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Sacked employee faces judgement An entry controller at JOA Casino Saint-Pair-sur-Mer in Normandy, who was fired for failing to verify the identity of a client and who took a claim for unfair dismissal to an employment tribunal, has been convicted of attempted fraud. The 56-year-old persuaded the wife of a colleague to write two false affidavits that he suffered harassment by the management, which he later used to claim E22,000 in damages. The casino is now appealing the decision and demanding the money back.
Two towns launch casino search
desperatelyseeking FRANCE
The town of Barneville-Carteret in Normandy, and Casteljaloux in Lot-et-Garonne at the other end of the country, are both to launch invitations to tender for casinos. Barneville-Carteret, south west of Cherbourg, is
French problem gambling survey puts 600,000 at risk
Notoriously difficult to quantify, problem gambling behaviour in France nevertheless appears to run at slightly levels than in comparable countries such as Italy, Belgium and the UK, and a long way behind the US and Australia.
statisticalsignificance FRANCE
The first problem gambling preva- lence study ever conducted in France has found the 1.3 per cent of the pop- ulation is at risk of having or develop- ing problem gambling behaviour. The survey, conducted in 2010
before the legalisation of online gam- bling, said that, extrapolated from its research population, around 600,000 people are at moderate or substantial risk from problem gambling. The survey, conducted by the OFDT
(French Observatory for Drugs and Drug Addictions) as part of the 2010 health ‘barometer’ report for the National Institute for Prevention and Health Education (Inpes), interviewed just over 25,000 people between the ages of 18 and 75, of whom the most active players were interviewed further - 2,762 people. Of the entire survey, just under half (47.8 per cent) said they had gambled in the past 12 months. The most active
players, defined as those who had gambled at least 52 times in the year and/or bet at least E500, counted for one in ten of the general population, or one in five of all those who had gambled. Six out of ten active players were men and the average age of all active players was 47, compared to 43 for all players.
The most popular gambling outlets
for active players were lotteries and scratchcards, played by 75 per cent and 62.2 per cent respectively. Next was pari-mutuel horse-race betting played by 23.2 per cent followed by slot machines, Rapido (varieties of keno), sports betting, poker (eight per cent) and casino table games. Just over nine per cent of active players took part in internet gam- bling, illegal at the time of the survey: 45 per cent of internet players were under 35 years and more than 80 per cent were men. The report’s authors then applied the Canadian Problem Gambling Index test to the most active players.
Inpes said: “In total, for the whole
French population, we can estimate that 0.9 per cent of individuals (400,000 people) present a moderate risk and that 0.4 per cent are exces- sive players (200,000 people) - making 1.3 per cent of players ‘problematic’.” Three quarters of excessive players
are men, compared to six men out of ten players categorised as active, with an average age of 41, compared to 47. Almost half (47 per cent) of excessive players spend more than E1,500 on gambling per year, compared to 7.1 per cent for active players: almost 58 per cent earn less than E1,100 per month and more than one in three did not matriculate at 18. In addition, much higher levels of tobacco, alcohol and cannabis consumption were found among excessive players com- pared to the general population. The range of gambling activities
was much wider for excessive players than for active players who play without risk, however they played most often on the internet.
Modest gain for Partouche in YTD
likeforlike FRANCE
Groupe Partouche, France’s largest casino operator, has seen a slight increase in revenues in the nine months to July 31,
2011 compared to 2010. Gross gaming revenues were up 1.3 per cent to E262.8m, however for the group as a whole, revenues from all sources were down by 1.7 per cent to E354.9m.
6 October 2011 • europewestnews The GGR figures were
affected by the closure of four loss-making casinos, Beaulieu, Saint-Nectaire, Saint-Honoré and San Roque, which pushed the revenues down by E5m but improved the group’s
profitability. Excluding these venues, GGR would have been up by two per cent, said the company. In addition, the revenues in July 2010 were unusually high due to high roller activity in Cannes.
The casino planned by Cogit for Barneville-Carteret in 2008 was never begun
trying for a second time to persuade an operator to come: in 2008 it had licensed Cogit, which operates a venue in Cherbourg as well as others overseas, to open a casino near the entrance to the town on a 12,700sq m site, however, the company saw its gaming business hit hard by various factors, including, said deputy mayor Alain Desplanques, “the economic crisis, the rise in taxes, the banning of smoking in public places, identity controls for player and the competition from online gaming”. However, he added: “Recently, the state has taken a number of steps that seem to have satisfied casino operators and that will once again help to increase the number of people visiting casinos, in particular the time slots for the opening of slot machines has been largely liberalised. In addition from the date the casino opens, we will be able to have 75 gaming machines instead of the 50 previously, which could lift predicted revenues by between 30 and 40 per cent.” In addition to the jobs that the casino would create,
the town is already looking forward to the contributions it would receive from the operation of a casino, equal to 15 per cent of the gross gaming revenues, plus ten per cent of the state taxes, plus an annual rent for the site of E6,000. By contrast, Casteljaloux is a newcomer to the
process, having only been awarded the national status of ‘Tourist Destination’ that permits it to allow a casino to operate within its borders on August 26. Casteljaloux is the only spa town in the region and with its new status hopes to attract many more visitors. The initial tender documents are almost ready, however, an unnamed French casino operator has been expressing an interest since 2009, so town councillors are confident of a quick process. There are suggestions that construction could begin with six or seven months for an opening in 2013.
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