Partouche to sell? In the family Partouche , ask the son Patrick. Today is the CEO of the group, more particularly in charge of marketing and communication and the Southeast region. The south is here that Patrick Partouche has spent most of his career since in 1982 he decided to join the family business run by his father, Isidore (still chairman of the supervisory board). After four years at the Casino de Dieppe, he became, in 1993, CEO of Eden Beach Casino in Juan-les-Pins. Later, he participated in the purchase of the casino and Carlton Palm Beach in Cannes. The South did not stop to look at the life of the group. Thus he has invested in the 2002 takeover of Compagnie Européenne de Casinos. This external growth operation, gave the group a new family size. But since then the family Partouche lost position as number 1 in the industry after the acquisition by Accor Casinos Group Lucien Barriere . The response is already preparing. In a statement released March 12, Groupe Partouche announcement of exclusive negotiations for the resumption of the group’s casinos Didot Botin. Meanwhile, the press release confirms talks with two investment funds (Cinven and Permira) for a possible change of control of capital and “consequently a public offer to minority shareholders of Groupe Partouche . ” Patrick Partouche explained. To your questions!

On the occasion of a live chat with users of Boursorama, Patrick Partouche , CEO of the eponymous group told about industry consolidation that marriage between Accor Casinos and Barrier ‘will not affect our results, and that its ‘string-making extremely compact’, Group Partouche is able to ‘seize opportunities faster than our competitors’.

It was shown previously in the episode treasury European Casinos. He confirmed today with the exclusive negotiations engaged to gain control of five casinos in the group Didot Bottin. On this issue, Mr Partouche said that ‘no timetable is currently stopped’.

Asked about recurring rumors of a sale of the group by its founders, Patrick Partouche said that ‘we are also in exclusive talks with two investment funds Cinven and Permira, who have expressed an interest in value, the conditions and that vehicles (Group Partouche or Financière Partouche ) involved are currently not defined. ” He adds ‘in all cases, management is and will be indispensable to any kind of transaction’.

To request more explicit about the agreement could be reached with the two funds, Mr Partouche says’ Unfortunately, the only statement we can do today has been repeatedly published, that there are discussions and that these could lead to an offer made ??to minority based on conditions of entry money with Partouche ‘.

With regard to the remedial action performed by the Partouche since the beginning of the year (+52%), the Director General of French number one casino that says’ this is not a surprise for us, who declare for several years Group Partouche was undercut … This is less the case today. ”

Regarding online games, Patrick Partouche believes that this niche of the future and expects legislators to take responsibility by legislating to make his return on the net.

At the Paris stock exchange, as the Group Partouche closed unchanged at 16.7 E.

April 21, the casino de Bourbon-Lancy will make available 80 slots. An investment of 152,000 euros marking a new beginning for the gaming facility and the spa.

After a probationary year of operation with the only classic games (tables Roulette, Blackjack and ball), the Casino de Bourbon-Lancy has just received approval from the Gaming Commission under the authority of the Ministry of Interior for the operation of machine-to-sub: April 21, from 10am, the hotel will therefore service 80 aircraft.

Representing an investment of 152 000 € (10 million F) course which is expected to return, profitability should not in principle no problem: the slot machines are indeed the lung financial casino, providing 99% the total revenue. Given the number of devices (made in France, Japan, Italy and mainly USA), the expected attendance is around 600 to 700 people per day from a catchment area one hundred kilometers Bourbon and therefore on the Saone-et-Loire and the limits of Nièvre, Allier and the Loire.

To cope with this influx of visitors, the recruitment of twenty people was made to arrive today to a total of 47 employees. As of April 21, the casino will reach his true stride and this according to plan: for the casino operator (the group Viking , which has a half-dozen gambling venues) is the prospect of access to profitability (the first year of operation without a machine cost him one million € to € 3.3 m to add related infrastructure cost). The municipality, in addition to the consolidation of employment and revenue increases, there is an opportunity to strengthen its economic and tourism potential. “Already green resort, spa town and medieval city, Bourbon-Lancy is the only city department to offer a fun activity for casino” says Mr. Draper.

