Booster packs, loot boxes and gambling law in France

Opening booster packs online, selling a paid loot box or running a prize draw can amount to prohibited gambling in France. The French Internal Security Code (CSI) bans any offer to the public that makes participants pay for the hope of a gain that depends, even in part, on chance. ORWL Avocats qualifies each mechanic and designs it so that it stays lawful.

The question arises for platforms that sell the opening of physical trading card packs as much as for game publishers that sell digital packs or chests with random contents. It is settled before launch: the prohibition is criminal, and the ANJ (Autorité nationale des jeux, the French gaming regulator) can have a site accessible from France blocked.

When does a game become prohibited gambling?

Article L. 320-1 of the French Internal Security Code prohibits gambling (jeux d’argent et de hasard), unless the law provides otherwise. An operation falls within the prohibition where it brings together four elements:

• it is offered to the public;
• the participant makes a financial outlay;
• it gives them the hope of a gain;
• that gain depends, even in part, on chance.

An offer to the public is read broadly. Access reserved to subscribers, to registered users or to referred players is still an offer to the public; only a private circle of close friends falls outside.

A financial outlay does not require a loss. The law finds one as soon as a payment is required, even if the game rules make it refundable. Older French case law on commercial lotteries also treats the compulsory purchase of a product as an outlay, even at its normal price: a player who keeps the card after the opening has indeed made a financial outlay.

The hope of a gain presupposes a gain with a money value: a sum, a prize, a resellable item. An advantage with no value outside the game, such as a better ranking or a non-transferable cosmetic item, is not in principle enough.

Chance need not be the only factor. The law states that the prohibition also covers games that turn on the players’ skill: a paid tournament with prizes does not escape it because it rewards skill.

Booster packs, digital pack opening and loot boxes: which mechanics cross the line?

No mechanic is lawful or prohibited by nature. Qualification depends on the link between the payment, the draw and the value of what is drawn, and the line is traced mechanic by mechanic.

The physical booster pack: from sale to draw

Retail sale of a sealed booster pack remains a sale: the buyer pays a set price for a product whose composition alone varies. To our knowledge, French gambling law has never taken hold of this traditional trade.

Digital pack opening changes the subject matter of the contract. The customer no longer buys a pack of cards but the filmed or simulated opening of a pack, often to see a rare card come out. The more the platform highlights the market value of the cards and the chances of obtaining them, the more the draw resembles a lottery whose prize is a valuable card.

Instant buy-back of the cards drawn

Immediate buy-back of the card drawn, against money or credit, is the most exposed mechanic. It puts a figure on the gain: the customer knows at once what the draw is worth, and the platform acts as an operator paying out winnings.

The risk is assessed case by case, against several factors:

• buy-back is paid in money or in credit that can be withdrawn, or only in credit that serves to open further packs;
• the buy-back rate is set in advance or follows the market value of the card;
• the card is shipped and the customer can resell it elsewhere, or it exists only in the customer’s account;
• the platform presents buy-back as an ancillary service or as the heart of its offer.

Even where it is limited to new openings, credit has a value: it takes the place of a payment. The terms of buy-back are therefore the first design decision for a pack opening platform.

Digital booster packs and loot boxes

In its 2017-2018 annual report, the ARJEL (Autorité de régulation des jeux en ligne, the online gambling regulator that has since become the ANJ) took the view that a paid loot box does not in principle fall within gambling as long as its contents have no monetary value. The question changes where the publisher allows that content to be transferred or resold outside the game. No French court has ruled on the issue.

A digital booster pack whose cards are resellable NFTs therefore brings together every element of gambling. The SREN Act of 21 May 2024, on securing and regulating the digital space, offers a way out: the experimental regime for JONUM (games with monetisable digital objects), open to games in certain categories and declared to the ANJ. That regime covers digital objects only: a platform that draws physical cards does not come within it. ORWL Avocats also advises publishers that place themselves under the JONUM regime and declare it to the ANJ (in French).

Where the contents drawn include fungible tokens rather than unique items, qualification under the MiCA Regulation is added. The firm also qualifies such tokens (in French) and the NFTs sold on a marketplace (in French).

