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France – Paris set for wave of new style gaming club

By - 8 January 2018

The New Year will see the start of a new era for gaming in the French capital of Paris with a new type of gaming club replacing the ‘gaming circles’ of old.

Starting January 1 2018, new legislation will allow venues to offer poker-type games although the most popular casino games of roulette and blackjack will still not be allowed.

The gaming circles such as Wagram, Concorde and Aviation Club of France have disappeared in the wake of lawsuits over tax fraud and money laundering. Only the Clichy Montmartre gaming circle remains active. It now has a year to transform itself into a ‘club.’

Three operators, Raineau, Tranchant and Partouche have already submitted requests. Barrière has also said it wants to operate “a gaming club in Paris”.

Their files should then be examined by the Advisory Committee on Circle and Casino Games on Tuesday January 23 (the next is scheduled for March 6). This will then need to be signed off by the Minister of the Interior. The government is expecting around a dozen operators of the new style gaming club. The majority of the clubs will open in the Champs-Elysees district, in order to attract foreign customers already in the capital, although some are also expected to open in the districts of Bastille and Le République.

Games will include stud poker, punto banco, casino hold’em poker, ultimate poker, three-card poker, poker 21, multi-coloured billiards, railroad and mahjong. Last year punto banco generated €10.5m, which accounted for 5.56 per cent of the total gaming turnover in France. The new clubs will be operated on an experimentation basis for around 24 months

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