Already heavily involved in local life (cultural or sports partnership), the casino, whose group is the first franchisee of Accor should also help ensure short-term hotel development of the city, new asset for the city.

Patte blanche to play
Casino de Bourbon-Lancy is one of very few institutions to require the presentation of an ID to access the games: this for the sake of ethics (the no-checking game) and a logic of prevention because “the game should be fun and not become a disease,” notes Jean-Paul Draper, Mayor. A view shared by Mr. Christian Huby president of the board of the group Viking , “players who are 80% of women and retirees who willingly appropriated a device, they do not hesitate to call to ask if” their “machine is free” Given the number of authorized devices type including Tower of Power or Stant up, management proposes “soft updates”. Indeed, fans can wager from 0.10 €, 0.2 €, 0.5 €, 1 € and 2 €.

The gaming commission is preparing to launch an investigation to verify whether or not fraud at all casinos in the country. The investigation committee may, where appropriate, result in a warning, suspension or outright withdrawal of the license of the casino staff. The Committee will audition the casino workers and claim the video counts of money. Since March, the casinos are indeed obliged to register these counts on video tape and retain for 28 days. The Committee will also pass under the scrutiny of the documents listing the daily gains that casinos daily challenge to the Commission on Gambling. It preventive audit comes amid a massive fraud was unearthed last week at the casino of Namur. To date, twenty two people were deprived of their liberty. The information appears in De Tijd.

The Action Group Partouche continues to evolve within a narrow fluctuation band at the Paris stock exchange since it wins +0.6% at 16.80 E after three sessions without relief (closing spreads). Investors clearly expect to know more about the content of negotiations with the funds Cinven and Permira.

Moreover, as admitted by the Director General Patrick Partouche during a chat with netizens Boursorama, the undervaluation of the title was largely corrected by the jump of 52% achieved by the action since beginning of the year. The head of a number of casinos in France and told about what they catch is not a surprise to us, ‘declare that in several years that Group Partouche was undercut … This is less the case today. ”

Mr Partouche is back on the episode of the marriage of its competitors and Accor Casinos Barriere, stressing that this operation ‘will not affect our results, and that its’ string-making extremely compact’, Group Partouche is able to ‘seize opportunities faster than our competitors’.

It was shown previously in the episode treasury European Casinos. He confirmed today with the exclusive negotiations engaged to gain control of five casinos in the group Didot Bottin. On this issue, Mr Partouche said that ‘no timetable is currently stopped’.

Asked about recurring rumors of a sale of the group by its founders, Patrick Partouche said that ‘we are also in exclusive talks with two investment funds Cinven and Permira, who have expressed an interest in value, the conditions and that vehicles (Group Partouche or Financière Partouche ) involved are currently not defined. ” He adds ‘in all cases, management is and will be indispensable to any kind of transaction’.

To request more explicit about the agreement could be reached with the two funds, Mr Partouche says’ Unfortunately, the only statement we can do today has been repeatedly published, that there are discussions and that these could lead to an offer made ??to minority based on conditions of entry money with Partouche ‘.

A beginner can beat a champion

No more smoky bars, light green, the Tronches of thugs. Today, poker is played in full sun. The new stars competing Hold’em on TV or on the web

To win a tournament of Texas Hold’em poker, the twenty-first century, we must believe in his star, keep a cool head and control his nerves. It was precisely the case of Greater Bibe when he arrived at Poker Million, an event organized in London and broadcast on Britain’s Sky, which focuses on the maps to grab the pub. It really was a moral winner, winner of the Grand Bibe. Like all champions, he was convinced that his opponents were donkeys.

That may be true, but he lost. Eliminated in first round. Victim of a player who has risked his stack against all rules of art. And yet, the Grand Bibe is someone. Finalist at the World Championships in Las Vegas in 1999, “he knows how to scare the opponent, to impress, says one of his friends. A real killer at the table. ” Dentist the day, the Grand Bibe bluffing night as his teeth. Eliminated also Bruno Fitoussi, an influential member of the circle game Aviation on the Champs-Elysees. The man who brought France Hold’em. Eliminated Tim and Philippa Flanders, the Dutch couple who scoured the tournaments in Europe and the United States with the same obstinacy that their ancestors began to build polders. One of the advantages of Hold’em, the most popular of the many variants of poker open: a beginner can beat a champion.

