Poker News

Poker in Canada

Those moving to our neighbor to the north may get a few unexpected shocks upon entering a Canadian casino for the first time. Canada’s gambling laws differ from the States’s in a variety of interesting ways. The biggest difference is the absence of tax on winnings in Canada. That albatross in the form of reporting winnings on your taxes is lifted! Unfortunately, this only applies if you’re a Canadian citizen. If you’re just visiting, too bad - you’ll have to pay taxes like the rest of us.

The other big difference is that the government either licenses, regulates or is directly involved in casino operations. Similar to how lotteries are run in the States, all casinos across Canada have ties to provincial governments.

That may be why Canadian casinos have names such as “Casino Edmonton” and “Great Canadian Casino.” In fact, individuals and private corporations are prohibited from owning a casino altogether in Canada. This law has prevented well-known casino chains from setting up shop on Canadian land, but it hasn’t stopped provincial casinos from offering some of the same WPT and WSOP qualifiers that a large chain would.

“OUTSTANDING!” says David Carr, Marketing Manager for the Edgewater Casino in Vancouver, British Columbia, referring to his casino’s poker business. “The poker room is almost constantly full with an entire new wave of players attending - lots of younger players and women. With four full tables, we often have a waiting list of 40 to 50 people.” Carr notes that the poker room at the Edgewater will soon expand from four to 12 tables.

British Columbia is home to a big poker tournament, and the Edgewater was right in the middle of it. “We recently held a number of satellite tournaments for the $2.5 million BC Poker Championships,” Carr says. “All satellites sold out within days.” Carr sees no limit to the heights poker could reach. “I see poker continuing to boom - it continues to attract more and more interest,” he says. “I’m always hearing people comment that they play online and now feel ready to try a live game.” “The explosion of interest in poker has been great for our poker operations,” says Daryl McCullough, senior manager, Poker Operations and Development for Great Canadian Casinos, Inc, which runs three casinos in Vancouver.

“The number of people playing the game now has ensured the success of the rooms. Until recently, River Rock has been the only property in BC permitted to host tournaments. We’ve been running daily and weekly tournaments throughout the last year.”

River Rock has Canada’s largest poker room, and it’s got tournaments to match. “River Rock Casino Resort was the host casino for the Inaugural BC Poker Championships Nov 17 to 20,” McCullough says.

“Over 1100 participants and a prize pool of over $2,000,000. River Rock also hosted the Western Regional of the Degree Poker Championships in June. WSOP & WPT options are being considered in partnership with the British Columbia Lottery Corporation.”

Thanks to television, McCullough doesn’t believe poker is going anywhere. “I see continued growth and interest in the game as more people get involved and come to understand the intricacies of the game,” he says. “As people learn that there is more to the game than luck, they develop a greater affection for the challenges it presents.

Continued TV coverage of special poker events will help maintain the growth as people strive for their chance to win the big one.”

“We offer any type of poker game, but primarily we play Hold’em with the lowest limit in the city of Calgary at $3-$6,” says Kevin O’Donnell, poker manager at the Stampede Casino in Calgary, Alberta. “We are also quite popular with our $100-$200 max buy-in, $1-$2 blind no-limit games. On the weekends, you can find a dealer’s choice game that brings Omaha Hi-Lo and both versions of Pineapple into play. Usually those are pot-limit games with a buy-in of $100-$500.”

Poker rooms in Alberta have more freedom with hours than other forms of gaming. “Like all poker rooms in Alberta, we offer non-smoking comfort that is open 24/7,” O’Donnell says. “Although the casino tables and slots are limited in hours they can be open, poker rooms are open all the time.”

Calgary itself has staggering competition when it comes to poker rooms, according to O’Donnell. “Being one of five poker rooms in the city of Calgary has been a challenge, but we have captured our share of the market by holding the lowest limit in the city,” he says. “Our attention to customer service, in my opinion, makes Stampede’s poker room the friendliest in the city. We usually have two games going every night with the room at capacity on the weekends. Being that we are on Stampede Park, we have the advantage of on-park events such as the Calgary Flames (NHL), Calgary Hitmen (WHL), Calgary Roughnecks (Lacrosse) and other large trade shows or concert events. There is always a game waiting to happen.”

Poker’s surge in interest has had an impact on the Stampede. “The recent poker explosion has been great for business with people of all ages and limits.” says O’Donnell. “More and more players are coming to checkout the game and are having a blast.”

The Stampede has had its share of big tournaments with lots of money on the line - even accounting for the exchange rate. “In the past 8 months, we have hosted many tournaments with some awesome prizes,” O’Donnell says. “At our opening tournament in April 2005, we partnered up with Q107 Radio and put 360 people through, with the grand prize being an entry and expenses to the 2005 World Series of Poker. Our winner sat at the first table with Raymer and fell to an early out. This summer during the annual Calgary Exhibition & Stampede in July, we hosted a tournament that boasted a guaranteed first prize of $50,000 and a unique championship belt buckle that will be given to all the winners of this “Stampede Classic.’ The winner of the tournament this year, Jesse Marion of Houston, TX, donated the entire first prize to a local charity.”

“He kept the belt buckle,” O’Donnell says. “From March 8 to 12 we will be hosting a $5000 buy-in heads-up poker tournament with the winner guaranteed $250,000,” he says. “This is going to be an awesome time. The field is capped at 128 players. This is going to be an exciting event that will have two players at the table. The winner will move on, the loser goes home.”

Some Stampede tournaments are fundraisers. “Two of our tournaments have benefited local charities,” says O’Donnell. “In May we hosted a tournament where, for $200, players received $2500 in tournament chips. If the player donated a set amount of food to the Food Bank, we doubled their starting chips. This year, we raised almost 700 pounds of food and $300 in cash. Just recently, we held a tournament under the same principle for CJAY 92’s Kids Fund. We raised over $1900 for them to benefit kids at Christmastime.”

O’Donnell sees poker leveling off somewhat in the future, but never going away completely. “In my opinion, poker will always have a place in the new casino world,” he says. “It is a game that promotes interaction between players and meeting people.

As far as gambling goes, it can be a low investment with big potential and the chance to play for several hours, unlike some of the table games. In three to five years, I can see the game, as we know it, hit a plateau and not set records for attendance and participation. The WSOP has gone from hundreds of players to almost 6000. We will not see that number climb that dramatically every year, and I can see it touching 10,000 players in the next 3 years.”

The presence of Internet poker is offering significant competition to Stampede’s live experience. “With tournaments being the new wave of poker, live casinos are competing with Internet gaming,” he says. “The Internet sites have the ability to host tournaments at any time for any limit you desire. As a live poker room we cannot compete with the frequency and the lower buy ins. Because we have to pay staff, we are really handcuffed by when we can hold them and the duration. There are many comments from players that most tournaments are not as fair as our Internet counterparts. Accelerated blinds or weak starting chips to keep tournaments in a profitable window sometimes makes it tough.

The new poker player only wants to play tournaments and we find it tough to get them to try a ring game.” “The biggest question is how much of an effect Internet poker will have in the future,” O’Donnell says. “With more and more sites popping up, casino poker may become obsolete. Ten to 20 years from now, I can see only Internet poker being popular.

Unfortunately, we have hit a technology age where people are more comfortable sitting at home in their pajamas rather than going out to the casino.”

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