Have the French become addicted to games of chance? If there were fewer of them playing there than five years ago, their practices would have become more intensive. "Developments that may seem worrying, " according to a study by Public Health France, the French Observatory for Drugs and Drug Addiction (OFDT) and the Games Observatory (ODJ). They devote 10% of their leisure budget to games of chance, or around 200 euros per year. An increase of 12.5% in five years.
Practiced by 11% of players, sports betting even combines the two phenomena: the number of players has increased, and the volume of bets has almost tripled in five years, in particular on the internet (multiplied by 4.6). However, it is sports betting that presents the greatest health risk: "A fifth to a quarter of problem gambling can be attributed to them," according to the study.
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The "problem gambling" includes moderate risk players "distressed but have not lost control, and those excessive fallen into addiction," says one of the authors. These two categories of players are less active professionally and belong to more modest socio-educational backgrounds. They represent 6% of players, but generate 38.3% of the sector's turnover. And the share of excessive players (1.6% of players) has doubled in five years. Seven months after the privatization of the FDJ, in November 2019, a National Gaming Authority was launched. One of its missions will be precisely to fight against addiction.