Like Chris Moneymaker. He exercised alternately as an accountant and that of a waiter. He became the 34th world champion in Las Vegas and has pocketed $ 2.5 million just six months after learning to play poker on the web. The most extraordinary is his name really Moneymaker. As if he had the word “luck” written on his passport. The example of Chris, the prole of the Nashville teen’s cap, gave a fiery thirst of millions of dollars to neophytes in the world playing like crazy on the web hoping to invite themselves by surprise large table and blow the jackpot.

Poker in the French imagination, felt the sweat of sleepless nights, smoking is cool. It was a film noir dialogue by Michel Audiard. He played in back rooms of pubs to the Iron Curtain fell. Just before or just after a robbery. Under a lampshade that shed a light greenish faces ravaged by thugs on the run from crooked cops, snitches promised to violent death. Nothing to do with the Hold’em poker Texan who now earns France. The dream of an America deep where poker has never been demonized since the money comes from God. Roosevelt, Eisenhower played poker and boasted. Richard Nixon has even financed his winnings with his campaign. While the lesser misdemeanor extramarital chars you a career, the practice of poker is considered by American voters as a guarantee that the candidate possesses the analytical skills and composure necessary for a president. “It is difficult for a candidate in the Auvergne regional avail himself of his success in poker,” said one professional. France remained notary. ”

Poker is a traditional draw poker. Hold’em poker is open (see box). A melee in which players compete physically, mentally and psychologically. They are less focused on their game in draw poker. Players are on a ring. It is a combat sport, a full-contact poker. Hold’em is the playful side of unbridled capitalism.

The former was an old poker thriller in black and white. Hold’em is more of a spaghetti western. It was resurrected in 1970 by Benny Binion, a cowboy coat and Stetson, which was still a colt frontier belt. It was he who in 1973 organized the first world championship in its grimy casino downtown Las Vegas, Binion’s Horseshoe (the iron horse-shoe). There was at that time a dozen players. There were 871 in 2003 and is expected to double this year. Benny died in suspicious circumstances, as saying all the fonts in the world when they do not want to complicate things. There are now two world championships Hold’em. The WSOP (World Series of Poker), which always takes place at Binion’s Horseshoe, revamped how the palace, and the WPT (World Poker Tour), a mégashow televised organized by two tycoons poker, Steve Lipscomb and Lyle Berman, together with thirteen American casinos and the Paris circle of Aviation. With the preliminary tournaments – satellites, these mini-tournaments where you can win a ticket to participate in qualifying events whose fees are expensive – there is always suspense and hope over the poker world. It is no longer hell of game but the players paradise notified. “Those who know how to manage the fortune and misfortune and eliminate as much as possible the chance,” said Bruno Fitoussi. Businessmen like the others. Poker free poker blows.

Major tournaments and championships are filmed by cameras webcam, which allow viewers to see the cards of players covered and broadcast by American cable channel Travel Channel, which attracts both 5million viewers. Poker players were once living creatures in the darkness of the casinos. Hold’em champions are stars. We know their faces, their mannerisms. We know everything about them, their movements, their breathing, the way they stack their chips when they throw their rugs. They are sponsored by clothing brands such as soccer players. They are in full sun. Like Johnny Chan, a former chef became the terror of tournaments and famous for its mineral impassive. As Doyle Brunson, the veteran master history, the first pro in Las Vegas, which still prevails on tournaments in his wheelchair. Hold’em also has its dark legend: Stu Ungar, the greatest player of all time, who read on the faces like a book. But it was a hothead, a gambler destroy. He died of an overdose in a motel in Las Vegas.

But the poker revolution, the web sites with its innumerable, PokerStars player, Paradise, UB, Planet P, etc.. Millions of players. Those who attend the parties free to learn, those who play in parties or 20cents to $ 1 a climb championships satellite to satellite, to fame and fortune. The conservative who received regular income Hold’em, the gamblers who are ruined. Insomniacs London play with Japanese who are still in office. The small frames Cantonese face of Texan oil billionaire and Lebanese.

