The two-minute video, whose title roughly translates to “Everything for Mum” in English, depicts a young French man improving his mother’s life via betting, or that was the regulator’s conclusion at least.

According to the ANJ, this violates a decree from November 2020, which stipulates adverts cannot portray betting as contributing to “social success.”

Quoting said decree, the regulator remarked: “Commercial communications must not associate the practice of gambling with the possibility of changing social status, having extraordinary experiences or accessing services usually considered as reserved for very wealthy people, for example a private jet trip or a luxury yacht cruise.”

While the French watchdog did acknowledge that “hyperbolic advertisements” are permitted, this is only if they do not contribute to fostering a connection between betting and social success through the “use of emphasis, parody or grossly exaggerated staging.”

“The Winamax film ‘Tout pour la Daronne’ conveys the message that sports betting can contribute to social success, understood as upward social mobility or a change in social status, in this case that of a mother and her son thanks to the gain he drew from a winning sports bet,” stated the regulator.

As such, the ANJ instructed Winamax to withdraw the advertisement “from all distribution media within one month of notification of the decision.”

This is also, the ANJ remarked, the first time it has exercised the power to order an operator to withdraw an ad.