France has notified the European Commission of a draft technical measure under its experimental JONUM regime for games with monetizable digital objects. The draft focuses on how operators would submit data to the Autorité nationale des jeux (ANJ). This step could define how closely the sector is supervised in practice and how workable the French model proves to be.
A Technical Filing With Broader Market Weight
The draft was notified through the EU’s TRIS procedure, which is used for draft technical rules that may affect the single market. It allows other EU countries and the Commission to evaluate whether the French proposal conforms to broader EU law.
The immediate subject is not gameplay design or token economics, but data. The French government wants operators within the JONUM framework to submit standardized information files to the ANJ. The reporting package would cover player accounts, sessions, and in-game activity, as well as transactions related to the acquisition, transfer, or exchange of monetizable digital objects.
This is important because regulators often move faster on rulemaking than on enforcement. France is addressing this problem by defining not only what needs reporting, but also how oversight data must be delivered.
Why JONUM Sits Outside Traditional Gambling
France’s broader framework is based on the idea that these products may fall into a grey area between video games and regulated gambling. JONUM covers games where digital assets with market value (like NFTs or blockchain tokens) can be obtained by players, but cash winnings from play are not allowed.
The cash ban is the core of the matter. French legislators seek to ensure that these products are not included in the general gambling system. However, they recognize that the assets involved with these products may indeed hold economic value. The three-year experimental regime gives the state a chance to see if that distinction is going to be effective.
This development reflects a larger concern felt throughout Europe. Web3 and play-to-earn models have raised the same questions about speculation, consumer protection, fairness, and anti-money laundering provisions. What France is doing is a trial run for whether a different set of rules can solve these problems without putting all blockchain games in the gambling category.
What Comes Next for Operators and Regulators
Currently, the proposal is more of a procedural move, but it does have weight. If the reporting framework passes with minimal resistance at the EU level, then France could be closer to running one of Europe’s first formal oversight systems for monetizable digital object games.
The bigger significance might be strategic. France appears to be establishing a template for how blockchain-based entertainment could be regulated in a supervised market model. Should the results of the JONUM trial prove to be useful, other European jurisdictions may end up borrowing from that model.
