Plan is response to smoking ban
French hospitality company Le Groupe Partouche is planning an extraordinary indoor-outdoor casino in the port city of La Ciotat, along the country’s southern coast near Marseilles.
According to the World Casino Directory, the casino is partly a response to a 2007 smoking ban that caused an overall 25 percent drop in casino patronage in the country. Fabrice Paire, president of Partouche’s corporate executive board, said the industry is slowly rebounding, but pointed out that indoor casinos have been outperformed by the few that offer outdoor gaming options.
In keeping with the maritime history of its host city, architectural firm Marc Fercy has designed a casino that will look “like an overturned boat hull,” with landscaping and umbrellas to provide cover for those who play outside.
According to WCD, in 2015 gross gaming revenues at Partouche’s French casinos generated €514.5 million (US$575 million), a decline of 2.1 percent, and the French casino sector as a whole was down 2.6 percent.
Marseilles Mayor Jean-Claude Gaudin supports the planned casino, which could bring an estimated 500 jobs and €10 million (US$11 million) in annual tax revenues to the region. Gaudin said Deauville draws 30 percent of its local budget from gaming taxes, and other towns generate as much as 80 percent of government revenues from the taxes.
Those numbers may be especially seductive as France, like other countries in the European Union, struggles to right its economy. The government is considering a reform of its gaming legislation which could lead to one or more casinos in Paris.