Promotional prize draw, free entry route, closed loop: which routes remain open?

Three routes allow a share of chance to be kept without falling under the prohibition. Each has its conditions, and each weighs on the business model.

The promotional prize draw

Article L. 320-6 of the French Internal Security Code takes outside the prohibition the promotional operations referred to in Article L. 121-20 of the French Consumer Code: promotional operations run by a trader towards consumers that award a gain or an advantage by a draw or by another random element. They are lawful, with or without a payment, as long as they are not unfair.

The exception assumes an ancillary operation, one that serves to sell goods or services. It does not cover an operation whose draw is itself the product sold. A digital pack opening platform cannot therefore present its main business as a promotional prize draw; a shop that offers a draw to its customers can.

The free entry route

A lottery that offers a free route alongside the paid route may escape the prohibition. The courts require a genuine free route, as accessible as the paid route and giving the same chances of winning. In practice the condition is rarely met: the operator almost always pushes players towards the paid route, which is faster or better rewarded. A free entry route is designed and documented from the outset; it cannot be bolted on to an existing mechanic.

The closed loop and selling known content

Removing any monetary value from the content drawn takes the mechanic outside gambling. The content then stays inside the game, with no resale, no withdrawal and no buy-back. The terms and conditions prohibit them, and the publisher does not tolerate a parallel market.

Another route: selling content identified before payment rather than a draw. Chance disappears, and the lottery with it. Both routes close the door on resale revenue, which is why they are best settled early.

Operator established abroad: is access from France enough?

Yes. The Act of 12 May 2010 allows the ANJ to act against any gambling offer accessible on French territory without authorisation, whether or not the operator targets the French market. A platform established outside France that advertises nowhere in the country remains exposed if French players can access it.

An operator that does not wish to serve France must show it through filtering measures:

• blocking of French IP addresses;
• refusal of French telephone numbers and delivery addresses;
• withdrawal of the application from French app stores;
• checks on payment card data, where the operator collects it;
• no campaign, influencer or affiliate aimed at the French public.

These measures are described in the terms and conditions and maintained over time. Filtering that is circumvented on a large scale, or contradicted by the operator’s own communications, offers no protection.

Penalties

Organising prohibited gambling is punishable by three years’ imprisonment and a fine of €90,000, raised to seven years and €200,000 where the offence is committed by an organised gang (Article L. 324-1 of the French Internal Security Code). Advertising an unauthorised gambling site is punishable by a fine of €100,000; the court may raise the fine to four times the advertising spend.

The ANJ also holds administrative powers:

• formal notice to the operator, and to those who advertise it, to cease their activity, with five days to submit observations;
• an order to internet service providers to block access to the site, followed by a delisting order to search engines and directories;
• since 5 August 2026, an order extended to services that allow the block to be circumvented;
• publication of the list of sites that have been blocked.

Influencers and affiliates who promote an unlawful offer face the same formal notices. ORWL Avocats also advises content creators, media and affiliates on their partnerships (in French), and handles the same questions for prediction markets.

How ORWL Avocats works with a platform or a game publisher

The engagement starts from the product as designed or as already launched. It combines legal analysis with design work alongside the product team, so that the mechanic chosen holds both in law and in the business model.

Stages of an engagement

Why work with ORWL Avocats?

Since it was founded in 2018, the firm has advised businesses that combine games, chance and collectibles. It works with pack opening platforms, trading card publishers, video game and Web3 game publishers, and with brands and media that run promotional games. ORWL Avocats appears in the Leaders League 2025 ranking of law firms in gaming and online betting and in the Chambers FinTech ranking.

The prohibition of gambling is criminal: how a mechanic qualifies engages the company and its directors. A lawyer settles that question in law and stands behind the analysis. Exchanges with the client are covered by legal professional privilege (secret professionnel), which matters while the business model is still under discussion. The firm drafts the documents of the game and answers a formal notice from the ANJ on the client’s behalf.

A partner leads every matter, from the first product workshop to the review of new mechanics.

Launching a pack opening platform or a game with draws?

Describe your mechanic: a partner will tell you how it qualifies and what adjustments are open to you.

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