In the “Le Tour du Monde” tobacco office in Bellefontaine, the winners follow one another. Every day, hundreds of players scratch and tick boxes.
On the glass counter, Mohammed, eyes narrowed, sets his two Cash scratch games. He fumbles in his pocket, takes out a red coin, then scratches it first. Lost. He shifts on the second. Still lost. “Every day I play here. I have already won several hundred euros. But I play to be rich, ”says the young man. Like him, hundreds of Toulouse residents are trying their luck in the “Le Tour du Monde” tobacco shop in the Bellefontaine district.
This Friday, like other days, the magazines and newspapers racks are empty. On the other hand, the high metal table and those in wood are complete. In front of the taped sheet where it is written “No scratching inside”, players scratch. “I play here two or three times a week. I generally slam 50 euros in all. I scratch for fun and because luck is never far away, ”smiles Toufik, a resident of the city.
Indeed, the opportunity to see your purse swell instantly is never very far away. Especially here. The tobacco shop saw several players arrive with empty pockets and come away with hundreds of thousands of euros. Recently, 500,000 euros were won in Cash, 100,000 in another scratch game. In 2018, a neighborhood Loto player harvested the FDJ for one million euros. “It’s true that we are a lucky tobacco. Every year, large lots are pocketed, ”rejoices Jean-Michel Loaec, the 72-year-old manager, who will soon hand over his business to a buyer.
Amid the concrete blocks, raffles and games of chance represent the majority of the tobacco shop’s turnover. In a few hours, nearly 5,000 euros were played. “There are more and more players. Especially in the afternoon. We have to make them leave to close, ”says Dolores, one of the saleswomen. In Bellefontaine, players win sporadically … because players play daily.
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