Holland Casino Expands its Tournament Schedule
In the wake of the
World Series of Poker, Holland Casino is expanding its tournament schedule with a seemingly endless array of poker festivals. Where in previous years the
Master Classics of Poker in Amsterdam was the only thing players could look forward to, there are now several tournament series popping up all over the country, trying to feed the ever-increasing demand for poker in Holland. With illustrious names like
North Sea Poker Classic, Utrecht Summer Classics, Breda Series of Poker, Top of Holland Casino Series of Poker, and
Lighttown Series of Poker, the tournaments are certainly going to be successful in achieving their objective. For the first time, it will be impossible for players to keep up. Choices will have to be made as to which venue to attend, as several of these tournaments are held at the same time.
The Holland Casino
Dutch Open is also back, for its third consecutive year, to determine who will be the one to succeed professionals Rolf Slotboom and Steven ten Cate as Dutch poker champion. The 13 preliminary rounds in as many different Holland Casinos will produce 39 finalists, who will battle for that coveted title on Oct. 21 in the new poker room at Holland Casino Scheveningen.
The qualifying rounds each hold 60 players, so the new champion will have bested a total of 780 players, which will make this the largest tournament field on Dutch soil so far. Just like the previous years, the preliminary rounds have only a €100 buy-in, with rebuys. This ensured that last year, every tournament was a guaranteed sellout, with dozens of alternates anxiously hoping for a spot, as well. Reigning champion Steven ten Cate was one of the lucky few who could step in as an alternate, after someone declined his rebuy option.
Considering the huge explosion of poker in the past year, they easily could have raised the buy-in of the first-round tournaments to make it at least a €300 freezeout, but management thought that a €100 buy-in would give everyone a chance, not just the players with big bankrolls. The fact that players who are not willing to rebuy or add on are at a huge disadvantage was sadly ignored.
This resulted in an absolute rush to the cages when registration started on July 23. Within a week, all 780 seats were sold, making the expensive advertising campaign for the
Dutch Open, which wouldn't start for another couple of weeks, totally unneccesary.
I think it's fair to say that the good people of Holland Casino underestimated the market once again.
Justice Department Under Pressure
For years now, people have been questioning the Dutch policy on gaming. The reasons the government gives as to why Holland Casino still maintains its monopoly on games of chance have been doubted for their legitimacy by almost everybody. It becomes increasingly harder to sell that the reason no other company is allowed to enter the Dutch market is that the government and its Holland Casino is the only party that can fully control the gambling habits of the people, monitor and prevent gambling addiction, and provide a safe and secure gaming environment. This is fueled mainly by the huge advertising budget that Holland Casino uses to lure people inside. A seemingly endless stream of television commercials, roadside banners, and large ads in popular magazines and newspapers has been using scheduled performances by second-rate singers as an excuse to get gamblers to come over and lose their money for years.
Now, as Holland Casino wants to expand its monopoly onto the Internet, the justice department has some explaining to do. Not only does the pressure from Brussels increase, but for the first time, a couple of voices from inside the Dutch government want some answers, too. At the beginning of next year, a new tax law is probably coming into effect, making it increasingly difficult for us to gamble online or abroad, basically at any other venue than Holland Casino. With this, the reasons that are being given to deny other companies the opportunity to practice their trade on Dutch soil, therefore preventing any competition to even exist, become less credible by the minute.
While all of this is aimed mostly at casino games, sports betting, and lotteries, it applies to us poker players, as well. Illegal poker tournaments are still being raided and shut down by the police, to the point that now, as we expected a while back, the only games you can find outside the walls of Holland Casino are in dark basements that can be found only by word of mouth. These games are of course impossible to regulate, and are definitely not a safe environment to bring your money to. The government uses this as an argument in its favor, which is, of course, wrong, because it is a situation that it has created itself. An open market with a regulated licensing system would provide far better opportunities to monitor any missteps, and healthy competition surely would be in the customers' interest.
But considering the amount of money the government makes each year on the gambling Dutch, as long as it isn't in its interest to allow this to happen, it probably won't. We have seen stranger things happen in the past, though, so we are still hoping for that miracle breakthrough, albeit against better judgement.
Peter Dalhuijsen is a professional poker player who writes for PokerCollege.nl.
