On Tuesday, a big EuroMillions prize pool of 137 million euros was at stake. And more and more French people are trying their luck. The eco decryption of Fanny Guinochet.
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The French increasingly play games of chance. A single figure to give the measure of this appetite for lottery and money games: the sector weighed more than 10 billion euros in turnover last year. It is the Française des jeux which benefits the most: its turnover alone represents more than half. It has 25 million players. Loto and Euromillions are going very well. They are real locomotives. Then come scratch games, not to mention sports betting, which is taking off again very strongly after the confinements and the cancellation of competitions.
These sports bets also boost online sales. Because the French play in tobacconists but also a lot on the Internet. In barely two years, there have been more than 40% of new players on the web.
>> In five years, the number of French people addicted to gambling has doubled, Public Health France alert
Since its privatization three years ago, the Française des jeux has more than 400,000 small shareholders, the State having retained only 20% of the capital. And Tuesday, at the General Assembly of these small shareholders, they did not hide their satisfaction with their investment: the FDJ title has soared since its IPO, from 19 to 35 euros today.
In the years to come, this sector should remain very dynamic and therefore seems to be a good investment: this first quarter alone, the turnover of the FDJ has increased by 14%. And a Harris Interactive study shows that nearly one in two French people plays, even occasionally, and above all that the French are spending more and more on games: 11 euros on average per week. This progression worries the National Gaming Authority, the regulatory body for the sector, which is questioning the need to intervene to avoid addictions.