Hold’em is without borders or time zones. Frenetic activity twenty-four hours in twenty-four. The game is on-line speeds. It provides three times more data than the game live. People play five or six tables at once. Some even on two screens simultaneously. Everybody plays the father, mother, children. Poker becomes a global village. With hackers trying to penetrate the computers to see maps of the opponent with his unsworn programmers can give rigging. “Some sites probably belong to the mafia,” said one specialist. But the number of players and the billions at stake neutralize cheating. It is necessary that the players win if we want the system continues to function. The cheater is a player among others. The average player does not care. He agreed to lose the hope of winning. It is on the web to dream.

Singer, actor and avid poker player, Patrick Bruel is very discreet about his love of maps. This month, he will attend the world championships in Las Vegas Hold’em (10000dollars the ticket), an event he won back in 1998. Assiduous in Parisian circle of Aviation, Bruel loves “putting in danger the looks, the atmosphere.” Silent of its gains as losses, but he claims to play “big” unashamedly “If I have a good hand and good karma, I have no problem to align myself with great players.”

Alain François Chouffan Caviglioli

The code of practice
Texas Hold’em is called “open” versus traditional poker “closed.” In the classic version, each player receives five cards and is careful to conceal his opponents. In the modern version, players receive only two. But five community cards to all participants are exposed in the center of the table, face up. The goal remains the same: to provide the combination of five cards of the highest possible: the pair of straight-flush through the trips (three identical cards), the straight (five cards followed), color (five cards of the same color), full (more trips pair) and the square (four identical cards). Bets and raises as and when the party can increase the auction. Everyone is free to follow, to lie, to bluff. The final pot is up to whoever has the best game or who was able to believe.

Alain Chouffan

The university green carpet
He had every reason to be happy. Political science professor at Paris-XIII, novelist (1), former employee of Jack Lang, a pretty face … And a passion: poker, to which he gave up everything, one day in 1999, thus moving to the United States. Las Vegas to Atlantic City via Chicago, Anatole Parthians, 40 years, now lives in the game of Texas Hold’em Mercenary, he participated in all tournaments and hunts above all the “pigeons” that gathers the small morning when they have lost everything and try to remake themselves. His earnings vary between 100,000 and 200,000 dollars annually, net of taxes. “A good player should know when to stand a chance escaped him, he says. It is a discipline: to have fun but never overwhelmed by pleasure. ”

(1) “Weaknesses” Blue Hors Editions, 2003.

Casino Ribeauvillé is still not allowed to open. The staff were temporarily transferred to other institutions in the group ACCOR. However, a solution should be found before the summer.

There are no crowds at the casino Ribeauvillé. Virtually no one else. The team comes down with the Director Jacques Leveque and chief financial officer, the security official and an administrative secretary. And, of course, no customers since the establishment still has no ministerial approval.

The opening was scheduled for January 15, ten weeks ago, but a legal loophole in the public service delegation, signed by the community of municipalities in the country Ribeauville and the ACCOR group, delaying the case to the last stage of the proceedings administration. That is to say the office of Interior Minister.

Interviewed by the DNA in early March, the law firm of Nicolas Sarkozy have said they do not wish to communicate on the progress of the examination. That was before the election defeat. Today, it seems that the changes announced to head the Interior Ministry are not made to expedite the case Ribeauvillé.

Asked by Councillor opposition Christian Haas, Monday at the council, the deputy mayor (UMP) Ribeauvillé Jean-Louis Christ said he had no information. A source familiar with the matter, rather optimistic, says that his side “as a negative notice is not given, we can estimate that the services of the department are looking for a solution on which to base a legal decision authorization.

Strategic silence

Clearly, it means that until the minister has not said no, the casino opened, without taking the administrative procedure from the beginning, is entirely possible.

The release could come from a modification of existing laws. We know for example that a draft law on local responsibilities, already passed by the Senate, is being studied in the National Assembly. It could contain a specific provision or be amended in order to unblock the situation indirectly Ribeauville and open wider the doors of the art gaming communities of Commons. And even if this hypothesis out of the crisis is not seen as a good thing by parliamentarians who have a more restrictive implementations of games of chance.

