Месяц: Сентябрь 2014

French Casinos & Gambling Scene
France is a beautiful country situated in Western Europe. Gambling is popular in the country but the French casinos face many restrictions. While certainly gambling has roots in France it was most recently popularized when slot machines were legalized in 1988.

While most gamblers would think that France's casinos are similar to Las Vegas' casinos or East Europe's casinos they are mistaken. Much of today's casino revenue in France is from slot machines. But the French have a history. Roulette comes from France. Blackjack is also believed to originate here. For a complete list of card games that are popuplar in France, please check French Card Games

Casinos in France
There are few casinos in France as nice as Lyon Vert Casino situated at Lyon and Palais de la Mediterranee Casino at Nice. Both of these casinos are luxurious gambling destinations. Lyon Vert Casino is France’s biggest casino and has about 400 slot machines. It also offers Stud Poker tables, Roulette wheels and Blackjack. The age restriction for the players is 18 years and above. The player should also have some sort of identification and the visitor should follow the prescribed dress code.

“Palais de la Mediterranee” Casino hotel is a very beautiful place with wonderful décor. The lovely décor has Egyptian, Greek and 1930’s French influences. The casino hotel offers 17 table games table, 6 American Roulette tables and 2 French Roulette tables.

The Casino “Barrière d'Enghien-les-Bains”, is situated at the outskirts of Paris. This lovely casino with the stylish twenties ambience and décor, boasts of the only slot machines room in Paris. These slot machines attract casino visitors in large numbers. There are about 44 games tables and 280 slot machines at the casino. Baccarat, Black jack and English Roulette are also popular at the casino. To visit the casino you should be eighteen years of age or above and you should have a valid ID. Foreigners can use their passports as their ID. The dress code of the casino is formal.

Poker in France
France is famous for its Poker rooms and the tournaments held in France are something that all Poker enthusiasts look forward to. The leading Parisian Poker salon Aviation Club de France conducts the World Poker Tour tournament and each year the number of player doubles the past records. Some of the world’s famous personalities and Poker champions play in this tournament and ACF offers record breaking prize pool for the winners. France also supports and hosts many charity tournaments and Poker events, which just adds to the craze for the game here.

Pari Mutuel in France
Pari Mutuel was first introduced in France way back in 1870 and soon its popularity spread across the globe. Paris, however, remains one of the most favored destinations for betting on the elegant thoroughbreds. Longchamp, one the most popular race track, witnesses more than 50000 spectators including visitors from all parts of the world. With the turn of events in the Pari mutual betting front, the only form of legal betting that is now permitted in France is its Tote based system, the PMU or Pari Mutuel Urbain. The PMU is the 3rd largest in the world with over 8000 off track outlets all across France and its territory and thereby it enjoys sheer monopoly.

La Française des Jeux
In France, all the lotteries and betting activities are conducted by the La Française des Jeux. This is the French national lottery which is state controlled. The lottery has a wide variety of games and lotteries with new ones being introduced from time to time. The lottery also supports humanitarian and social causes like financing different sporting activities. From sixteenth century onwards, the lottery is providing fun and amusement to the French people.

Gambling Law in France
Gambling in France is considered legal only when Justice Ministry specifically sanctions it. Le Pari Mutuel Urbain (PMU) and its affiliate Le Pari Mutuel Hippodrome (PMH) have power over all French sports betting. Around 20% betting takes place on-course and the other 80% off-course in PMU licensed café kiosks and bars. There are 160 state licensed casinos in France. Sous Direction des Courses et des Jeux is a special police force, which keeps a check on all sorts of gambling activities in France from illegal betting to casino licenses, doping, race fixing and selling information.

Online French casinos
A large number of online casinos are found on the internet and are hugely popular among the French people. As French casinos face restrictions, the gambling craze of the French people is taking them to the online casinos. These casinos serve the needs of the gambling enthusiasts to play their favorite casino games online. The popular games are French Roulette, Black Jack, Poker, slots etc. With the growing popularity and availability of high-speed internet in most parts of France, online casinos rank high on the popularity charts of the French gamblers.

In summary, French casinos are places where you can have lots of fun and excitement. If you plan to visit France, plan your vacation by including some gambling activities in your agenda and enjoy yourself. Make sure the casinos you are visiting are legal joints so that you do not end up losing money. France is a lovely destination for all the tourists, who love natural beauty and relish the French cuisine. Visit the French casinos to spice up your vacation and add some more excitement to your trip.

We may not think of Japanese gambling addicts when we think of the mostly formal, extremely polite island nation, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t any. Has Japan got a gambling problem?

As the country prepares to open up itself up to legalized and regulated casino gambling, a new study may give lawmakers pause for thought. Some 5.36 million people in Japan, or 4.8 percent of the adult population, may be problem or pathological gamblers, says a report commissioned by the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, and that’s more than any other developed country.

The Kurihama Medical and Addiction Center quizzed 7,000 randomly chosen adults about their gambling habits with regard to popular Japanese betting pastimes, such as horse racing, online casinos, Pachinko, slot machines and boat racing. They were asked questions such as whether they had ever borrowed money for gambling, or whether gambling had ever caused disruptions in their family life.

Of the 7,000 respondents, 4,153 gave valid answers from which researchers were able to extrapolate that 8.7 percent of men and 1.8 percent of women in Japan could be described as being addicted to gambling.

