The seven game clubs in the capital had to benefit from a year of additional experimentation. But with the country’s current political situation, nothing is less certain. 1500 direct jobs are threatened.
Parisian game clubs, collateral victims of government censorship. Almost seven years after their opening in the capital, the seven game clubs will have to close their doors on December 31, even though the government wanted to perpetuate them. A wish fallen into the water, for lack of budget.
These places, where games of poker or blackjack are played out, but without understeck machines, had been able to open in January 2018 as part of an experimental approach of an initial duration of three years. Extended for the first time until the end of 2022 then a second time during the health crisis until December 31, 2024, the game clubs were still extended by one year within the framework of article 28 of the finance bill for 2025. As much as they report each “Year 50 million euros for public authorities (shared up to 40 million for the State and 10 million for the town hall)”insists the Barrière group in a press release.
But the dissolution of the National Assembly wanted by Emmanuel Macron last June and the censorship motion having dropped the government of Michel Barnier in December make the adoption of a 2025 budget by the end of the year. “By mechanical effect, extension cannot be integrated into the special law”examined this Wednesday in the Council of Ministers, explains Romain Tranchant, president of the sharp group, who holds Paris Élysées Club, in the 8th arrondissement of the capital.
“A shock”
At the start of the week, club operators were received by the central races and games service, linked to the Ministry of the Interior, which announced the ban on exercising their activity from 1is Next January, for an unknown period. “The news is a shock for us. The situation is unprecedented and insane. Hundreds of jobs are threatened. We ask the future government to find a solution as soon as possible ”alerts Grégory Rabuel, managing director of the Barrière group.
“Those who are backed by groups” will be able to keep your head out of the water for several months but “Those who are not” go to a potential bankruptcy, Roman, a sharp Roman. A total of 1,500 direct jobs are affected, without knowing whether or not they can benefit from partial unemployment. Contacted, the Ministry of the Interior has not yet responded to Figaro. To reopen the seven Parisian clubs, it would be necessary to deposit “A bill but it will take time”underlines the president of the sharp group, who recalls that he “First you have to have a government” at the head of the country.