Still, that side of the community of Commons, it refuses any communication for reasons known as “strategic.” Just says that there a few weeks ‘maximum’, the potential delay of opening the casino will be known. We will therefore before the summer what is the solution chosen and how long will require its implementation.

The leaders of the casino does not want them either, please. According to our sources, a dozen employees have been redirected to the Accor group of institutions, particularly to the casino of Mandelieu and Switzerland, waiting for better days.

A 74 year-old former member RPR Georges Tranchant is the head of twenty-four casinos. Businessman with an unusual background, it is now part of the hundred wealthiest French

Above all, do not rely on your fellow, with laughing eyes. The man knows how to bite, his enemies will tell you. Georges Tranchant , 74, RPR member of the Hauts-de-Seine for fifteen years, now president of the holding Finindusco, which brings together some forty companies and twenty-four casinos, has just joined the clan of the hundred richest people France. “But frankly, he assures, I could not care less.” Father of six children, he drives himself a Mercedes, lives in the very exclusive Villa Montmorency, Paris, neighbor – and friend – with Carole Bouquet and Sylvie Vartan, but installed the premises of its holding in La Plaine-Saint- Denis. Retirement? He refuses to uncouple “My hobby is business, I will die one foot in my office.” And likes to quote this verse of a poet: “You’re as young as your faith, as old as your doubt.” He doubts nothing.

Of Switzerland in Saint-Domingue through France, 1 350 employees are responsible for conveying the values ??of Finindusco “welcome and affection.” In casinos Tranchant , you lose money, lots of money, but with a smile. Fifth French group, the society represents 10% of the volume of the game in France. In 2003, gross gaming revenue it reported 207 million euros.

The boss is a busy man and voracious. The construction of this holding is that it took eleven years after his defeat in the 1993 parliamentary elections, in the Hauts-de-Seine. But eleven years to defeat his opponents to use his political network, to cherish the mayors of the province, to travel thousands of miles aboard his two private planes.

“Yes, I am friends with three quarters of the current government,” he admits. Nicolas Sarkozy, I knew him in shorts. Obviously, my political awareness has served me! ” Anyway, he is not afraid of anything. “I saw death face to 15 years, says he, since I no longer frightens me.” His enemies can attest, and they are many: the casino group Partouche , hated rival, former MP (RPR) Jean Kiffer Mayor Amnéville (Moselle), the former judge Thierry Fradin. Georges Tranchant has even fought against Bernard Tapie, give thanks to him. The product, surely, an adventurous youth …

His father passed away 7 years, he lived on the farm when the German Marshal Von Rundstetdt cons-attack in the Ardennes in 1944. The teenager finds himself trapped behind German lines, with temperatures reaching – 30 ° C. He joined the Americans, said the bridges to jump the gun play, balance grenades. “I have killed, he says. I even had to spend a night in a pile of manure for my stash. At 15, I lost the fear of anyone. Since I ‘m still considered a stay. ” He received the Medal of voluntary combatant, armed with a simple certificate of study, launched into the “business” after the war.

After the store BHV, he created his first electronics company at age 18, then travels to the United States. At Princeton (New Jersey), where he comes out the electronics lab, it is housed in a pavilion adjacent to the faculty. “My landlord was adorable, he played the piano and I’ve never done anything to pay.” This generous musician was a professor at Princeton, he called Albert Einstein. But the young French No one knew until much later.

Income in France, he made his business prosper. In 1959, he founded Edge Electronics, Techni then Import, and decided to enter politics. In 1978 he was elected in Asnières (Hauts-de-Seine): “I came to the campaign of Giscard d’Estaing. Labels, I did not care. I’m right, I fight left. “Basic Reasoning, maximum efficiency, there he entered politics, the point of taking the head of the Finance Committee in the National Assembly.