If these results are accurate, it means that Japan has up to five times the amount of gambling addiction in its population than most developed economies, where the average is generally around one percent. Recent studies, for example, have shown that the percentage of problem gamblers in Canada is 0.9 percent (2002); in France, 1.24 percent (2008); and South Korea, 0.8 percent (2006).

Lack of Education

According to the US National Library of Medicine, pathological gambling is defined as “being unable to resist impulses to gamble, which can lead to severe personal or social consequences.”

While casino gaming is not legal (yet), there are countless opportunities to gamble in Japan. Noisy and colorful Pachinko parlors (a kind of pinball / slot machine hybrid) line the streets and train stations, while betting on races, everything from horses to speedboats, is hugely popular. And yet, says Noriko Tanaka head of campaign group Society Concerned about the Gambling Addiction, gambling addiction is rarely discussed in Japan, perhaps because of attitudes relating to personal shame and family dishonor.

“There is an absolute lack of preventive education for (gambling) addiction,” she said. “We are not calling for a ban on gambling and we recognize it has its own economic merits. But we must also discuss the negative economic and social impacts.”

Sleeping Giant

Japan is seen as the sleeping giant of the global land-based casino industry. It’s estimated that a regulated casino market could eventually generate $40 billion in revenue annually, which would make it the second largest in the world, after Macau, and Japan’s politicians are eager to find new ways of revitalizing the economy and cash in on the Tokyo Olympics in 2020. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe recently visited casino resorts in Singapore where he expressed his interest in the positive effect that such ventures might have on the Japanese economy.

Japan is expected to legalize casino gambling next year, and the major casino resort companies are clambering over one another to gain a foothold in the country. Las Vegas Sands Chairman Sheldon Adelson recently claimed that his company would spend “whatever it takes” to enter the Japanese market, and threw out a figure of $10 billion, which, he said, he would be prepared to pay in cash if necessary.

Arsène Wenger gambled on Japan. In 1994, with a French title and European Cup semi-final under his belt, with top European clubs clamouring for his signature, he moved to the other side of the world to join Nagoya Grampus Eight: not any Japanese team, but one that had finished rock bottom last season. Wenger turned their fortunes around, and developed immeasurably as a person. Wenger was right about Japan.
Wenger gambled on Wojciech Szczesny. A few years ago, with his young goalkeeper making a series of errors and fans urging a more experienced name between the posts, Wenger stood by his man. Szczesny is now one of the most assured keepers in the Premier League. Wenger was right about Szczesny.
Wenger gambled on the substitutions. With 14 minutes left in the FA Cup final, and the score 2-2, he withdrew Santi Cazorla and Mesut Özil: two penalty-takers. Minutes later Aaron Ramsey scored the winning goal. Wenger was right about the substitutions.
In fact, a lot of Wenger’s gambles end up paying off: more than his fiercest detractors would probably concede. He gambled that Ian Wright’s legs had gone. He gambled that Nicolas Anelka was too volatile to build a side around. He gambled that a teenage La Masia graduate called Cesc Fabregas was a global star in the making. He gambled that a teenage La Masia graduate called Fran Merida was not. On all of these, he was proved right.
Unless he loses a tooth overnight and finds some money under his pillow, it is looking increasingly unlikely that he will replace the injured Olivier Giroud before the transfer window creaks shut tonight. For the next four months, Wenger is preparing to mount a title challenge without his first-choice striker.
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This may well be his biggest gamble of all.
Yesterday he played Yaya Sanogo up front. Sanogo was a brilliant youth-level player, and he may well be a brilliant adult-level player one day, but at the moment, there is no escaping it: he is not very good. He headed over from six yards. He had a weak shot saved by Kasper Schmeichel.
He fell over a bit. He got caught offside. For the 17th competitive game in a row, he did not score.
When Sanogo gets the ball, the best course of action is usually to wait until he dispossesses himself. For a big striker (6ft 4in) he is surprisingly poor at heading.
While his contemporaries from the France squad that won the under-20 World Cup last summer have matured into world-class talents – Paul Pogba at Juventus, Geoffrey Kondogbia at Monaco, Lucas Digne at Paris Saint Germain – Sanogo has withered on the vine.
Equally, though, consider this: since breaking his leg for Auxerre reserves four years ago, Sanogo has never made more than 13 appearances in a season.
He is 21, but in terms of match experience he may as well still be a teenager. So back to Wenger we go: why is he entrusting Sanogo with the job of leading the line for a team with ambitions of winning the Premier League?
Wenger would probably answer that question with a list of names. Lukas Podolski came on for the last 13 minutes, which the German spent alternately mis-controlling the ball and looking absolutely furious about it. Alexis Sanchez has all the attributes of a modern No 9, but do Arsenal really want one of their most creative players starved of the ball for most of the game? Theo Walcott is not fit yet. Joel Campbell has never scored in the Premier League.
The Arsenal fanbase of 2014 is different to what it was in 1996. They pay through the nose for their season tickets and replica shirts. They are no longer merely enthusiasts but investors, and like all investors they expect a decent rate of return. They were not asking Wenger to sign a striker yesterday; they were demanding it.
This, then, is the backdrop against which Wenger is pitting his gambling instincts.
It is a gamble that may well define Arsenal’s season, and with it the club’s future and Wenger’s own legacy. The stakes could not be higher.
However, consider things from his point of view: when you have built an entire career on gambling and winning, why on earth would you change?