France is in a critical economic situation. A lot of businesses can no longer pay their staff and are forced to close down. The French are worried about their future and many of them finish the month in the red. Faced with this uncertain future, the French prefer to be careful and not to spend their money needlessly. However, there is one area where the French haven’t stopped betting: gambling. In fact, more than 32 billion euros were gambled in 2012 which is 2.8% more than the previous year, even though this amount is far from matching the 2011 wagers which had increased by 16.8% compared to 2010. Scratch cards are among the most sought after games. With them the Française des Jeux (FDJ) has pocketed the sum of 5.4 billion euros.According to the results from the past year, it seems that the FDJ is keeping its head above water since its turnover increased by more than 6%. The PMU is in second place with a rise of 2.5%. So the state can continue to rub its hands and hope to keep going in spite of this difficult period thanks in particular to its many sales outlets. Experts believe that these figures should continue to increase in the coming years because they think that players want to escape their daily lives at all costs by holding onto the idea of winning the jackpot. It’s even usual to say that in games of chance, all players have the same luck.
Unfortunately, casinos and online gaming operators aren’t in the same situation and are having difficulty re-launching their business. For the former, turnover has decreased by 1.8% and a good number of these land based casinos fear for their future. Three trade unions representing them have appealed to the Prime Minister, Jean-Marc Ayrault, to ask for permission to introduce new games and to change their opening hours. For the latter the increase was just 1% and almost 1 out of every 3 has withdrawn from this market which had once seemed so promising. Many of them very quickly became disillusioned and found themselves facing too strict legislation.
