http://www.egrmagazine.com/news/1679...elicence.thtml

Bodog is the first company to be granted licenses under the proposed regulatory regime in the UK.

A snippet from the above article is worrying:
Bodog.co.uk will continue to operate and offer UK customers services under its Antigua licence until it switches over to its UK licence in three months time. All non UK players will then be blocked from the site.

Hase Bodog let the cat out of the bag by indicating that UK licensing will necessitate player segregation?

Will the UK end up like France or Italy?

I have no idea of the numbers of UK players on Pokerstars, but player segregation may well spell the end of things for UK players with Pokerstars, the only viable site remaining.

we'll know in about 3.5 months

From the article:
Wat? Currently there is no licence requirement of any kind to be able to offer on-line poker (or gaming in general) to UK punters.

I just spoke with Bodog.

They explained that they already have segregated pools for the Asian market.

Seems like segregation may well be where the UK is heading, since they will not be segregating unless this is a requirement of the UK licenses that they have received.

If Stars segregate, we are probably talking about a marginally viable player pool for the UK market, making some assumptions about player composition by geography by studying the Stars lobby in conjunction with the player flow numbers on pokerscout.com, to get a feel for numbers of UK players on Stars.

In my view, no other sites have a viable player pool, with or without geographical segregation.

You are right, currently there is not. But going forward there will be. Given that Bodog has already got the paperwork, their comments should be taken seriously.

I will attach the relevant thread about the proposed reforms:
http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/29...eform-1065790/

Don't they understand that the reason online poker was so successful was because you could play people from around the world, at any time of the day? It's why it was so big and attractive.

They're gonna kill the golden goose by segregating us. Incredibly short-sighted.

I spoke to Bodog last week and they were quite clear that really there is no suggestion of player pool segration for the online poker market. New regulations haven't even been written up, we're in the beginnings of a consultation/drafting period. To hint or suggest otherwise would not be an accurate way of respresenting the situation.

Bodog have a UK local and remote gambling license, along with many other companies. They will be switching UK players to play under this license in three months. I imagine players with a UK IP address will be redirected from bodog.eu to bodog.co.uk, the casino/sportsbook etc will be under the UKGC jurisdiction. This will ensure they will continue to be able to advertise in the UK.


The article says nothing about a segregated player pool for poker.

[edit - just checking this now, it seems Bodog's poker room is held under Kahnawake jurisdiciton, which is not on the UK whitelist and so therefore they cannot advertise in the UK. So it makes even more sense they would look to move]

disgusting news, guess i will have to move to Portugal now (tongue in cheek)

Not one person has said anything about player pools having to be segregated in the current *proposal* to make amendments to the existing online Gambling Act in the UK.

Along with UK/Malta, I know of 5 countries that have, or are close to having, regulated online poker: Italy, France, Estonia, Belgium, Spain. 2 of these have segregated player pools, three of them - the latter three - do/will not.

The three that do not are the more recent laws passed. France/Italy were the first in the new wave of euro legislation, and there's been talk that they will relax their laws and are considering a unified player pool. More recent regulations do not have this restriction. There is a move towards more permissive laws, including international player pools.

So to suggest the UK - who have one of the largest gambling lobbies in Europe, and a history of permissive gambling laws, would segregate online poker seems to be making some broad leeps in assumption.

Oh well we still will get tax free winnings I guess

in addition, the submission that the UK govt that oversees gambling and gaming put in a submissoin to the Aus goverments review on online gambling and gambling advertising suggesting that the way they operate allowing a worldwide player pool was the most desirable way to operate the industry.

What does this mean?

Bodog's brand in Asia is bodog88.com. This operates a casino, sportsbook and 'racebook'. A guess this player pool is segregated for these, for what ever 'player segregation' in an online casino means.

To the best of my knowledge, residents of Asian countries who want to play poker under a bodog-branded site play on the Bodog Poker Network.

I went ahead and downloaded the poker client for bodog88. I can confirm that the player pool for poker is not segregated in asia, it's the same international player pool on bodog.eu, bodog.ca, bodog.co.uk, and what is planned next year for the MMGG US-facing poker room

Nice posts Hood.

None of us want player segregation and let us hope that we do not end up like the French. Seems like the Bodog player segregation may well be for non-poker activities.

hood, you are probably the best poster when it comes to european poker legislation, thanks for everything. you're a journalist, right? are you british?

Thanks, yes I'm co-founder and editor of an independent online news site (link in profile). I'm british but right now live in Spain.

Thanks to Hood +1

I'm curious, why is that? I never made so much money so quickly before Italy went segregated. My fellow citizens love to gamble and bluff. It's much easier without the Americans in the games.

More info about the bolded please. Not meant rudely at all, but how can you know US poker is coming next year? I doubt the congressmen even know what's going on.

Bodog already operate in the US, The Morris Mohawk Gaming Group (MMGG) have operated the US-side of the bodog brand since UIGEA. Bodog recently announced that they will pull the brand from the US, but MMGG will continue operating in 2012 under a new name.

Again, I can't link to it, but if you search "bodog pulls out of US market" the article i wrote on it is 2nd or 3rd link i believe

It's generally not "good for hte games" for a few reasons, even though for some people in some games it may be immediately +EV, long-term segregated player pools = lower liquidity which = less game types run, less promos sites can run, less game selection, and for small countries it may hard to get many games at all going.

Well it's well known there's legislation planned that may pass. Why wouldn't the company plan for that?

No, it's nothing to do with planning for legislation; see above.

While I think it's pretty stupid to segregate player pools, I seem to recall the uk has the second biggest number of players. So i'm sure we will live.

Is that before or after BF?