“The arrival of spring in French casinos in the popular Texas Hold’em poker causes rejuvenation of the customer and a quiver of revenue from table games, according to a survey conducted among AFP casino operator.
The results of the 2006-2007 season of 197 French casinos, published a week ago, show an increase in gross gaming revenue (GGR, the difference between bets and winnings, the casino revenues) of 2, 8% to 2.8 billion euros compared to the previous season.
The product table games (ball, roulette, blackjack and poker) from 171 million euros for the 2005-2006 season to 183 million euros for the 2006-2007 season.
While this increase is due, according to all the casino operator, to remove the right of entry to specific rooms games, it also marks the enthusiasm of a new young customers for poker.
Popularized by television programs and the development of online gaming sites, poker came into force in French casinos that multiply openings poker tables (currently one third of the 197 casinos were allowed to operate poker) tournament and richly endowed.
The likes of Patrick Bruel can play two ways in casinos, either in parts of “cash game” where poker enthusiasts play them, the casino operating a levy of 4% on their earnings, or at tournaments where the players pay a participation fee, which the casino also levies 4%.
The first tournament held at a French casino was held Oct. 27 at the Casino Barrière de Deauville, with the participation of 200 players (participation fee 500 euros) and enabled the winner pocketing 57,000 euros. The next tournament of the group, the leading French casino operator (39 casinos, including 23 for poker) with a PBJ 950 million, scheduled for January in Bordeaux, is endowed with 400,000 euros.
Opened October 13, the casino-theater of Toulouse has three poker tables, “busy with a younger clientele than those of traditional games,” notes its director David Parré.
The Partouche group (47 casinos) is no exception. It has launched a series of tournaments he calls “the greatest event for French poker” with the final in June in Palm Beach in Cannes will see “a lot guaranteed minimum of two million euros.”
Partouche group, it was noted that poker “creates a real animation and helps attract new customers, aged 20 to 35, who discovered the internet poker and want to now compete against each other in one or room “.
Georges Tranchant, leader of the eponymous group (16 casinos), which opened four of its establishments in poker, provides that “it works well” while stressing that it was not until the year 200-2008 to judge the weight of poker turnover.
Gulf to the casino Cannes, one of the few casinos French independent director Philippe Le Gars said that the day of the opening of two poker tables, 11 August, he was unable to accommodate a player on ten. He has calculated that its revenue on the table games had increased 28% over three months of operation, thanks to poker which leads to “80%” a customer aged 18 to 30 years. “


