« What would you (any person, any age) like to see in a tavern/casino environment?
What food, cracker, candy bar ANYTHING……..What can I eat the MOST of and not gain wieght……? »

is it legal for a public house to play poker and charge a joining fee of £50.00 and offer prize money of £1750

local pub doing this .they already run party poker thats fine as they use chips and amass point to get top of the table but i much doubt this is legal.thank in advance

It is not normal for a public house to hold a gaming licence, so the answer is almost certainly no.
Most public houses allow under 18s to enter although they may not be served nor may they drink intoxicating liquors.
A gaming licence would ban any under 18 from the premises as a matter of course. There would also be restrictions on the amounts of prize money in proportion to the amounts staked.
Playing poker simply to amass points in a ‘league table’ is probably allowable, but certainly even that is questionable.
The licensee would be liable to prosecution were there a breach of the law, and it could well be that anyone playing any unlawful game there could also find themselves in Court.

This entry was posted on Saturday, February 6th, 2010 at 12:29 am and is filed under public house. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

8 Responses to “is it legal for a public house to play poker and charge a joining fee of £50.00 and offer prize money of £1750”

  1. the pub should give the winner all the takings and only take a small percentage.
    is the taking in is £50 then it shoudl give in mor then 1750
    References :

  2. no it is illegal to play for cash amounts so keep it quite gambling laws dont allow this in pubs cos they dont have a licence
    References :

  3. Im not sure about this….but dont they need a gambling licence. So therfore they are commiting an offence, if they dont have one of these. Also i think that the people who use the facilities for gambling have to be over 21.
    References :

  4. They need a gambling licence. Perhaps they have one? This is regulated by the local council now, if you have doubts they’re the people to ask.
    References :
    Gambling Act 2005

  5. It is not normal for a public house to hold a gaming licence, so the answer is almost certainly no.
    Most public houses allow under 18s to enter although they may not be served nor may they drink intoxicating liquors.
    A gaming licence would ban any under 18 from the premises as a matter of course. There would also be restrictions on the amounts of prize money in proportion to the amounts staked.
    Playing poker simply to amass points in a ‘league table’ is probably allowable, but certainly even that is questionable.
    The licensee would be liable to prosecution were there a breach of the law, and it could well be that anyone playing any unlawful game there could also find themselves in Court.
    References :

  6. funkypants moobmeister on February 6th, 2010 at 8:22 am

    if he has a gaming licence then why not
    References :

  7. If they are doing this they need a Gaming Licence as everyone has said. Check if they have one and what it licences them to do, they cover a variety of gambling from simple slot machines up.
    References :

  8. Since Sept 07, the Gambling Commission are the new regulators for Gambling. This link talks about limits

    http://www.gamblingcommission.gov.uk/UploadDocs/Contents/Documents/Code%20of%20practice%20equal%20chance%20gaming.pdf
    References :

Leave a Reply