The Marigny is situated on Avenue de Flandre, opposite the Tang Frères Chinese supermarket and that tower block which looks like Mordor from Lord of the Rings if it were an enormous gay nightclub. Some PMU bars feel like cafes where you can also buy scratch cards, but this place is different. At The Marigny it seems as though the gambling was there first and the bar grew around it. What better place, then, to buy a Lotto ticket that’s sure to bag the jackpot.
Inside, the first thing I always notice are the frighteningly steep stairs down to the bathroom, which are protected by a plastic child safety gate. There must have been an incident that led to that being installed, because there are for sure no children in here.
There are men young and old, standing in a sea of discarded betting slips, expressionless as they watch the horses on the screens. There are also some other, mostly older, people sitting at tables in front of empty coffees. At the bar, there’s a group of Chinese men drinking wine from cups. They are laughing and slapping each other on the back, having a real good time.
I grab a Perrier and sit down to pick my numbers. On the back walls there are huge posters in gold coloured frames of old movies from the 40s and 50s, some of them very obscure. They fight for attention with promo material from the gambling companies, ads in the shapes of cheques with prizes that lucky people won in this very bar.
I take my Lotto slip up to the betting window and wait for the woman to finish playing with her phone. She takes my ticket and then points out that I’m one number short. I ask her to pick it for me. This is a cunning move on my behalf. It allows me to absorb some of the Marigny magic, a little luck from the land of Mary.
The top jackpot on the wall advertisement is currently 2,921 euros, awarded to A. Johan back in November 2023. Not for long though. I’m about to scoop the 20 million and blow Johan’s record out of the water. I’ll be the stuff of legend ‘round these parts. The Marigny Marvel, they’ll call me, the blessed one.
The Marigny - 76 Av. de Flandre, 75019 Paris