathway for French players already playing offshore.
Timeline, hurdles and what to watch
The Ministry has flagged an early 2027 presentation to Parliament with passage ideally wrapped up before summer recess. That is an ambitious runway for a bill this complex, and it will meet pushback from a crypto industry that has consistently argued gambling enforcement belongs on the operator side rather than at the payment-rail layer.
For French players following our market coverage, the practical message is that the regulatory environment is getting tighter before it loosens. ANJ-licensed operators, with their quick payouts and clear consumer-protection framework, sit on the right side of where policy is heading.
Frequently asked questions
Is playing at an offshore casino illegal for a French resident?
No. Neither current law nor the drafted bill treats the player as the offender. Civil enforcement goes after operators and facilitators, and the draft bill adds criminal exposure on the facilitator side, not the player side.
How big is the offshore slice of French gambling right now?
ANJ's Q3 2026 estimate puts French-origin offshore deposits at €512 million, up 164% year on year. Curacao and Anjouan-licensed operators absorb most of it, with USDT and USDC moving the bulk of the value.
Will French crypto exchanges be forced to block gambling payments?
If the draft passes as written, exchanges serving French users face criminal exposure for knowingly processing conversions to flagged gambling wallets. Whether that converts into outright blocking or heavier KYC flags is a question for the implementing rules that would follow the bill.
Does any of this hit ANJ-licensed operators?
Not in any direct way. ANJ licensees already operate inside French KYC, AML and limit frameworks. The bill is pointed at the offshore flows the licensed market is losing players to, not at the licensed market itself.
Gabriel Mercier
Gabriel runs the Faders French-language desk, covering France and French-speaking Belgium. A decade spent inside the regulated European gambling scene feeds a straightforward playbook: open a real account, deposit real money, time the withdrawal to the minute, read the bonus clauses with a cold eye, and publish what the receipts actually say.
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