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Poker tournaments doubled at Royan The Casino Barrière de Royan at the mouth of the Gironde estuary started its second season of poker tournaments in December and will double the number offered in the first. The venue will organise at least eight tournaments this year, including one in May with a buy-in of E2,000. It will be the first casino in the Lucien Barrière group to offer such a large buy-in outside the Barrière Poker Tour. It aims to offer a tournament every month in the future.


gamblers in France but online still has to catch up


Less than six months after online gambling and poker became legal in Europe’s largest casino market, a new report says that the number of gamblers in France is growing dramatically but many are still choosing to use traditional offline outlets.


statisticalinsight FRANCE


A study by French media and audience analysts Médi- amétrie, published in December, has found that 21m adults in the country, or about a third of the pop- ulation, took part in gam- bling of some kind in the year to last October, whether in specialist outlets or online.


The company said: “Since


last June, those who like to gamble are changing the way they do it following the opening of the French market for online gambling in horseracing and sports betting and poker.” The company’s Gambling Barometer report


found almost two out of three


internet users undertook some form of gambling whether online or offline. That figure represents a sig- nificant increase over the previous year of 21 per cent or 3.7m players. Off line gambling outlets saw a strong increase, with 28 per cent of people who have access to the internet, a total of 18.8m, using them to place bets. In terms of inter- net users who gamble online, the figure remained stable compared to the pre- vious year at 7.6m. Of the online gambling


opportunities available, the forms legalised last June - horserace betting, sports betting and poker - saw growth in their share of the gambling market in the period. Leading the way


Omaha Poker to reach France in the spring


restated FRANCE


Casino de Bagnoles-de- l’Orne, part of the Emeraude Group, is set to become the first in France to be able to offer Omaha Poker. The casino’s application to offer the variant has been approved by the gaming commission in Paris, after the ministries of the interior and finance in November announced some modifications and relaxations to casino regulations. Omaha, which is seeing a


were sports bettors, 6.4 per cent of whom chose an online channel, compared to 4.8 per cent in the previous year. Half of all people who have bet this way have rec- ommended it to their friends, the highest level of recommendation among the seven categories examined. In all channels, players


are predominantly male (53.5 per cent), employees


or manual workers (35.5 per cent) and aged 35-49 (34.4 per cent). There are, however, different patterns for different types of gam- bling. Horseracing attracts men over 35, whether employed or not. Sports bettors are primarily men aged 18-34, employed or stu- dents. Poker appeals to men aged 18-14 in the ABC1 socio-economic group and


to the unemployed. According to the 2010


responses, whoever the players are, the primary motivation is for “the pleas- ure of the game”, which has overtaken “the fact of winning” and “the amount that can be won”, reasons that were higher in the pre- vious study. Trust in the games also increased in the period.


Worker let off E14m repayment for casino fire


reverselottery FRANCE


A construction worker whose cigarette stub was almost certainly the cause of a fire that destroyed the former Casino de Salins-les- Bains, in the Jura region of eastern France, has had his fine of E14m overturned by the appeal court in Dijon. The incident took place


on March 26, 2007 when the man, then 30 years old, was working in the roof space of the casino. During the investigation into the fire, which started in the same area, the man admit- ted having smoked a ciga- rette (still legal at that time) and to have thrown the butt on the floor. He was imme-


The spectacular new casino at Salins-les- Bains opened in 2009, two years after fire destroyed the old venue


diately fired by his employer. The investigators put cause and effect together and prosecuted the man and secured a conviction in


6 February 2011 • europewestnews


January 2008 for “involuntar- ily causing damage through failing to observe safety and security obligations”. That conviction was upheld a year later by the


court of appeal: the man was condemned to a sus- pended prison sentence of six months. And then ordered to reimburse the owner of the casino - the town of Salins-les-Bains - for its losses, amounting to E14m. During the final hearing, the man’s barrister Me Randall Schwerdorffer argued that there was no formal proof of a link between the man smoking a cigarette and the fire. The man had certainly thrown down the stub, and the fire had certainly started in the roof space, however, he said the prosecution had failed to exclude any other cause such as an electrical failure. Nor was there any scientific


evidence given: he asked the judges to see if they could light fire from a stub. Schwerdorffer also


described the man’s prospects in the face of the damages order: “The insur- ance companies turned against him. He saw himself repaying until the end of his days, without one day hoping to become a home- owner, start a family, have a car… It’s like he won the lottery - in reverse!” This was the argument


that swayed the court. It overturned the conviction and the dismissed the civil claim.


The Casino de Salins-les-


Bains reopened in a spec- tacular new building in 2009.


The Casino de Bagnoles-de- l’Orne, in the beautiful Belle Époque spa town in Lower Normandy, will be the first to offer Omaha poker in France


growing popularity among players, has the added advan- tage in that it will be taxed at two per cent rather than the four per cent charged to Texas Hold’em, not the dominance of that variant is likely to be challenged any time soon. Casino de Bagnoles, which does not have any poker tables at the moment, was the first to apply for permission to offer Omaha, and the first to get approval, to the delight of the CEO of Emeraude Group Marie-Pierre Landowksi and casino director Gérard Maudelonde. Maudelonde said: “Everything will be pre- pared at Bagnoles between now and the end of the first quarter in order to welcome the first Omaha players.” The preparations will include staff training as well as creating a space for the poker tables.


Casino de Bagnoles has


also received approval for another ten slot machines in addition to the 130 it already has.


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