I don't think I've ever written about poker in Iceland before, but it's about time now. The country had its first public poker event in June - and an hour later, the first police raid of a public poker event. More than 150 players had gathered to play cards and had put the small amount of $65/€50 on the line. Apparently, a lawyer found that worth calling the police, so they cleared the area and confiscated everything, including cards and tables.
According to the lawyer, arranging the tournament meant breaking two laws. The first is the usual Nordic law - the one regulating gaming and making it illegal to profit from gambling, both directly (for example, arranging) and indirectly (for example, renting out the tournament area). I can understand that law, but I'm glad we don't have the other one in Sweden. Apparently, there's a financial law in Iceland that if you're making a living through gambling, you should be fined or sent to jail for up to a year!
Scandinavians in the World Series of Poker
I'm writing this just as the
World Series of Poker main event is about to start. So far, there haven't been any Scandinavian bracelet winners, but we've still had a good year, with plenty of final tables. Chris Bjorin, the London-based Swede, has been the most successful to date, with three final tables (in H.O.R.S.E., pot-limit Omaha, and no-limit hold'em). Chris says himself that Texas hold'em is his worst game - not because he's bad at it, but because the specialists are so good!
I'm an old-school poker player myself, and I'm very happy to see that almost all of the Scandinavian final-table finishes have been in events other than no-limit hold'em. Finns, Swedes, and Danes finished high in pot-limit Omaha tournaments, and did very well in the mixed games, too. Why this has happened this year is a question for which I don't really have a good answer.
Fewer Competitors
Fewer Scandinavians have competed in the
WSOP compared to last year. The shrinking number of satellites is one cause, of course, but another is that our IRS departments have become more interested in non-EU poker winnings. I'm unsure about the Norwegian laws, but for the rest of us, winnings within the EU are tax-free and winnings outside the EU are taxed 30 percent without deducting buy-ins or travel expenses. In other words, there is millions in tax money to claim, and plenty of players found that out this year when the IRS calculated their taxes.
Finally, here's a funny anecdote from Sweden. Casino Cosmopol, the state-owned casino, has reported a number of clubs to the police. The reason? The clubs offer too low limits, so the casino can't handle a little competition since it can't run cheap tournaments (with buy-ins in the €5-€10 range). Apparently, people want to play casual poker in a friendly environment and don't always care about huge prize sums. It's an outrage!
Ola Brandborn is a writer and blogger for poker.se.