French Regulator Releases Data on Teen Participation in Hybrid Digital Games
The Autorité nationale des jeux published results from its ENJEU-Mineurs 2025 research project conducted jointly with ARPEJ, and the numbers show that 39 percent of French teenagers between 15 and 17 years old reported playing hybrid digital games in the twelve months leading up to the survey while nearly 59 percent of those same hybrid players also took part in real-money gambling activities.
Researchers surveyed 5,000 adolescents across France and collected detailed responses about exposure to formats that combine video game elements with gambling mechanics such as loot boxes, social casino titles, free demo casino games, and titles that embed casino-style features directly into gameplay, and the data indicates elevated gambling risk scores among participants who combined hybrid play with actual monetary wagering.
Scope and Methodology Behind the ENJEU-Mineurs 2025 Project
ARPEJ designed the questionnaire to capture both frequency and type of engagement, and the resulting dataset covers a representative national sample that allows comparisons between different age bands within the 15-to-17 range as well as between those who only played hybrid games and those who also gambled with real money.
Questions focused on specific mechanics rather than broad categories, which enabled analysts to isolate loot box openings, social casino sessions, and in-game casino simulations as distinct but overlapping behaviors, and the study tracked how often respondents encountered these features through free-to-play apps versus paid titles.
Participation Rates and Overlap with Real-Money Gambling
Figures reveal that 39 percent of the surveyed group had played at least one hybrid digital game during the reference period, and among that subset nearly 59 percent also reported placing bets with real currency on regulated or unregulated platforms.
Those who engaged in both activities showed measurably higher scores on standardized gambling risk assessments than peers who limited themselves to either hybrid games alone or traditional gambling alone, and the pattern held across gender and regional breakdowns included in the dataset.
Risk Indicators Identified in the Data
ANJ analysts noted that hybrid game mechanics such as randomized rewards and progression systems that mimic slot or roulette cycles appear to correlate with increased likelihood of transitioning into paid gambling, although the study stops short of establishing direct causation and instead presents the statistical associations for further examination by policymakers and clinicians.
Additional cross-tabulations showed that teens reporting daily hybrid play sessions carried the highest average risk scores, whereas those who encountered these features only occasionally displayed lower but still elevated indicators compared with non-players.
Regulatory Context and Next Steps
The Autorité nationale des jeux has already integrated these findings into ongoing monitoring of digital products marketed to minors, and the agency continues to work with platform operators on age-verification tools and clearer separation between free demo modes and real-money environments.
Stakeholders now have access to the full ENJEU-Mineurs 2025 report which includes detailed methodology appendices and raw frequency tables that researchers can use to model future trends through October 2026 and beyond.
Conclusion
The ENJEU-Mineurs 2025 study supplies regulators, parents, and industry participants with concrete national-level statistics on how French teenagers interact with hybrid digital games and the extent to which those interactions coincide with real-money gambling, and the data will inform upcoming policy discussions aimed at reducing exposure and risk among the 15-to-17 age group.