A few days ago, when French professional poker player Grégoire Auzoux was taken away by the police, the figures announced by the Paris prosecutor shocked the entire gambling circle—he was accused of operating an illegal online casino empire with an annual income of nearly $1.1 billion (approximately €1 billion).
The website is named Crésus Casino, a gambling site named after the ancient Greek "King of Wealth," Croesus.
Grégoire Auzoux is no stranger. He is a French professional poker player, often appearing in tournament broadcasts and on social media.
When he appeared as the CEO in the marketing promotions of Crésus Casino, many French players believed it to be credible—"Professional players are playing here, it must be reliable."
✅This is the first step to Crésus' success: winning trust through celebrity credibility.
According to the French prosecutor's office, Auzoux is not only a "brand ambassador" but also one of the actual controllers behind the scenes. He used his influence in the poker world to endorse the site, creating the illusion of a "legitimate entertainment brand."
This "celebrity endorsement" strategy quickly made the site popular.
According to statistics from the French prosecutor's office:
The platform's cumulative turnover is nearly €1 billion; monthly visits exceed one million;
Only in 2022–2023, French players deposited €237 million, and funds were transferred out through Czech bank accounts amounting to €92.6 million.
✅Under Auzoux's operation, the site built traffic through a complete set of "trust engineering":
1️⃣Visual trust, celebrity endorsement
The site adopts European UI design, prominently displaying the "Curacao license number" and "Cyprus company address."
It coordinates with poker community members to shoot promotional videos, uploading content such as "professional player lottery live streams" on platforms like YouTube and Twitch.
2️⃣Traffic marketing: Advertising + clone site clusters covering the market
Massive advertising purchases, cooperating with multiple Affiliate (affiliate websites), attracting traffic site owners with high CPA commissions.
Once a site is blocked, immediately launch a "sibling site" such as Jackpot Bob, Lucky 8, OlympeCasino, to keep operations uninterrupted.
Reportedly, Auzoux frequently boasted in public, continuously promoting his website. This ostentation caught the attention of French regulatory authorities.
In July 2024, the French ANJ listed the site as a key blocking target; in October 2025, Auzoux was formally arrested in Paris and subjected to judicial prosecution.
The story of Crésus is a gambling business experiment about "trust." In just three years, it grew from a "poker player startup site" into an underground empire with an annual income of a billion euros.
But in the end, as the French media commented: "He won against the odds, but lost to high-profile and arrogance."
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