French pari-mutuel betting went up by 6% in 2005, according to single off-track betting operator PMU. Revenues went up by €453 million from €7.55 billion in 2004 to €8.01 billion in 2005, of which €5.8 billion was paid out in winnings. The latter represents 72% of bets laid.

PMU’s online betting went up from €148 million in 2004 to €250 million in 2005. Although PMU is the only organisation to offer betting to French citizen, some off-shore websites offer unauthorised betting on French races. The estimated volume of that business is unknown, but likely to be small considering the active prosecution these sites have faced in 2005.

From the 6.5 million bettors PMU has attracted over the last 3 years, 1.5 million made their first bets.