CR63-p01-Euro1:SJC-Casino Review 22/12/07 20:30 Page 1
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Hungary to license giant new Budapest casino
pleasureisland gaming tables and at least 1,000 slot machines. The The new casino will be the heart of other
HUNGARY licence will cost the operator a minimum of 600m forints developments on the island, including hotels,
per year (about 2.2m euros). entertainment and sports facilities that are expected to
An island in the middle of the Danube in Budapest is to This will be the first Category 1 casino to be given cost about 1bn euros. The partly wooded area is the
be home to Hungary’s newest and biggest casino, the the go-ahead in Hungary. There are currently only five home of a former shipyard and is also known as Old
Ministry of Finance has announced. casinos in the country, all Category 2 together running Buda island.
The Ministry, with the agreement of the city council, 100 tables and just 170 slot machines in total, The exact details of the final concession will be
has released a concession tender for a 20-year casino bringing in a combined annual turnover of about determined by the city of Budapest: it will also receive a
licence on Hajógyári Island that will operate at least 100 9.5bn forints (37.5m euros). portion of the tax revenues generated by the casino.
French smoking ban to
threaten casinos in decline
ity of venues with Gross attendance in casinos. “We more machines than last year. lead to a further decline of
With over half of France’s 197 casinos
Gaming Revenues actually can suppose that, at the end Further problems will about 10 to 15 per cent in
in decline, the Casino de France
sliding at half of the 197 of this financial year, we’ll be encountered next year attendance, which will
French casinos. Around 100 be able to get a complete with the introduction of a make life even tougher for
association is concerned that the establishments experi- feedback from poker being smoking ban which will the smallest or most
smoking ban set to be introduced in
enced a decline in their introduced in French hit France as hard as it as indebted casinos. The
2008 will wipe out those with the
finances and only 30, ten of casinos, assuming that all hit anywhere. The Minister spokesperson said: “Yet,
which have been newly those interested in this for Health, Roselyne Bach- casinos must invest to
worst takings. Phil Martin reports. built, experienced a slight game will have set up poker elot, recently ruled that as adjust their offers to their
increase in activity. tables by October 2008,” from January 1, 2008, clients’ expectations with
The optimists out there the spokesperson added. French casinos will be no new games and new slot
will highlight that the sector Pessimists will focus on smoking spaces. machines and face growing
as a whole increased to 2.8bn the plateauing of an indus- Casino directors at Saint- competition from other
euros equating to a 2.8 per try which only a few years Julien estimate that 60 per French casino operators
cent increase, despite a diffi- ago was producing double cent of their player base are such as illegal gambling
cult year of trading which digit growth. Of the casinos smokers. If that is sympto- websites.”
saw the introduction of iden- around Lake Geneva, matic of the sector as a According to Casinos de
tification to enter any part of Divonne, Annemasse, whole then the first few France, table-games are
the casino and not just the Annecy and Evian, all made months of 2008 will take already struggling to be
table gaming rooms as in pre- less money than last year some coming to terms with. profitable due to over taxa-
vious years. These laws were with only the casino of Certainly, Casinos de tion. “The casino business
balanced out with the ability Saint-Julien increasing its France is extremely con- really hopes that the tax
to mix table games with their financial standing. cerned about the forecasts system will be revised in
slot counterparts and also Partouche recorded a for the next year’s gaming order to promote the devel-
the removal of stamp duty, decline in slot revenues of 3.5 activity. The Union predicts opment of this job-creating
which in turn allowed per cent despite operating that the smoking ban will activity,” it argued.
casinos to abolish entry fees
to the table gaming rooms.
A spokesperson for the
association Casinos De
France said: “In this context,
after a long period of con-
stant decline, the recovery of
GGR for table games is good
news, but with this relatively
small increase of 0.7 per cent
- the GGR going from 171m
euros last year to 183m this
year - there is cause for cau-
tious optimism. Of course,
this progression is attributed
to the removal of entrance
fees and to the variety of
games introduced as a result.”
nosmokewithfire mists or realists. The approval of one such
FRANCE Revenues generated game, Texas Hold ‘Em
reached new heights of Poker, although not being
The stagnation or survival 2.8bn euros, although with the most profitable way to
of the French casino sector ten new casinos out there fill casino square footage,
in 2007 will divide market to add to the earnings, the has allowed for the intro-
analysts out there into three increase masked something duction of poker tourna-
categories: pessimists, opti- of a downturn at the major- ments which is fuelling
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