Forty additional casinos in fifteen years, the drift behavior of dependence and withdrawal can not explain the irrepressible need to play are feeling “addicted” to slot machines.
Prominently at the entrance of some 70 of the 176 French casinos, is an edifying for three months’ notice to the persons banned from gambling. ” In the event that one of them “would seek to violate the ban”, the text warns that it “can not get the payouts that would result from its latest (…)”.
In practice, the reactions – which, in the vast majority of cases, have themselves sought the ban against them – can be confused only if they earn an amount exceeding EUR 150 slot machines, since payment of earnings below this amount does not require proof of identity.
The origin of this approach, Casinos de France, one of the trade unions representing the profession, means “placing” gamers and “fight upstream against the addictive behaviors.
Amounts received, promises the employers ‘organization, will go’ on behalf of charities. ”
The SOS-Players did not like this development. “This is a reversal of the principle of prohibition. We walk on the head!” Indignant Armelle Achour, its secretary general, who recalls that no French casino, except that of Enghien (Val-d’Oise), does the identity check at the entrance halls of slot machines.
In these circumstances, the measures of self-exclusion requested by the players themselves, or administrative targeting unscrupulous bettors are almost irrelevant. However, in the halls of “big game” (roulette, chemin de fer), the verification is routine at entry. Somewhat grotesque, the warning Casino of France presents at least the merit of raising the curtain on a noticeable unease around 14 888 “ban-dits penguins” identified through the territory.
Reserved area casinos, the expansion of slot machines over the last fifteen years, consecutive to the Pasqua Law of 1988 has created forty institutions and revitalize some spas somewhat forgotten, but it has also resulted in a net increase in cases of abuse of game This term refers coyly those unable to suppress their penchant for gambling and for which the request for voluntary ban casino often appears as the only effective protection.
In 2002, 2060, exclusion measures were made by the Ministry of Interior – their duration is five years – while only 400 had been requested in 1993. “In 80% of cases, we can consider that it is slots lovers,” says one place Beauvau. Currently 7,000 players would voluntarily banned casino. As the number of administrative exclusions, it is less than one hundred per year.
While the appeal of green carpet has stagnated or even regressed, playing roller (you must align a row of identical icons to win) or electronic (the famous video-poker simulates a card game) attract a new audience and represent now 92% of the gross sales of French institutions, which reached 2.5 billion euros in 2002 according to Casinos de France.
In the halls of slot machines, where you can usually go without a costume or tie, the bet is apparently small (1 or 2 euros a game). “The danger specifically comes from. We can play frantically burst, and everything comes together very quickly,” said a couple of forties who still frequent the halls of the Southwest, despite a measure of voluntary exclusion and “a heavy liability dug Loved revolving credits. “When I’m at the casino, nothing else matters. It is in the output as the nightmare begins,” writes a woman SOS Players, taking care to provide an address different from his own “because my family does not know everything, “she said.
“These people are very evil. Their engine is more greed – they often say that the non-payment of money earned is not a deterrent – but the mere fact of playing. Some are left with 150 000 euros of debt, “insists Armelle Achour.
Of the 1274 requests for assistance recorded in 2002 by SOS Players, almost two thirds reported a dependence vis-slot machines. The others are from frantic horse racing, or even scratch game Rapido, and far behind the game rooms Many argue “that we find a solution for them, really ban the entry of casinos.” Some have even decided to go to court to succeed …
“There is a real problem with the slot machines, says Bernard Besson, Deputy Director of Racing and Gaming on the central management of general information. We asked exhibitors to consider solutions – technical or regulatory – that used to enforce exclusion orders. ” Contacts have been established between several branches of the Ministry of Interior (including the civil liberties) and unions representing casinos, to improve the situation.
But the prospect of tighter controls, even the introduction of a routine identity check at the entrance of institutions – such as Germany, Switzerland and Luxembourg – were not enthusiastic Christian Rouyer, managing director of Casinos de France. “Physically, I do not see how the operation can be conducted. In addition, I am not convinced that this is the best way to solve the problem,” he says. He recalled that the institutions belonging to his professional organization formed part of their personal support of addictive behaviors and distribute a “Guide to Preventing the risks of excessive gambling” which offers a self-assessment test. “The casinos are participating in the economic and tourism in their region, they are friendly places that annually receive 64 million visitors, including 61 million in the halls of slot machines. This spirit, we may kill him” he was indignant.
A status quo would remain the question of monopoly slots granted to casinos. “If one considers that de facto access is free, why, therefore, prevent the installation of” bandits “in hotels or cafes, as is the case in many countries?” S ‘asks a very good connoisseur of the world of gaming rooms. Yet such a case the casinos certainly do not want to hear.
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