Poker Revolution in Russia?
Generally speaking, it is very rare when Russia can clam being innovative and progressive in something not related to space or weapons technologies . Amazingly, it is poker where Russia made an advance which looks like a real revolution, especially by comparison with the US medieval approach to Internet gaming.
Last year Russian authorities made a very logical but highly unexpected move- they declared poker to be a sport game. It looks pretty simple, after all the decision about poker being a game of skill in US is a century old. But it has not been done yet anywhere in the world. What is really surprising about all this is a fact that poker is not so well known in Russia. When I was growing up we only knew about one version of poker-5 card draw, which is not a game of skill by comparison with other forms. But Russian bureaucrats smell big money from poker related taxation and do not have to worry about the anti-gambling lobby. This is an advantage of having a dictatorship – you can dismiss an opposition…or shoot them.
So the Russian decision to make poker a sport game resulted in the proliferation of poker clubs in major cities not associated with casinos. All this makes poker a very accessible game especially considering the general absence of reliable broadband Internet access in the country. We may expect many more Russian players similar to Ivan Demidov breaking the circle of high stakes professionals in USA and Europe.
Related posts:
- Winners and Losers in the 2008 WSOP
- More Exotic Gambling Vacation Spots
- Sun Tzu and the Art of Poker
- Rocky Mountain Poker
- Kentucky Trying to Seize Gambling Domains
Categories: Poker News
