The "Domaine de Forges" which includes a casino, three restaurants, four hotels, a golf course, a spa and employs 350 employees, is the 5th largest in the Partouche group, with 35 million euros in gross gaming revenue (the difference between players' stakes and their winnings) excluding Covid and € 11 million in non-gaming turnover.

Like the entire sector, it had to close its doors "80 days during the first confinement then 200 days between last winter and spring, and resumed an activity very constrained by the health pass", indicates Fabrice Paire, chairman of the management board .

“Today, French casinos are experiencing a drop in attendance of 30 to 35%, which is found less in activity, since we are around -15 to -20%,” he said.

Because "the main part of the customers who do not return are occasional customers, with low budget of play", specifies Ari Sebag, CEO of the field of Forges.

Fabrice Paire, Chairman of the Management Board of the Partouche group, at the Forges-les-Eaux casino, January 10, 2022 STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN AFP

The Forges-les-Eeaux site is partly idling: if the casino slot machines have regained their regulars, during the week the hotel no longer receives seminars or business events, only the brasserie le Bistro welcomes guests. and no event is scheduled before a dinner show on January 29.

In accordance with health protocols, the gaming tables - poker, roulette, etc. - have been spaced out and slot machines have been withdrawn.

Founded in 1973 and listed on the stock exchange since 1995, Partouche has 4,000 employees and operates 42 casinos out of the 202 French, a gaming club, hotels, restaurants, spa centers and golf courses.

The group is two-thirds owned by the Partouche family holding company, and Patrick, the son of founder Isidore, chairs the supervisory board.

Slot machines have been removed from the Forges-les-Eaux casino to comply with health protocols STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN AFP

- Offer of "remote games" -

In July 2021, the municipality of Forges-les-Eaux renewed for 20 years the public service delegation entrusted to the group, with a rate of levy on games raised to 15% - the maximum allowed by the regulations - for the municipality.

Partouche has promised to invest 12 million euros to expand the playgrounds and restaurants.

At the start of 2020, the group acquired 15% of the company La Pensée Sauvage, an organizer in the Vercors of stays combining fasting or vegan meals, treatments and hiking.

In Forges-les-Eaux, he also wants to offer, in future buildings, stays of "food detox supervised by naturopaths", indicates Richard Frischer, general manager of the place.

To comply with health protocols, the gaming tables have been spaced out at the Forges-les-Eaux casino, January 10, 2022 STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN AFP

"Despite the current complex situation, we continue to invest. To grow, we need space," explains Mr. Paire.

Today Partouche, like its competitors grouped within the employers' union Casinos de France, dreams of being able to offer an offer of "remote games", which would be "an electronic extension of the offer of each casino", explains to the AFP Philippe Bon, its general delegate.

Each establishment would offer a number of gaming tables and virtual slot machines equal to that which it offers in physics.

This would allow the sector to "modernize and win back a clientele which, during lockdowns when the casinos were closed, turned to an illegal offer," he said.

But this proposal should be the subject of experimentation and a modification of the law.

"French casinos are suffering a drop in attendance of 30 to 35%", according to the CEO of the Forges estate STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN AFP

Forbidden in France, online casino sites "represent significant risks of addiction", do not offer "measures to protect players and their personal data", and there is "no recourse in the event of non- payment of winnings, "said the National Gaming Authority, which regulates the sector.

But it "cannot stop the illegal online offers that abound," says Bon.

Only a few operators are approved by the ANJ for online poker (Winamax, Betclic, Netbet ...).

© 2022 AFP