3/16/09 LeCroupier.com the online casino from the Lucien Barrière group accumulates too many bad ideas
The Lucien Barrière group behind the online casino LeCroupier.com has some serious problems, and I see too many stupid ideas one on the top of the other.
They claim that LeCroupier.com is a replica of the Lucien Barrière’s casino in Deauville.
Deauville is a small place in France with a population of approximately 4500 people. Internationally, the majority of people never heard of this name before and they are not likely to go and visit the place either. This casino in Deauville is very old, and old doesn’t mean better. In fact, less and less people visit their casino and the trend that started years ago is alarming.
I don’t like the name LeCroupier.com for a number of reasons. Only a small minority of international players knows what it means. The translation in English is “The dealer”
In France, a “croupier” is a casino dealer. It’s a bad choice of name because in France, a “croupier” is not a respected profession. On the contrary, there are full of real horror stories where gangs of “croupiers” working together cheated so much the owners of the land-based casino, and for so long, that they ended up having to close down and go into bankruptcy.
These criminal gangs make unjustified payments to their own friends “partners” and family. It’s hard to catch them, because they are so corrupted, and usually the whole team in a casino works together to cheat the casino owners. There are different levels of surveillance, but when the whole team cheats together, who is going to report it to the owners?
In France, where the Lucien Barrière group operates, their land-based casino in Deauville, each “croupier” must wear a uniform with no open pockets, and all the pockets must be stitched up, and this is compulsory. This is to avoid straight stealing, but they still do it by hiding the money and the big chips or “plaques” inside their socks or underwear. If the government and the casino owners can’t trust a “croupier” what makes them think that using this silly name for their online casino is a good choice?
In France, the profession of “croupier” is dying and not trusted. For this lack of trust, the profession can only blame itself. They massively cheated the casino owners, cheated the tax man, and gave a bad name to their profession that is hard to forget.
The Lucien Barrière group behind this online casino LeCroupier.com has obviously no experience with online gambling. They are entering the market for many reasons. They have dangerous massive debts, their land-based casinos are struggling to survive, they are heavily taxed, their biggest competitors are much more advanced with online gambling, and they finally realized that online gambling is here to stay and prosper.
The Lucien Barrière group has produced a 3D casino and they are convinced that it’s their biggest selling point. They claim that LeCroupier.com is a replica of their land-based casino in Deauville.
I could be wrong, but I think that it’s another stupid idea. Their software is huge to download, and for most people it will take ages before they can start to play. People are in a hurry on the Internet, and who has the patience to download hundreds of megabytes?
Contrary to what they claim, there is nothing new about a 3D online casino, I have seen some over 10 years ago and they all ended up closing down.
Players are more interested in good quality games they can play fast, than in wasting hours to download software they don’t even know if they will like.
The Lucien Barrière group wants players to believe that their replica is like their real land-based casino in Deauville. I personally know their land-based casino in Deauville, and it’s dying, and this sales gimmick must be a joke. I don’t see anything that can attract me to their old land-based casino or their new online casino.
I think that it’s another stupid idea to take an old land-based casino that is dying and try to make a replica online, because the better they make their online casino and the less people will feel to visit their land-based casinos.
If their online casino is as good as they claim, why waste the time and money to visit the land-based casinos? Stupid idea, because instead of competing with the existing online operators, they will make competition with themselves and they will loose.
LeCroupier.com is targeting such a tiny fraction of the market that its effect on the rest of the online industry should be zero.
It’s a very good idea for land-based casinos to go online and they are welcome. It’s a good idea when they select good games from an excellent game developer, and do it to generate additional revenues. They should not try to replace their land-based casinos online.
When they try to make a replica of one of their dying land-based casinos, and try to convince players that it’s as good as their land-based casinos, it’s a stupid risk because it will have the effect to make their land-based casinos suffer even more.
Up to now, the big majority of their online traffic at LeCroupier.com comes from countries that they don’t even accept for playing with real money. It’s also extremely low quality traffic that is practically worthless and useless. At the time of writing this article Alexa.com shows that 80% of their traffic comes from India. I think that this traffic is worth nothing, zero. It shows only 8.3% from the UK.
LeCroupier.com was launched to first attract the UK players. I frankly don’t see where is the pleasure to deal with an inexperienced French company that made so many mistakes. Why bother when there are many good online casinos that have real experience with online gambling?
The Lucien Barrière group with their online casino LeCroupier.com is then planning to get a French license sometimes in 2010 to go after the French market. There are also more problems waiting for them. The latest position of the French government is that the French licenses won’t be issue for the most popular casino games, like slot machines, blackjack, roulette and others.
I would like to see an online casino or land-based casino that makes a profit without these most popular casino games. Slot machines alone often represent about 80% of the profits, and I don’t see how the Lucien Barrière group with their online casino LeCroupier.com will make a profit in France without all the casino games. The proposed French legislation may change, and we hope it does, because it’s stupid to restrict it so badly, and it can only discourage people to apply for a French license.
The Lucien Barrière group will have one more serious problem when they get their French license for their online casino LeCroupier.com and it’s the tax they will need to pay in France. This may change before the first licenses are issued in 2010 but currently, it’s more profitable to operate under another EU gaming license.
If the situation remains the same, and LeCroupier.com can’t offer the most profitable casino games to the French market, and if they get taxed higher than in other EU locations, I see LeCroupier.com as a failure in their own country.
LeCroupier.com as a replica of the Lucien Barrière’s casino in Deauville is a “brute force” attempt to enter the online gambling business. These people have their own ideas of what they think players want and need, and I think that they have bigger challenges waiting for them than they imagined.
If the LeCroupier.com fails as an online casino, they wasted millions of Euros and they are back to square one. It means trying to survive with their land-based casinos that get less and less visitors, and trying to survive while struggling to find the money to repay the huge loans they have.
If LeCroupier.com succeeds, and I seriously doubt it, I can’t imagine that it can succeed without negatively affecting their land-based casinos. At the end of the day, the money they will make online (assuming they make any) will be wiped off by the money they will lose in their land-based casinos, and their losses with their land-based operations will be bigger than the money they will make with this online casino.
They are probably counting on an army of affiliates to sign up to promote their bad ideas. I don’t see it happening, and if I was an affiliate I wouldn’t sign up and waste my time and efforts to promote a bad concept.
There are too many stupid ideas, one on the top of the other, and I frankly don’t see what they have to offer to players, or to anyone else.