Its economic activities are mothballed until his meeting with Bernard Tapie in 1982. Initially, the current flows smoothly between these two adventurers, and wealthy boasters. “It appeared to me like a serious guy,” recalls Mr. Edge . was restarted together a distribution company of Toshiba, through a joint venture. ” Bernard Tapie became MP. “He laughed at me at the time, recalls Georges Tranchant , he said: “You’re stupid to do politics.” When he was elected, I told him: “Well, you’re as dumb as me. ”

In 1991, Georges Tranchant taught by a police officer that his partner would have stolen 15 million francs. The fight between the two men remained in the annals of the National Assembly: “Tapie threw me:” Fuck you, you are in power, “said the industrialist. Then he gave me a finger of honor, throwing me, “Go to enc …” There, I said it was all his life remember me. ”

Consider themselves cheated, Georges Tranchant complaint. Became minister, Bernard Tapie has been charged with complicity and the misuse of corporate assets. In June 1992 he was forced to leave the government. Concerned about his “protected”, the President, Francois Mitterrand, called Mr. Edge : “The president says” Tranchant , what’s all this about? “I told him that if Tapie pay me, I withdrew my complaint. repaid, everything is back to normal. ”

The episode has left its mark. In the eyes of Mr. Edge , Bernard Tapie is a “thug, structurally dishonest extraordinarily liar.” The latter replies that if his ex-partner’s interest as much as “masturbation shellfish at low tide. Beyond that, the former businessman become actor says he was victim of “organized gang”. “This is not what the RPR does best, he says. The best proof of the existence of this band, which belonged to Edge and Charles Pasqua, is that as soon as I paid the sum I had a non-suit. At the time, Georges Tranchant enjoyed boundless powers on policing and justice. Pasqua was a very effective network. Not a guy in France do not know who is really Georges Tranchant . ”

He had already prepared its industrial restructuring long before this. In 1986, he learned that a law allowing casinos to operate slot machines will be created. He therefore decided to approve a company he had left dormant. “I had the greatest difficulty, because I was elected RPR. Pasqua, the then interior minister, dissuaded me from myself get into that. I had to threaten to resign from the party to succeed . That’s the difference between left and right: the right is complex when it comes to service to his people, not the left! ”

In May 1988, when the Act comes into force, Georges Tranchant is the first to import machines. But 300 of them are blocked by customs, the same year, when the socialist Pierre Joxe succeeds Charles Pasqua, the Ministry of Interior. The new minister, objected to the games, refusing to release the machines of Mr. Edge . “It was Pierre Beregovoy-future Socialist prime minister-who broke the deadlock, says the manufacturer. It was my office mate in the Assembly. One day I had even lent my fax, he did not. Appointed minister of economy, it has clearance my machines. ”

Georges Tranchant creates its first two casinos, Dunkirk and Amneville, acquire other companies and operates its slot machines. The group of Georges Tranchant is on track. Defeated in the 1993 parliamentary elections, he finally gives up the policy. He who is not player launches into the game world without fear of losing his reputation. “Do I look like a mafioso? He asks. The casino is a world controlled. There is no cocaine, no guns, everything is clean. A slush fund, it is almost impossible. Slot machines account for 95% of revenue, they can not be tamper with. And if there were suspicions of corruption, there was never any evidence. ” The group manufactures its machines, is important, then installs them in its institutions. Such economic autarky generates a lot of suspicion …

A judge Montluçon (Allier), Thierry Fradin, has attempted to better understand the mechanism. Mr. Fradin, magistrate today at the 16th criminal court of Paris, has even returned in September 1999, the industrialist to the criminal court, after having done detain him for fifteen days the remand of Montlucon. He was suspected of having paid a bribe of two million francs to the former mayor of Neris-les-Bains, Henry Yermia, in conjunction with the acquisition of the local casino.

Finally, in November 1999, Georges Tranchant obtained a dismissal of the indictment. “Transparency is not required to put in this world,” said Thierry Fradin. A slot machine is amortized in fifteen days, the mafia is very present in the game “Mr. Edge is still furious: “They have fabricated a novel! accuses the contractor. I found myself in gnouf I was in a cell with a murderer! “I’ve never paid a penny to the mayor, there was the invention of the judge.”

Pure invention, really? Too simple. The magistrate had tried to pierce the opacity of the system. In his trial record, and he had a testimony, collected 18 November 1993 by Judge Sampieri, Marseilles, who was investigating the attempted purchase of the casino in Menton. A former lawyer, Alain Verbyst, detailing what will be assured that the practices of the group Edge . He criticized officials of the races and games section of the General Intelligence (RG), which would, he said, “benefited from the generosity of Mr. Edge , who in turn benefited from having information in the reports of the lottery commission. ” Mr. Edge was introduced as the conductor of a nebula of companies – settled for a few in Switzerland – always ready, through his interpersonal skills and information before it, to destabilize its competitors.

