"Dusk till Dawn" Poker Club In Nottingham Diary (by Rob Yong)

[Royal Flush]

its gonna be like a huge home game but a bit more expensive.

Classic

[robyong]

Good luck tomorrow Rob.

I haven't filled a form in yet - should I wait until you know whether you can do them online or whatever?

The forms are being redone on the internet, they will be on a web page. Chuuby Nowab has not taken on this responsibility. we'll let you know when its up.

[Trace]

Good luck today Rob.

Knock 'em dead - not literally of course, that would put everything up the swanny!

T
xx

[dik9]

Good Luck Rob, no pressure, just the poker community banking on ya

[robyong]

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


Overall, a good meeting. Another small step further in the plan.

Cheers Rob

[The Truth]

well done mate!

[The_nun]

Thanks for the update Rob..

[Karabiner]

Sounds Okay to me Rob, far more positives than negatives.

Especially that casino employees may play, that's great !

[Trace]

Well done Rob.

[dik9]

I too had a long walk back after my busfare slipped into the fruity just to see if it was going to hold for the 3rd time?
To this day I tell people that the buzz comes from when you have lost everything and the fear after you have over it.
Most times I walked, but occasionally I got a taxi back!

[RED-DOG]

If the buzz comes, why take a taxi?

[dik9]

So my mom never beat me for coming home late!

[robyong]

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.

Then have go meet with the Managing Director and Finance Director if sf group, my recruitment company, to sign of the 2007 budget, which I am not very well prepared for as I have been spending all my time on the poker club.

While in Birmingham, I am planning on hooking up with Action Jack to see if we can agree for him to come on board. I have not spoken to him for a couple of weeks and I am not sure if he has been following my posts.

After that, I am travelling down to Oxford to interview a Card Room Manager who has applied to work in the club. I want all of the key people lined up before March 2006, as I think they will have to start well in advance of the club opening to get everything organised, dealers trained etc. The problem with recruiting people into a new venture is the uncertainty, they are often in stable jobs with mortgages and families to support, and if I sense that this is a concern for them, I won't pursue their application. I don't want people to join just because I am paying higher wages.

I am hoping Womble and Nowab stick around tomorrow night so we can play a bit of poker at my place, relax and have a few laughs. The debate on membership fees is niggling at the back of my mind, and I could do with a few people to bouce it off face to face. I was using the fee not only to generate some income, but to deter non poker related people / or undesirables from coming in. Because we are out of town we will benefit from more leeway on the licence, we could even get 24 hours, so we could be a nice stop off the people who want to carry on boozing in nice suroundings without any entrance fee.

I'm not opening a general public drinking establishment, its a poker club, how do I keep people out who just fancy dropping after a shed load of drinks on the town cause we have a late drinking licence? How do I keep it exclusive to decent, repectful poker players? Is there another way apart from fees? I want a place where I can entertain my clients and employees from sf group, have a nice meal with my girlfriend in a friendly atmosphere with nice people.................I would never do this is a "casino type environment" ........................I'm not feeling too good about the poker club today.

If fact, the image in my head of a "poker meat market" type business where my job is to drive volume through the door is a place that I would not want to even want go in myself. Maybe I should have been looking at a smaller club with lower overheads? Maybe I should have assessed what I really wanted properly before I went ahead with these premises? I need to re-assess I think, because I do believe that I will not be able to get the required volume of people without comprimising what I want the club to be like. Of course, at festivals and major events, that "homely" feeling cannot be there as there will be so many one-off visitors, but the rest of the time, I want it to feel like a big home game.

I also think, after refection, I have miscalculated how much poker players actually want to get a dedicated poker club, if people on Blonde have reservations about the costs, your average jo who doesn't even know me is going to have even more.

I think I will re-vist the costings, the refurb specification, and what I actually want to get out of it. I'd still go for that property, its just too good, but I can scale down other costs for a "smaller" customer base. I'll re think the membership sheme aswell.

[Splash]

Been reading the posts but not had much cause to comment.... however my wife is a manager at GT birmingham... if by chance u are meeting her tomorrow rob.. can you tell her to play big PP with more aggression in her cash games pls!!    ty

All the best BTW!  takes balls what u r doing and hope it works out!

[Bongo]

"invited members" only late bar?

Could be one way to keep people who just want to drink late away - they won't be able to unless they've been approved!

edit: I actually came to say "don't get disheartened" but thought of that and posted it in a rush.