Question for VegasNights

Mmmm_Lemony

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2054852226

VEGAS NIGHTS wrote:

I've been using poker.ie for about 6 months but didn't know about boards until recently. I'd be more than happy to reply to any questions or coments people may have regarding any VEGAS NIGHTS tournament.

I have recently posted a question on Boards regarding the legal requirements to be met when setting up a Pub Tournament, and got very little response.

I am not familiar with (i.e. have not played in) any of your tournaments, but from what I can see you have been running tournaments of this nature for a while now. Perhalps you could shed some light.

Is it legal/illegal (require a licence), does one need a company etc..

I would understand if you didn't want to share you business strategy with me but if you could clear up these two questions it would be much appretiated.

VEGAS NIGHTS

I have had numerous sollicitors explore this for me. The bottom line is there are a number of grey areas around what we do.

Here's the info I recieved back from varius solicitors:

Only 2 casinos in Ireland have a gaming licence(one of which is now closed down). The others operate as a "private members club" in their own "private building" hece filling in and signing new members form. The fact that this is a private club allows the members to engage in a game of cards for a wager.

So in doing this they don't need a gaming licence however the question is "how private are they???". You can walk in off the street, sign up and play away.
I believe the gardi have compleeted an investigation into how these private clubs operate. They have sent a file to the DPP which will be examined by the minister for justice who will in turn have to make some sort of reaction.......perhaps licence them and be done with it??? (I don't know how true this is but I heard it from a very credible scource who hasn't told me anthing untrue yet).

We operate under the same system that they do........"private members club".

Where we bump into a problem that the casinos don't is we operate on a "licenced premises". There is a law that states "there shall be no gambling of any sort on a licenced premises". This is where we put forward the arguement that "this is not gambling.....it's a game of skill". Is a pub quiz gambling??? no- it's a game of skill. There isn't a wold seies of greyhound backers every year or of lottery card buyers. But there is a WSOP. That's because some players are more skillfull than others which over time will rule out the majority of "the luck factor".

A game of bingo for cash must be liceced.........unarguably a game of luck. However it is not the bingo hall or the company running the bingo game that has a gaming licence.......... A charity gets the licence and the bingo company can run the game to raise funds for that charity. I'm not sure if there is a set amount of cash or a % that must be paid to the charity.

In short we are a private members club running a game of skill in various locations around Dublin.

karlh

another off topic question for vegas nights (sorry!)

what time are you kicking off in Leonard's Corner tonight and what's the buyin/structure?

thanks.

VEGAS NIGHTS

Leonards corner tends to be a small local afair. Usually 20/25 players. Entry is E20. Rebuys E15 max 3. Top up E20. Kick of is 7:30ish.

If that isn't your thing we have a oner rebuy OR top up in Anglers Rest E20 +E5 reg. Rebuy/top up E20+ E5. Usually about 50 players.

There's a big match on tonight which may effect nos..........

Mmmm_Lemony

Thanks for the info.

A couple more questions.

a) Are you a sole trader, or work for a registered company?
b) Have you ever had any trouble at an event?
c) Is there anything you would strongly advise against doing?

hotspur

Lemony there is nothing remotely legal about what pub poker tournament organisers do, and if the Gardai ever wanted to shut one down they have complete power to do so. If you want to set one up in Dublin you'll be fine because they are ubiquitous and the authorities don't care, though I know of some events that have been shut down by the Gardai down the country. As for what kind of company most of these guys are, I'm not talking about Vegas Nights now, but generally they're just a bunch of chancers, the idea of them them paying proper taxes and stuff is funny, sure they won't even pay out proper prizemoney some of them

VEGAS NIGHTS

Lemony,

I have to be careful how I word this............"it's interesting what hotspur said".

Your Qs'

A) Vegas Nights is a limited company. It's certainly illegal for any person to operate any business without being a sole trader, partnership or limited company.

No we've never had even the smallest bit of trouble during any event(from players or others). Other than in one pub when we came in to set up at 6pm there were two old ladies having a drink in the middle of the lounge where we were going to set up. We asked them would they mind moving to a different table and they said "No way". Anyway we set up poker tables all around them and then the game kicked off with 70 runners. Out of spite the 2 ladies stayed in the middle of the tournamnet for the entire night....very funny!!!!

C)There isn't realy anything I'd stronly advise doing. The market has become saturated.......there seems to be more tournaments than players these days. I've heard of a number of tournaments being cancelled lately due to poor attendance. If you're thinking of setting up a tournament I think the best thing I can say is do it very very well. You'll need a competitive edge over so many other tournamanets that are out there.

If I can help you any further feel free to ask or pm me if you wish.

Nick

karlh

hey VN.

went to leonard's corner last night. bit of a laugh but only played about 1 round per level and with 1500 starting stack it was a crapshoot within an hour.

do any of your bigger tournies, such as the submarine tonight, have dealers or are they all self deal?

Mmmm_Lemony

Thanks for the pointers VN. I will let you know how it goes.

Anyone know of a location in leinster that hasn't got the Texas Holdem bug?