“Yes, I know these officials RG, he admits. They have done nothing wrong, they are good technicians.” A central management of the RG, where 270 police officers assigned to investigate the 184 casinos in France, we speak of a “world closely watched, Edge is an operator like the others “. With its non-place, ex-cons-member appeal. He filed a complaint against Judge Fradin, for false imprisonment. This procedure is still ongoing.

“This story was fabricated, argues Mr Edge . They wanted to prove that the money went to the RPR, Arnaud Montebourg, PS current member and lawyer, began to attack in the folder Jacques Chirac. It a plot. ” J. Fradin, He did not budge: “I always assumed my decisions independently,” he said.

Besides the fifteen days in jail, this episode judicial done considerable harm to the business of Mr. Edge . For many months, the Ministry of Interior has not issued any permit more recovery casino. Five years later, the holding Finindusco is again flourishing, and his boss has unearthed new enemies. The group Partouche , first, and its 43 casinos. On each purchase of property, competition is fierce.

Another opponent Jean Kiffer, former MP and mayor of Amnéville-les-Bains, where one of the most lucrative casinos in the country. Mr. Kiffer decided to expropriate the group Edge , to entrust the management of the institution to a municipal authority. A first in France, an earthquake in the game world if, perchance, the chosen succeeded in its purpose. “The casino released 15 million euros per year of surpluses,” says Kiffer. It has created 1 300 jobs here. But the group has never invested, it simply took our money. I, I a real project. Georges Tranchant is a type impossible to live, he left a four star hotel fallow, and the structure of its society is opaque. ”

The person simply recalls that Jean Kiffer was indicted in 2003 for unlawful taking of interest. Mainly, the industrialist has his head elsewhere. In the Netherlands, where he wants to develop. In Basel (Switzerland), where his facility reaps the benefits. United States, on Indian reserves, but also in Lille, Toulouse. Above all, never stop. Especially as the next generation is here: his son already running three major divisions of his group. Ready to fight.

The president of Loto-Quebec, Alain Cousineau, is about to revive the plan to relocate the Montreal Casino.

The controversial project of several hundred million dollars would propose that the gambling house is relocated to the Old Port or downtown.

The idea has already been rejected by the former president of the corporation, Gaétan Frigon.

This does not Alain Cousineau want to present soon to the Quebec government a new project.

The construction of a casino and a hotel in downtown or Old Port would cost approximately $ 800 million. Another more modest scenario speaks of simple renovations of the current building costs of $ 100 million.

ZURICH – Swiss casinos have experienced a fruitful year 2003: earnings nearly doubled, to 561 million francs. But they are worried about competition and potential dependence of the “tactile” from the Loterie Romande. The 19 gambling houses attached to the Swiss Casinos (FSC) and operative in 2003 attracted 3 million customers. They recorded a gross gaming revenue (the difference between wagers and winnings) from 540 million francs. Only casino Meyrin (GE), which opened its doors last year, is not a member of the FSC.

While the seven casinos in Concession A exceeded expectations (produced 335 million), most of the twelve casinos B, before all those mountains, had problems (produced 205 million), said the chairman of the FSC Adriano Censi.

The Kursaal in Arosa even had to put the key under the mat in the middle of the year. One of Zermatt is temporarily closed since late 2003. Negotiations are underway to revive the operation, according to Mr. Censi.

Moreover, the umbrella organization is concerned about “unfair competition” of the “tactile” from the Loterie Romande, said Censi. Available in bars and restaurants, this electronic lottery distributes approximately 90% of earnings, a rate comparable to that of slot machines.

The FSC requires that “tactilos” and “touchlots” be placed on an equal footing with the casino slot machines as part of the ongoing revision of the federal law on lotteries. Despite their “high potential for gambling addiction,” the law does not prescribe their operators no preventive measures including child protection, said Mr Censi.