Not sure if this fits in but I know we got posters here from Paris and maybe they could throw some input on this :

The notorious gambling clubs of Paris that were given to Corsicans for their role in the Resistance are under threat after a police sting closed three for their suspected links with the mafia.

The three closures in three weeks suggest that French police have finally decided to end decades of tolerance towards the controversial venues.

Paris’s circles de jeu (gambling clubs) long held a reputation as being money-laundering dens controlled by Corsican gangsters based on the Mediterranean island or in Marseille.

Glamorised in detective novels, they were the subject of epic and bloody disputes between rival organized crime clans, notably in the so-called “gambling wars” of the 1970s. However, in recent years the surviving few were believed to have changed their ways.

Eight were still in operation last month but on Wednesday, about 200 officers from Paris’s judicial police swooped on Le Cercle Wagram and L’Eldo in the city’s 17th and 3rd arrondissements after a year-long investigation into their owners’ allegedly fraudulent practices.

The following day, a second swoop took place in Corsica, in which 30 suspects were arrested.

These included two actors from a TV series called Mafiosa, The Clan, shot on the island, and four retired police officers. About $1.1 million in cash was also seized. Just three weeks earlier, another club, Le Cercle Haussmann, in the 2nd arrondissement was raided and shut and seven people placed under investigation for illegal gambling practices.

After years of relative calm, police believe that the Corsican mafia took renewed interest in the clubs as money-laundering outfits when the venues’ profits started to soar thanks to a recent craze in France for poker.

Police said rival gangs had been fighting for control of the clubs after a spate of killings in Corsica and Marseille that left the long-feared “Brise de Mer” gang fatally weakened.

The first circle opened in Paris in 1907 after casinos were banned from operating within 100km of the French capital.

After the war, France let a number of Corsicans run the clubs for services rendered to the Resistance.

They still operate under a 1901 law that deems them “non-profit” organisations whose stated aims are to promote “social, artistic literary and sporting activities”. Under these archaic rules, they are not required to adhere to strict security measures found in casinos, such as fitting video surveillance cameras over every gaming table – meaning there is no way of keeping tabs on the amounts cashed in.

A police investigator told Le Parisien: “We cannot tolerate seeing practices linked to organized crime go on any longer in these places.”

Among Paris’s five remaining circles is the Aviation Club de France, France’s oldest. The legendary venue on the Champs-Elysees is run by the former head of France’s anti-gangster squad.

Source: edmontonjournal.com





http://mafiatoday.com/general-breaking-n......ng-dens/

@Tony45,

It's France, a country very difficult to understand from the points of view of money, power, politicians, etc.

Some say that, in some cases, some laundering or illegal games were running. Some say also that some "trusts" want to clear the town in order to have their own big casino. Some say that online Poker companies (now allowed in France, under very restrictive conditions) would like to get rid of brick and mortar places. Etc.

Mix all that together and you will probably get the truth.

I found it interesting about how open the "arrangement" was and how long it lasted, remarkable. I can speak for NYC where there were arrangements going on but it wasnt as open as this was. Seems like another case of big business wiping out the competition in whatever way possible, meaning : They gave a bigger envelope the current guys in one form or another.