France Switches On JONUM

France just drew a hard line between gaming and gambling-style monetization—and it did it with a brand-new category: JONUM.

The ANJ (France’s gambling regulator) has now made the framework operational through Decree n°2026-60 (4 Feb 2026), in force since 7 Feb 2026, plus a mandatory safer-play warning order.

If you build NFT/Blockchain titles, this is the first European model that says: “You may innovate—but you must behave like a risk product.”

Treat JONUM as a compliance blueprint: design controls first, token omics second.

Key points

• JONUM is a three-year experimental regime supervised by the ANJ for Web3 titles with monetizable digital objects.
• The framework went operational with Decree n°2026-60, effective 7 Feb 2026.
• JONUM forbids euro winnings and tightly caps permissible reward structures.
• Operators must implement adult-only onboarding, RG-style limits/tools, a prior declaration, and regulator-grade transparency.
• France positions itself as an early EU mover on “monetizable items” regulation while other countries keep forcing the issue through loot box or gambling-law lenses.

France’s JONUM Rules Go Live: ANJ Launches 3-Year Web3 Gaming Compliance Trial

What JONUM is (and what it is not)

JONUM (“Jeux à Objets Numériques Monétisables”) targets online games where players make a financial sacrifice, a chance mechanism awards monetizable digital objects (often NFTs or in-game tokens), and those objects can be resold to third parties. However—and this is the cornerstone—players cannot receive winnings in legal tender (euro). France is explicitly regulating the monetizable object mechanic without letting it become a disguised cash-out casino.

The “go-live” moment: what changed in February 2026

France moved from “law on the books” to “rules you can launch under” via:

• Decree n°2026-60 (4 Feb 2026), published in the Official Journal on 6 Feb and effective the next day (7 Feb 2026), setting eligibility, declarations, player account rules, safer-play mechanisms, and data access for the ANJ.
• Order (Arrêté) of 4 Feb 2026 defining the mandatory warning message, where it must appear, and a max 3-month deadline to implement.

What operators must do (practical compliance checklist)

Here’s the operator reality, in plain terms:

1. File a prior declaration with the ANJ You must declare the offer before launch. The ANJ can issue a receipt when the filing is formally complete, and it plans to publish a list of declared JONUM offers.
2. Gatekeep the product: strict adult-only access You must block minors and verify identity/age before opening a player account, using reliable methods and keeping documentation to prove effectiveness.
3. Build “real limits,” not cosmetic settings JONUM borrows the consumer-protection posture of regulated gambling: time/spend controls and self-exclusion-style tools sit at the center of the model (even if the regime is “lighter” than full gambling licensing).
4. Respect reward rules and caps France allows “accessory rewards,” but it caps them tightly. For example:
   • In-kind rewards: total value capped (e.g., €1,000/year per player per game).
   • Certain crypto-asset rewards: capped as a share of game revenue and with a per-player annual ceiling, and no euro winnings at all.
5. Accept monitoring-grade transparency The decree is explicit that operators must provide the ANJ with relevant data and oversight access (especially important where wallets/blockchain flows exist).
6. Display the mandatory warning message The order requires a fixed warning (“Your gaming activity can be dangerous…”) placed on key user journey pages (homepage, post-registration, and account-management areas), and it must be clearly visible and unmodified.

Why this matters: France is regulating the mechanic, not the label

In my view, JONUM is France admitting what many regulators danced around for years: once a digital item becomes reliably resalable, the game starts to look like a financial-risk product—even if the publisher insists it’s “just entertainment.” So, instead of forcing everything into legacy gambling law, France created a separate legal category that still imports core safeguards (adult-only, limits, warnings, auditability). That compromise is smart policy engineering: it invites Web3 innovation without giving a free pass to “casino-style UX in a videogame wrapper.”

Europe’s loot box split: why France chose a bespoke route

Europe already disagrees—loudly—on where “game monetization” ends and “gambling” begins:

• Belgium: the regulator treated paid loot boxes as gambling under Belgian law (2018), pushing some publishers to pull mechanics rather than risk enforcement.
• Netherlands: regulators and courts have scrutinized certain loot box implementations under gambling frameworks (including litigation around FIFA packs).
• UK: the Gambling Commission has generally maintained most loot boxes fall outside gambling regulation when items can’t be directly cashed out into real money, leaning more on industry measures.

France basically said: “We won’t wait for that debate to settle. If the object is monetizable, we regulate the product as its own thing.”

Conclusion

France didn’t “legalize NFT gambling.” Instead, it created a controlled sandbox where monetization can exist, but cash-like outcomes cannot—and where consumer protection is baked into the game design rather than bolted on after the fact. JONUM was first established in French law as part of the SREN Act, enacted in May 2024.

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Let’s keep the conversation going! Tags: France, ANJ, JONUM, SREN, Web3, NFTs, Blockchain Gaming, Compliance, Responsible Gambling, Loot Boxes