25. Memorandum from Accor Casinos,
Paris, France (GMB 10) (continued)
5. PREVENTION
RESULTS
Accor Casinos has been operating an in-house
developed prevention programme for two years. The prevention programme
results show that after two years and in 16 French casinos:
|
| Number of customer interventions | An average of a dozen or so per month
|
| Number of "contracts" signed with customers
| 300 (10 to 50 depending on the casino) |
| Number of bannings | 700 (almost half will be reintegrated after a duration of one month to one year)
|
| Number of national bans | around 90
|
|
These interventions are carried out by Accor Casinos' personnel
in "action teams", who have been trained in the awareness
of the risks of gaming abuse, the awareness of the consequences,
the clarification of each person's team role and in sharing and
confronting with the players.
From these analyses, the assumption may be taken that over
a period of two years, a total of around 1,100 players, or 550
per year, were considered as having a gambling difficulty that
necessitated some form of preventive action—limitation of
play contracts or bannings. With the total number of entries into
Accor Casinos for the year being 7,4 million, this is statistically
insignificant.
6. TOTAL SLOT
PLAY
Figure 3 shows the percentage of slot play (ie games played
or handle pulls) in the Accor Casinos group for 2003. This graph
is given in the more detailed Excel form attached. The graph shows
that nearly 64% of the total play was on the 0,2 and 0,5 Euro
denomination machines and only 0,2% of all play was on the 5,
10 and 20 Euro denomination machines.
This would appear to imply that concerns about casino players
in Britain—assuming there is a correlation with French gaming
habits—playing to high and ruinous levels, may be unfounded.
Figure 3
|
| Denominations in Euros | Percent of Total Plays
|
|
| 0,1 | 0,98
|
| 0,2 | 24,37
|
| 0,5 | 39,46
|
| 1 | 21,01 |
| 2 | 13,98 |
| 5 | 0,06 |
| 10 | 0,13 |
| 20 | 0,01 |
| 100 |
|
SUMMARY
In year 2002-03 there were 180 casinos in France and of these
176 have slot machines. There is an installed slot machine base
of 16,096 machines in the 176 casinos, making an average of 91
machines per casino, or a median of 65.
The Gross Gaming Win for all French casinos was 2,546,842,990
Euros.
61,238,186 customer visits were made to the slot machines
and 2,262,029 to the table games.
An average loss per customer per visit of slightly under
39 Euros.
No limits to how many coins may be played on each game, so
the stakes are, at least in theory, unlimited. In reality the
stakes are capped by the type of machine.
Generally reel machines can accept up to three coins per
game, though machines that accept five or nine exist. Poker games
usually have a limit, set by the casino of 20 coins per game,
though some exist with a 100 coin maximum. As for video slots,
the maximum is generally 81 pieces. As a direct consequence of
this, there is no legal maximum payout as payments are a function
of coins played.
The average amount played in Accor Casinos' casinos on each
game is 2,25 Euros. The lowest average stake per casino of 1,07
Euros is in a casino that has a customer base of tourists, whereas
the highest average of 2,92 Euros is in an urban area. Nearly
64% of the total play was on the 0,2 and 0,5 Euro denomination
machines and only 0,2% of all play was on the 5, 10 and 20 Euro
denomination machines.
The average top payment, as set on the slot machine, for
nearly all the slot park for Accor Casinos is between 5,000 to
10,000 coins. Payouts of more than this amount are really only
found on the machines that offer "progressive" payouts
(jackpots).
The Accor Casinos' prevention programme shows that over a
period of two years, a total of around 1,100 players, or 550 per
year, were considered as having a gambling difficulty that necessitated
some form of preventive action—limitation of play contracts
or bannings. With the total number of entries into Accor Casinos
for the year being 7,4 million, this is statistically insignificant.
This would appear to imply that concerns about casino players
in Britain—assuming there is a correlation with French gaming
habits—playing to high and ruinous levels, may be unfounded.
30 June 2004
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