France Gambling Guide

The French population likes to gamble but the French government is obsessed about controlling gambling and maintaining a state monopoly. As a result gamblers in France get one of the worst deals of any European nation.
In short, if you want to gamble in France you should do so purely as a leisure activity and keep your bets to a minimum.

Horseracing betting in France

France has some of the best horseracing at the world but the only betting on it is through the state-run PMU. PMU – short for Pari-mutuel – operates in bars and cafes across France where you can bet into nationwise pools. The most popular bet is the Tierce. The PMU pool deductions – the amount of money taken out of the pool before it is divided among all the winners – is pretty shocking at around 28% for win and place bets and over 35% for the more exotic bets. This makes it near impossible for all but the most shrewd bettors to win long-term and is a great demonstration as to why punters in a free market system such as the UK are offered much better value.

Attempts have been made to break the PMU’s monopoly on French horseracing betting, most noticeably by online betting company Zeturf, who operate from Malta. The French government has been noticeably antagonistic towards this competition and it is believed arrest warrants have been issued for the French owners of the business, should they be foolish enough to enter French sovereign territory.

Casinos in France

Tradition has it that French casinos should are only located in seaside towns or resorts, so if you want to gamble in Paris you will be out of luck. Instead you will have to get yourself to a spa town or somewhere on the seaside such as Deauville or Trouville. If that’s not enough to put you off, you will then have to pay to get into the casino and usually find yourself treated with something close to contempt by the staff. Obviously if you are some sort of high roller then they will fawn over you but an average size bankroll will not gain you must respect in the environs of a French casino.

There are some pluses to French casinos though, the most obvious being that they tend to be housed in fabulous rooms and buildings and that they have a real ‘old world’ spleandour to them. This is not the imitation luxury of the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas where every marble pillar is in fact marble stuck onto a concrete support – in French casinos a marble pillar is made of marble all the way through. You will usually find that there is a separate room for slot machines and the main body of the casino is given over entirely to table games, mainly blackjack, roulette and baccarat.