In Paris, the discreet success of gaming clubs

You have to be an insider to know why, every day before 1 p.m., a line of impatient people forms in front of 62, rue Pierre-Charron at 8^e district of Paris. Hidden in an alley, a sign appears timidly: Club Pierre Charron. At the same time, inside, dozens of croupiers in uniforms are busy scrupulously carrying out their daily rituals in a sober setting: counting the establishment’s 75,000 chips, worth 50 cents to 25,000 euros each, under the control of a member of the management committee (MCD), verification of each deck of cards… All on the traditional casino tables – green carpets, but lined with electronics – and under the dozens of cameras strewn across the ceiling.

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There are seven gaming clubs like this in Paris. A unique status in the world, the result of a long legal and administrative transition, and for the moment experimental. These new, highly regulated establishments were created in 2018 to clean up and channel gambling in the Paris region. Supposed to end initially in 2020, then in 2022, the experiment will end in 2024, when a possible sustainability will be discussed.

Since casinos have been banned since 1919 within a radius of 100 kilometers around Paris (with the exception of the spa town of Enghien-les-Bains, in Val-d’Oise, which is home to the largest casino in France), associative gambling circles flourished for decades in the capital, before closing one by one, in the 2000s and 2010s, all for cases of tax evasion and money laundering.

Classy but confidential

To replace them, the capital can therefore accommodate, for four years, these establishments, which offer matching games (where each player faces the bank) and poker in different formats (where players can compete against each other). On the other hand, the most popular activities in casinos (roulette and slot machines) are prohibited. The Central Racing and Gaming Service (SCCJ) of the judicial police, mandated by the Ministry of the Interior, scrupulously monitors these “half-casinos”. “The game offer is now very healthy, it’s day and night compared to the days of the circles, welcomes Stéphane Piallat, head of the SCCJ. I have a team of civil servants who go to the clubs every week, they are responsible for approving all staff, inspecting the fight against money laundering…”

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