Operator News
France – Circus Casino completes Vals les Bains take over claiming its fifth casino in France
By Phil - 31 March 2020
The Circus Casino France group has now officially taken operations at the Vals les Bains casino in the French region of Ardèche, having bought the majority stake of Mathieu and Jérôme Poli.
The acquisition also includes the Helvie hotel, a 4-star establishment with 27 rooms, two floors of which are still to be renovated, and a restaurant, Le Vivarais, whose chef is Stéphane Polly, which sports a one star in the Michelin guide. The Vals les Bains casino generated gross gaming revenue of €9.242m in 2018 to 2019, down 2.04 per cent, placing it 90th out of 202 French casinos. It is the only casino in the department.
Frédéric Bouschon remains general manager and responsible for the casino, and Benoît Engels (co-founder of Cerus Casino Academy) will take over the management of the complex. With this acquisition, the subsidiary of the Belgian group Gaming1 (Ardent Group) now has five casinos in France, Vals les Bains adding to Briançon, Carnac, Port Leucate and, more recently, Allevard les Bains which was officially branded a Circus casino at the end of November. Since September 9, the Circus group has also opened a games club in Paris, as part of the experimentation phase which began on January 1, 2018. In addition, the Société Française de Casinos indicated that Circus Casino France had signed memoranda of understanding to acquire 50.05 per cent of its capital from of two of its main shareholders. The SFC operates four casinos, in Gruissan, Chatel-Guyon, Port La Nouvelle and Collioure. Circus Casino France has signed sale contracts with a view to acquiring a control block of 50.05 per cent of the capital and voting rights of the SFC.
