Operator News

France – Barrière dominates France’s top-earning casinos

By Phil - 9 January 2018

The 200 French casinos operating in the 2016 to 2017 fiscal year generated total gaming revenues of €2.292bn, up 2.48 per cent from the previous year with operator Lucien Barrière dominating the top five.

Whilst still moving in the right direction, the growth is slightly less than the increase recorded in 2015 to 2016 when GGR was up 2.59 per cent. Of the 200 French casinos, 117 showed an increase in their annual revenue, compared to 137 showing growth in 2015 to 2016.

Not surprisingly, Enghien-les-Bains, the casino closest to Paris, produced GGR of €169.6m, marking an increase of more than four per cent compared to last year. In total, Lucien Barrière owned four of the casinos in the top five earning gaming floors of the last year with Toulouse climbing from sixth place last year to second with GGR of €47.4m, up 11 per cent from last year. In third place came Bordeaux with a GGR of €46.5m, up 2.1 per cent. The only casino in the top five not owned by Barrière was the Partouche-owned casino in Aix-en-Provence, which finished in fourth place, down from second and with a GGR of €46m, down one per cent on the year earlier.

Barrière casino in Blotzheim fell from fourth to fifth despite its GGR being up 5.6 per cent with a total of €45.7m.

In Sixth was the casino in Amnéville owned Tranchant Group. Despite its GGR being up by two per cent it actually slipped a place in the league standings with a total of about €44m.

Ranked seventh, like last year, the Lyon Vert casino, owned by Partouche, recorded GGR of €40.3m, down 2.9 per cent over last year.

The casino de Lille moved up two places compared to 2015-2016 and is now ranked eighth with a GGR of €38.8m this year, up 9.4 per cent. In ninth place, Saint-Amand dropped a place with a GGR of €38.3m, up by 1.4 per cent.

Finally, Deauville, slipped from ninth place last year to tenth this year despite its GGR of €37.9m being up 5.5 per cent compared to 2015-2016. They are six of casinos owned by Lucien Barrière in the top 10.

The top-earning independent casino was that in Evian which retained its position of 18th place with a total GGR of €25.7m. The strongest growth of any casino during the year came at Capvern-les-Bains, where new owners SFC managed to increase its GGR by 72 per cent hitting €3.06mThe biggest drop was recorded in Font-Romeu, which lost a quarter of its GDP, dropping to €0.46m last year.

Lucien Barrière led the way in terms of the top-earning operator with GGR of €695m during the year, up 3.6 per cent. In second place was Groupe Partouche, with a global turnover of €540m, an increase of 0.35 per cent, followed by Joa, who was up 3.25 per cent with €211m.