Does there exist any rules by gaming commission or other authorities that require a Poker Room to fully disclose or make available to the public what the tournament structures and payout structures are ? (prior to registration and upon request)

Reason I ask, is when comparing what live tournaments I want to play I like to compare not just the BI, starting chip stacks, and level duration........but also the amount of the levels(blinds/antes), how they progress, and the payout percentages from top to bottom.

As a consumer I want to determine whats the best value from one Poker Room vs. another......but more accurately.....from one tournament to another.

I have two Casinos in my local area. One makes all this info available on its web site, in addition to having fliers & brochures on site. The other, does not have it available on its web site. Nor does it have any info available at the physical location. In addition, repeated attempts to get this info from floor staff and tourney director have resulted in no success....weather it be in person, over the phone, or via their e-mail/social media connections.

It seems unfair to withhold this information from someone who wants to understand it prior to tournament registration.


Am I wrong in thinking this is basic information that should be made available to consumers ?

Generally speaking, a good, well-organized poker room will provide you with this information without request.

Every country, state, and potentially county city or street, have different laws. Search on google for your local laws, read them, and then you will know

Why should this be mandated? Over-regulation becomes very tedious.

If you don't like how a casino is running their operation, you are certainly welcome to show it, by not playing.

You could always play in it and write it down as you go?

Really though, if you've been there and asked in person and they didn't give you any info it sounds like a place I wouldn't want to play anyway.

There's an outside chance they thought you were a competing room inquiring when you called, emailed, etc and didn't want to divulge the info.

It needs to be mandated because otherwise you might end up making a trip to Vegas to play a WSOPC event and sit down and find out only after you've entered and are seated that oh-by-the-way there's an extra unannounced "optional" fee and you won't receive your entire chip stack if you don't pay it "voluntarily".

Gambling is a highly regulated activity. That's very rarely a bad thing for consumers and there's a long history that has lead to it being highly regulated.

Well that could happen .. or you could simply ask for the information and if not provided you could decide not to play.

If some company wants to play games like not telling people the details of teh tournament .... the free market can take care of it.

bigger tournys all have someone that can tell you and dont change it or cheat you.
smaller rooms may have to change payouts or structure according to the amount of entries. thats the way it is.
if you are a good player not much can change that would affect you chances of winning by much.
the big decision is if the buyin is right for you and the rake off is proper. all else adjust to.

I always wondered a little about one of the Vegas daily tourneys. They had nothing in print about their payout structure, and it changed day by day. There was usually a pattern to it, but basically I really do believe the floor just sat at the computer and punched in numbers for the payout positions until it added up to the prize pool. I was told by a conspiracy theorist in the room that he absolutely knew that they intentionally waited until the tourney was well under way and then set the payouts based on how well their horses were doing in the event. If their friends/family were deep stacked, they made a top-heavy payout. If their friends/family were doing poorly, they created a flat+wide structure.

This is why such things should be regulated. I didn't actually believe the conspiracy theorist, but can we prove otherwise? I think the payout variances mostly came from different floors doing it on different nights, from round-up/round-down adjustments, and sometimes from math errors or typos when the floor punched numbers into the calculator. I do KNOW they would tweak the payouts sometimes based on player requests--I made such a request one day when they had first place getting like 48% of the prize pool and 2nd place getting like 18%? I asked "WTH" and the floor said "oops--I guess I got carried away with rounding" and he went and redid it.

Great question. From what I understand, the Gaming Commission regulates everything including both cash games and tournaments in the poker room. The basics (buy-in, blind levels, etc) have to be posted at the start of the game/tourney. It seems like your complaint is that this information is sometimes not available, days or weeks in advance.

You wrote that the poker room staff/management hasn’t helped you. If you think your complaint is legitimate, file your complaint with the Gaming Commission.

Sure I understand that. Regulation is fine in the sense that if the casino announces one payout structure and then tries to change it mid game.... My point though was that for players who cared all they had to do was refuse to play somewhere that wouldn;t tell them a payout structure up front. And I can't think of anytime that I wanted to know a payout structure that a poker room didn't have it written down somewhere for me to see it.