Who put the card in Cardiff?

Author: Simon Dexter

I never really trust surveys. I’m always a bit suspicious about the motives behind them i.e. who paid for it and what type of market spin are they trying to push with the results.

So what do we make of the latest survey by Mintel that puts Wales at the top of the poker playing league in Great Britain? A whopping 31 per cent of Welsh people claim to have played a hand of poker in the last year. This compares with 27 per cent of the Scots and just 22 per cent of the English.

It may be one of the reason’s why a Welsh entrepreneur became the first person to walk away from the BBC’s popular Dragon’s Den show with more money than he asked for!

Welsh Poker League boss Steve Bellis was offered £65,000 to help him launch his league though he never saw a penny of the money as he forgot to fill in the relevant paperwork!

Bellis has made his business work without the cash injection and believes TV played a huge part in the increased popularity of poker though safety and security were also issues.

“It’s growing like you wouldn’t believe. I am on a poker holiday right now in Lanzarote,” he told icWales.

“We look after everyone and make sure everyone is happy. Friends tell each other and more people come along.”

One of the reasons for the upturn in popularity is that from autumn of this year low-level poker games were made legal in pubs.

However, Bellis believes there are still a lot of illegal games taking place.

“There are still a lot of unlicensed games going above the limit,” he continued.

“We know of a lot that go on in virtually every town that we are in. We hear about them and I don’t think councils and the police actually understand the intricacies.

“There are
tournament games, cash games, no-limit games

. They don’t understand what they are supposed to enforce. ”

Mintel analyst Matt King said: “Live games are just as popular as online ones. The social side of the game is an important aspect for many players.”

I was trying to think of some witty ideas about Wales being the capital of poker but failed miserably. I don’t think I’ll ever beat the people of Castleford and Pontefract who have christened their two towns - famous for its betting inhabitants - as Cas Vegas and Ponte Carlo.

Tags: no limit, play poker, poker, Poker Tournaments

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 5th, 2007 at 3:32 pm and is filed under News & Promotions Blog, Poker News.