The success of gambling in France

Even though the global economy has been suffering a major crisis since 2008, this has not prevented many people from gambling.
With a record €31.6 billion worth of bets last year, it seems that the financial crisis has encouraged French people to gamble.
Any game is good enough to try to win a jackpot: lottery, scratch cards, casino or sports betting.
The gambling industry has never attracted so many French players.
The main beneficiary of this enthusiasm is Française des Jeux, the second operator of lottery games in the world with 35,000 betting shops.
The crisis seems to have boosted its success – in fact, currently 27 million players bet on average €8 every week.
Sociologists have easily found an explanation for this phenomenon.
During periods of economic crisis, people need to relax and do so by imagining what they would do with a lot of money.
In addition, since gambling is based on random chances, it appears much fairer than society in general.
However, some sectors of the gaming industry still face serious difficulties.
In particular, this is the case of land-based casinos.