Owners of the birthplace of the planet’s most prestigious poker tournament are entering the race for a Nevada online poker licence. Vintage Vegas Gaming, owners of Binion’s Gambling Hall & Hotel where the World Series of Poker first took place, have applied to the Nevada Gaming Control Board for a operator and service provider licence. The list of those applying for a licence has now reached almost 40 and some are already licenced to start offering games. The first of these could be South Point Hotel and when it gets its web doors open it could signal the start of something big – in Nevada at least.
As Binions was showing its aspirations, the hugely ambitious International Stadiums of Poker Tour (ISPT) were scaling back their plans for global domination. The online/live mega-super-dupa tournament organizers told Pokerfuse the tournament must reach at least half the 30,000 originally mooted as the attendance figure to take place. George Djen said: “At least 15,000 players must come, otherwise the tournament won’t take place.
“But we could guarantee that this will [be] the hugest tournament in the world in terms of the participants. A maximum of 30,000 players could play.”
The news comes after ISPT set about a recruitment spree over the past few weeks with Sam Trickett, David Benya,ine and Michael Mizrachi all signing on to be ambassadors for the event – which is slated for Wembley Stadium between May 31 and June 6 2013. The lingering worry you have with this event is the feeling that there might not be 30,000 – let alone 15,000 – players that have an unquestionable thirst to play poker on a computer in a football stadium. That is where the event could fall down and it will be interesting to see what happens should the 14,999 people turn up.
