Best Online Casinos for French Players

Introduction

Gamblers in France are spoiled for choice when it comes to land-based casinos with about 200 in operation throughout the country. Barriere, JOA, Partouche, and Tranchant entertain tens of millions of gamblers every year. Online play is another story, however. While there are about three dozen online operators including a single online lottery seller, none of them currently offer online casino games like slots, craps, blackjack, and roulette.

French regulator, Autorité de Régulation des Jeux en Ligne (ARJEL) oversees online operators offering poker, sportsbetting, and horse race betting throughout the French Territory from Paris to far away Saint Martin, an island in the northeast Caribbean. 

Without a regulated online casino industry, French players are pretty much on their own when it comes time to play real money online games and there's no absence of operators willing to oblige them. We feel that the following sites are best suited for French players:

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Tips for French Online Gambling

Since there are currently no French-run gaming sites it's important to consider a few important factors when considering an online operator to play with. Some things you should look at include:

• Find professional and unbiased reviews from reputable sites. A trusted reviewer will not only tell you about the highlights and attractive features of a gaming site, but they'll also point out potential pitfalls or outright unwelcome terms and conditions. 

In the final analysis, you should be able to make an informed decision about where to play not only based on safety and security but also whether any given site will meet your needs and take care of you the way you expect to be treated. We can recommend reviews found at the following sites as they are trusted review portals.

Trusted Portals

• KeyToCasinos.com
• LCB.org
• WorldCasinoDirectory.com
• RealMoneyAction.com

• Read the terms and conditions. Beyond the basic gambling contract of a bet being paid for a winning bet getting laid on the table, all gaming houses have their own rules. Most of them are obvious to even the most novice player but they still must be written and agreed to before you can enter the virtual casino for real money play.

You don't need a law degree to parse the legalese, as you'll take on the agreement as part of an overall decision about whether to play, but it's important to get to know your way around the online documents using search terms that will tell you what you need to know. Much of the information will be included in a trusted review. Still, nuances and minor details that could make or break a gambling session or even a casino/player relationship can be found in some terms. 

Even if you trust a reviewer implicitly to give you a thumbs up or thumbs down you will still need to understand the bonus terms at a minimum if you plan to play with bonus funds.

• Check our blacklist and stay far away from the casinos that appear there. New operators can pop up daily and we could never keep track of all of them or all of their customer interactions. What we can do is condemn the worst of the worst to a hall of shame by inking them onto our blacklist. When an operator finds itself on that list you can read why, but we do not recommend ever giving them a chance to steal your money. These are the worst of the worst.

Live Dealer Options for French Players

French gamblers love live floor games like roulette, blackjack, craps, punto banco, Wheel of Fortune, and Sic Bo. Thankfully almost every online operator out there now carries a live dealer lobby - some of them have more than 200 tables open at once. We can recommend the following: 

Top 4 Live Dealer Casinos For Players From France View All

Licensed casinos in France

Unfortunately, France doesn't currently have any online game operators licensed in the country. You can find sports betting, horse racing betting, and circle games (poker) on the official government website. Some familiar names include Betsson and Betclic.

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Casino Trust and Security

More than great bonus offers and instant cashouts, trust, and security are the primary concerns or the baseline for choosing a place to play. You'll need to know your data and funds are safe, the games are fair, and that you'll be paid in a timely and reliable manner. The first consideration is an online casino license. Not all regulators are equal. While all will protect your funds from being used in nefarious activities, not all will go to the mat with you if an operator doesn't meet their end of the contract or refuses to offer sensible responsible gambling guardrails.

Operators licensed in Malta, the UK, Gibraltar, or even Romania are a good bet, but you may need to do a little more research or rely more on trusted reviewers if you plan to play at a site licensed in the Caribbean or another place with bare minimum protections. The license shield with a clickable link should appear on the main page of the gaming house, a complaint process should be posted, and you should be able to rely on data and privacy protection policies as clearly stated on the site.

The games and random number generator (RNG) should be audited and certified by a well-known independent testing authority such as eCOGRA or iTech Labs, slot games and digital table game RTP should be available from the most reliable operators as well as your gambling 'trace', the history of all your bets.

Banking information for French players

We haven't seen any payment blocking yet but that could change as 2030 approaches and the government considers the liberalization of online casino gaming as a way to capture funds that are currently in flight offshore thanks to the fact there are no in-country licenses for games of chance. Any of the payment options listed on this page should be well-suited for French players. Cryptocurrencies might remain the best bet but all traditional methods still work.

FR Online Casinos Deposit & Withdrawal Grades View All

Related Reading

• Casinos in Barcelona, Zurich, and Liechtenstein

Blacklisted casinos inside France View All

Written by: Michael Shackleford