Games that look like gambling
The ANJ, France's gambling regulator, published the results of the ENJEU-Mineurs 2025 survey on 19 October. A research association, ARPEJ, ran it in partnership with the ANJ.[1]
The survey covered six kinds of what it calls hybrid digital games:[1]
- social casino games;
- free demo versions of gambling games;
- video games with gambling-style features, such as spinning wheels;
- video games with loot boxes (paid mystery items);
- fantasy sports;
- blockchain games known as play-to-earn.
Social casino games copy slot machines or card games and sell extra credits, but pay out no money, so they do not count as gambling.[1]
A polling firm surveyed 5,000 young people aged 15 to 17 online, between 29 August and 16 September 2025. Their parents gave consent, and the answers were weighted to match the population. The researchers also held interviews.[2]
What the teenagers said
According to the full report, 39.0% had played at least one such game in the three months before the survey: 42.4% of boys and 35.4% of girls. The most common were video games with casino elements (26.3%), free trial games on casino sites (18.1%) and social casino games (16.6%).[1][2]
Of all the teenagers surveyed, 15.6% had spent money on these games, which is 39.9% of those who played them. Fewer than 10% of all the teenagers had spent money on social casino games, and fewer than 10% on loot boxes. Of those who spent, social casino players were among the biggest spenders: 19.4% of them paid more than €50 a month. Among loot-box buyers, 38.7% spent less than €10 a month.[1][2]
Of the teenagers who played these games, 58.8% also took part in gambling for money.[1]
Spending and risk
The study measured gambling problems with a questionnaire designed for adolescents. Among teenagers who both played hybrid games and gambled, 26.0% had a high severity score, against 3.9% of those who only gambled. Among the mixed players who spent money on hybrid games, the share was 40.7%, against 14.1% of those who played without spending.[1]
The authors describe spending as strongly associated with the intensity of gambling problems. The survey shows an association, not a cause. In the interviews, the researchers found that publishers' design choices and the lack of age checks help move players from free to paid play. Their results also suggest that some casino-like games may act as a doorway to real gambling.[1]
Of the teenagers who played these games, 68.9% said they had seen adverts urging them to gamble. Social networks (38.4%) and online video games (38.2%) were the channels named most often, and TikTok came first among the networks.[2]
Of the teenagers who spent money, three in four (75.7%) believed their parents knew about it. More than one in ten thought their parents underestimated or did not know that money could be spent in these games.[1]
Pascal Chèvremont, the ANJ's president, called it the first study of its kind in France. He said it shows how porous the line is between gambling and other games. It also documents the growing "gamblification" of some digital games popular with minors. He expects it to feed thinking on new Web3 game formats being tried out under France's SREN law on the digital space.[1]
Sources
- Autorité nationale des jeux (France) — Pratique des jeux numériques hybrides chez les 15-17 ans : résultats de la recherche ENJEU-Mineurs 2025 (19 October 2026, French). The six kinds of game, the shares who played and spent, the links between spending and gambling problems, advertising, parents, and the statement of the ANJ's president.
- ARPEJ (France) — Pratiques des jeux numériques hybrides chez les mineurs de 15 à 17 ans en 2025 : résultats de la recherche ENJEU-Mineurs (report, September 2026, PDF, French). How the survey was done (5,000 respondents aged 15 to 17, the dates, parental consent, weighting and interviews), the three-month period for playing, spending among all teenagers and among players, and where the adverts were seen.
