Aspers had been doing well with PokerTek’s PokerPro, which it had promoted heavily, securing acceptance from regular card players and interest from first-timers. Novice players find PokerPro a lot less intimidating than a card room, says Paul Sculpher, Aspers General Manager: “card room games in a casino tend to be a bit scary when you’ve got a dealer, you’re new, and you don’t really know what the etiquette is,” he explains.

The new Gambling Act classifies PokerPro, and other games that use a virtual simulation of a real world game, as Category B slot machines – but not as a single machine. A ten-seat PokerPro game, such as the ones installed at Aspers, became the equivalent of ten Category B slots under the new UK legislation when it kicked in.

“The way it works, as far as my Compliance Manager tells me, is that a ten-seat PokerPro table will be classed as the equivalent of ten slot machines. Because we are only allowed 20 in the casino, it just doesn’t make sense…PokerPro has, unfortunately, had to be removed,” Sculpher explains. “The only way we can run our business is with 20 traditional slot machines.” As Sculpher points out, there is an irony to the situation: “the law which came through on the 1st September allowed us to charge a percentage of the money that changes hands between players in a live, card-room poker game rather than an hourly entry fee to play, which the previous legislation restricted us to. It’s that ‘rake’, and PokerPro’s dealerless operation, that makes it attractive in other jurisdictions,” he explained.

“PokerPro can be set to charge a lower percentage, or rake, than a live game, and can play through twice as many hands as a live dealer – and, of course, you don’t have the costs of the live dealer to meet.” “The day that charging a rake became legal in the UK was the day that PokerPro effectively became classed as a slot machine, which made it kind of non-viable. It’s all a bit unfortunate,” he says.

The way forward for PokerPro, and for similar automated table games, in the UK is unclear. “We have been aware of the Gambling Commission’s intention to define a ten-seat Poker Pro table as the equivalent of ten category B machines, and are aware of the issue,” a British Casino Association spokesperson told Casino International. “We’re keeping it under review,” he added.

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