At the beginning of July, the Sbm, the Société des Bains de Mer which has owned the Monte Carlo Casino since 1863, greeted the 24-hour opening of the "machines à sous" at the Café de Paris with a party that lasted until dawn: a initiative that makes the famous club in the principality, together with London, a "unique" in Europe where insomniacs and slot machine addicts can let off steam day and night. But behind the pyrotechnic lights and the glasses of champagne of the Monegasque party there is the fierce financial battle underway between the big names who control the gambling industry to snatch the biggest slice of a gigantic cake that has gone but also shrinking on the Côte d'Azur to the point of sending the Partouche group into crisis and forcing the Barrière group to restructure its "azureens" casinos with the cut of croupiers.
And Sbm, on the strength of a billion-dollar brand like the Monegasque one among super-luxury five-star games, hotels and leisure, also investing in slot machines, aims to attract a more popular clientele by subtracting it from its rivals on the Riviera, from Cannes to Sanremo. It was the sharp drop in profits recorded in 2012 that made Sbm resort to remedial action, directing it towards new strategies and diversifications to complement the consolidated ones of a centuries-old tradition. The most recent data speak of 60 million less turnover, equal to about 20%, in the last five years for the ten remaining casinos on the Côte d'Azur. It is even worse on the profit front with about 60% of gambling halls having a balance sheet in the red. The first to surrender was the Casino of Beaulieu-sur-Mer which closed its doors in October 2010.
Others risk ending up the same way. Not even the Palm Beach at the beginning of the Croisette in Cannes is doing so well anymore, until recently a goose that lays golden eggs for the Partouche group. Even in the Barrière house, turnover is declining with the Palais de la Mediterranée, the flagship of Nice's casinos, which in eight years recorded a drop of 40% compared to the results in 2006. Worse, with a drop of 55 % in the same period, he built the casino in Grasse, the capital of lavender with the three famous brands Molinard, Galimard and Fragonard. The Joa group that manages La Siesta in Antibes has seen its turnover drop by 25% in five years. Budgets in hand, it is obvious that there is growing concern for a sector that directly employs 1800 people. A sector that remains one of the strengths of the economy of the Côte d'Azur which has always been accustomed to statistics with the plus sign, is less psychologically prepared for the minus sign that has been affecting the economies of half of Europe for some time, especially in neighboring Italy.
Emblematic is the "rien ne va plus" with which Nice-Matin, the main newspaper of the Côte d'Azur, has made its own the alarm raised by insiders who blame the crisis but also the restrictive laws of Paris and the spread of internet gaming . Minus sign that for some years it has also been recorded in the real estate sector with the drop in house prices and sales. This year the slowdown in the prices of the four meter has fluctuated between 3 and 5% of new homes compared to 2012. But despite the stagnation that has lasted since 2008, the revaluation of the price of the square meter in the last 10 years has been 80 %. For Montecarlo, in particular, brick knows no bounds with prices that will set new records when the Tour Odeon is ready in 2015, the futuristic building that dominates the Principality, designed by Alexandre Giraldi, made up of 49 floors intended primarily for residential use which they will be occupied by 259 apartments, of which 73 extra-luxury, 2 penthouses of approximately 1.000 m3.000 each and a five-story super-penthouse of more than 250 mXNUMX which will be close to XNUMX million dollars. It will be the most expensive penthouse in the world.
Meanwhile, this year too, despite a start to the season complicated by the weather, the beaches, from Menton to Cannes, are full of tourists. It must also be true that hoteliers and restaurateurs complain that Italians, in particular, shorten the period or eat only one dish. Just as true is the revolt against the Paris government's hypothesis of raising the tourist tax by 500% in hotels and campsites. But just go every evening to Cours Saleya in Nice, where every morning the tables of the evening restaurants give way to the flower stalls, to dive into the glamor of the holiday, after a day at the beach or alternative relaxation on the new green promenade created in less two years on the ruins of the old Gare Routière: an urban renewal, two kilometers of flowers and gardens, ponds and vapors that create and dissolve in a unique atmosphere, created in just 18 months and wanted by the mayor Christian Estrosi , which has boosted, if needed, the appeal of the city of Garibaldi with its airport on the Cote d'Azur which has set new passenger records, reaching one million a month for the first time, with Easy Jet, the low-cost airline cost to take the lion's share with about 33% of traffic, double that of Air France.
