Poker in French Casinos
Poker was authorised by decree in French casinos in December 2006. On the 17th of May 2007, the French public authorities published in the Journal Officiel a text allowing 200 French casinos to set up tournaments and Texas Hold 'Em cash table games.
The Barrière group had tried to introduce poker into French casinos when the French stage of the European Poker Tour passed through Deauville. Unfortunately a lack of experience of legal matters prevented anything developing from this.
The arrival of poker in casinos created new perspectives for casinos, which had until the arrival of people interested in poker always kept themselves seperated from the players. Poker tournaments were organised in most casinos in France through Barrière or Partouche.
The Partouche group, which consists of about 50 casinos in France and Europe, made poker a priority and launched the Partouche Poker Tour, copying the qualification process of tournaments such as the WSOP, WPT and EPT... the difference being how they had satellites online and offline. It created a prizepool of €2,000,000 for the final, the biggest guaranteed prize in Europe, this will depend on the number of participants.
This final became a major event in itself as it is expected to take place on the 5th to the 7th of September 2008, at the Palm Beach Casino in Cannes, in front of the TF1 cameras. It is the first French poker event to receive this coverage. The Barrière group organises different series of tournaments in its 35 casinos at national and international level. During summer 2008 the Barrière poker Tournament will be in Nice. A prize of €100,000 is guaranteed and it will take place on the 4th to the 6th of July.
