Advice on starting a poker club/society in Limerick

Pokerevents

Gambling is iilegal on licenced premises. Pokerevents organise and promote tournament poker, with the intention of giving it's members the opportunity to qualify for international events.
The Gardai have viewed these events as competitions with the winners being awarded pizes. As there is a set buy-in and no cash games at any of our events the authorities look favorable on our organisation. However I went to the trouble/expense of being briefed by a barrister and getting my solictor to write to the relevent superintendants around the country.
I suggest you do the same only after you set up a club/society(this is essential)

Regarding setting up a official poker body in Ireland, I have written to the ministry of sport who have passed the buck and put me on to the Irish sports council. I am currently applying to the council to have tournament poker veiwed as a sport. This is extremly ambitous as the national bridge council have being knocking on the door for years without any sucess. If anyone has any idea's I willing to listen and put my resources behind a body that can lobby to the authorities for the changes we want.

Coillte_Bhoy

Fintan,
Do you think the topurnaments i run are illegal?? Do we need to set up a society etc?? By the way myself and a number of regulars have played in Westwood and found it extremely well run and a good night out. Even managed a second place in a V.C. satellite one night. How's The Pianoman getting on lately? he wore me down that night.

Pokerevents

where are your tournaments bhoy?
yea the piano man is still winning.

Pokerevents

ahh culchie , i know u now
u are none other than the phamtom, once the local guards give green light, your sound,
we have 50k guaranteed on june 17/18 which is 400 freezeout, if u can get the weekend off let me know and i'll arrange accomodation for u

Dub13

Pokerevents wrote:

. If anyone has any idea's I willing to listen and put my resources behind a body that can lobby to the authorities for the changes we want.

How about a petition...?they may listen to you more if you have 1000s of names.And you are the right man to start one.

Hitchhiker's Guide to...

was talking to someone down in the fitz who set up his own club a few years back. apparently the key issue is not that gambling is taking place on a premises, but that the organiser cannot be getting a share of the gambling. Thus, you can get around it by charging a 'room use' fee (i.e. a reg fee), but you cannot benefit from the gambling (i.e. by getting some of the rebuy money ala red cow).

Of course, whether this fine detail is understood by your local guarda is a whole new issue. As was said previously, best to run the idea past the local gardai first...

Oddjob

To the best of my knowledge, there is a card room opening up in Limerick shortly. A Limerick businessman was in Dublin a few months back looking at the Fitz, Merrion etc. A friend of mine was with him looking around and he told me, as it's in Limerick, I didn't pay much attention. If you want I can get more details.

NickyOD

Oddjob wrote:

To the best of my knowledge, there is a card room opening up in Limerick shortly. A Limerick businessman was in Dublin a few months back looking at the Fitz, Merrion etc. A friend of mine was with him looking around and he told me, as it's in Limerick, I didn't pay much attention. If you want I can get more details.

I heard about this and I'm pretty sure I know who your friend is. but I think it went down the pan. The guy started making some excuses about it taking a long time to get the tables or some BS and left your friend in the dark, although I haven't spoken to him in the last couple of weeks. Either way its a seriously dodgy venue on Nicholas street. I'd certainly trust the guy who wants to manage it but not the owner. I'll send Mr. C an email.

Pokerevents

Roundtower your event is illegal if, not the fact organizer is recieving a share of
the monies put into pool, but if the organizer is making profit. Thus event in red cow where 50% of re-buys is going to promoter to cover costs of event is legit, as long as organisation is not making profit. That is why all pokerevents team are staff who recieve wage only, with all monies coming in covering production costs. If bank account does show profit at end of year, this is where donation to charity or some smart idea accountant may come with comes into play.

amp

Pokerevents wrote:

If bank account does show profit at end of year, this is where donation to charity or some smart idea accountant may come with comes into play.

Fascinating statement. I'm currently researching the Data Protection Laws, so I can find out how exactly to be removed from receiving spam text messages from Pokerevents. Now it seems that skimming the money outside of reg fees is actually illegal, given that Pokerevents are profiting directly from gambling.

It's hard to understand exactly what "some smart idea accountant may come with comes into play." actually means but I wouldn't be surprised if it involved off-shore accounts a la Liam Lawlor.

Personally I would ignore Pokerevents with regard to the legality of setting up your own tournaments.

NickyOD

I don't understand where the line is drawn between casinos and bookmakers legally making a profit and other gambling promotors not.

amp

Not surprisingly this is a problem with the Gaming and Lotteries act 1956 is an outdated piece of ****.

Section 4 says this:

4.—(1) No person shall promote or assist in promoting or provide facilities for any kind of gaming—

( a ) in which by reason of the nature of the game, the chances of all the players, including the banker, are not equal, or

( b ) in which any portion of the stakes is retained by the promoter or is retained by the banker otherwise than as winnings on the result of the play,

The act in question does seem to have been written with slot machines in mind more than poker. The last time this act was updated was 1979. Searching the entire Irish Statute Book doesn't reveal any mention of the word poker.

So while technically skimming more than the reg is illegal, so are slot machines that payout more than a shilling.

Gaming and Lotteries Act 1956