I went to play the £50 re-buy in Nottingham tonight, the club seems to be improving all of the time, Card Magic on a plasma screen, enforcement of rules and decent structure. If I'd known all this was happening and I could get all this locally, I might not have come up with this Poker Club idea in the first place.
[21] 19th December 2005 02:55
[20] 17th December 2005 16:32
I got the written confirmation for the premises from Fisher Hargreaves Proctor, the property agents, this morning. My solicitor at Freeth Cartwright send me a nice email informing me that there will be £19,000 stamp duty payable on the lease, charming.
[19] 16th December 2005 19:06
If you have read my diary you'll have noticed that I have got more stressed this week. In all my business ventures consulting people has been used effectively, but you can't please everyone all of the time.
[18] 14th December 2005 08:15
Long day today, but a lot of the foundations and structure of the club have been sorted out, I think.
Grant Thornton, my accountants, were a little shocked at my latest business venture, but even they are aware of the growth in poker. Apparently they had a "poker night" for some of their clients in Birmingham last month and it went down a storm. I told them that it would be in ther interests to puchase "corporate VIP" membership to the club if they valued my business!
[17] 14th December 2005 12:52
I have a busy day of meetings tomorrow, sf group and poker related.
At 9am I meet with my accoutants, Grant Thornton, to set up "From Dusk Till Dawn Ltd" of Birmingham. Due to the gaming laws this is not straightforward.
[16] 13th December 2005 18:32
I met with the Gaming Board inspector today. Nick came with me and we met at the premises and went for a drink across the road, after a tour of the premises. The meeting lasted about 2.5 hours.
It was mostly good news with a bit of no so good news. Breakdown below:
Good News
1. He said he can see NO REASON why I will not get a licence. In fact, I asked asked him the odds, and he told me 100% for the Gaming Board Consent, and although he could not speak for the Magistrates Court, he said "he could see no reason why and would be shocked if I got turned down"
2. ONLY Gaming staff working in my club (dealers, supervisors, cashiers and card room managers) will be prohibited from visiting other UK casinos. That means someone working in marketing or doing poker lessons, for example, will not be prohibited from playing poker elsewhere - or even in the our club. Basically, anyone who does not hold a "gaming licence" can play poker elsewhere or in the club.
3. He thought the premises were IDEAL for the purpose.
4. My General Manager would NOT need a "White Licence" as in a normal casino, as the Card Room Managers will be making the gaming decisions.
5. In 2007, there may be NEW rules for poker clubs, rather than them coming under the casino regulations.
6. Employees of other casinos CAN play poker in my club as long as they have PERMISSION from their employer (I guess this will be hard to get?)
7. We will be able to discuss ONLINE payments into tourneys with the Gaming Board, they will be open to debate and will try to be practical.
8. Timescale from application to granting of full licence should be less that 6 MONTHS (instead of 12 months as originally advised)
9. I CAN put forward my Card Room managers for Grey licences - cost £300 per person
10. He thinks objections will be WEAK from other casinos as there main income is not derived from poker, they need to prove "significant loss", which they cannot. The courts are unlikely to be sympathetic to any objections.
Not so good news
1. I NEED a Grey Licence holder on site for all of the gaming hours.
2. I need to employ a "compliance officer" to ensure all regulations are being carried out in the club -extra COST.
3. He thinks there is a good chance that I will NOT be able to play poker in the club, but he is open to discuss this further as poker is not a "house" game.
4. There may be internet legislation coming into place to prevent people playing "OFFSHORE" internet gambling or poker sites in a casino. This would mean that people could not play Partypoker for example (or most of the rest). Even if the "skin" is based in the UK. Apparently there is a huge enquiry going on into this.
5. There are serious RESTICTIONS on advertising the club in public places.
6. Gaming hours are stict, if a comp does not finish by 6am we CANNOT continue
[15] 12th December 2005 22:06
Things are moving on nicely now, Chubby Nowab is the most enthusiatic person in the world as expected, he is working on the club logo, membership form etc. I have a head office for sf group that does all of the marketing, accounting and human resources, so we will be intergrating the poker business into that infrastructure.
[14] 14th December 2005 16:47
Well, now we have the name and the premises sorted the next stage is to tackle the Gaming Board, who I am taking round the premises on Tuesday at 12pm. I have sent the Inspector an email before the meeting so he is fully prepared for all of my questions. Speaking to him over the last few months, I think there is a good chance that some of the restrictions that casino's have to live with "may" be relaxed for my club..............anyway, there is no halm in asking is there? We've had lost of discussions about what is and what is not the law, so I am just going to ask all the stupid questions I can get away with. I have pasted the email just in case anyone gets really bored and needs somthing to read (hey - I had to write it).
[13] 10th December 2005 02:01
We had a meeting at my place last night to try and decide a name for the club. This had even more importance, because we finally received the sign off for the premises yesterday - HOORAY AT LAST.
[11] 7th December 2005 06:20
Having slept on my $50,000 2 outer bad beat in the cash game,I've now completely forgot about it and will never mention it again. The end of the year is approaching and all the gambling disasters of 2005 will be written off when the new year starts.