Poker Scenario in India
There isn’t a scarcity of poker enthusiasts in India. However, casino poker operating country wide is still a distant dream. On asking about the poker scenario to a regular poker player, you will find that mostly home based games are prevalent in the country. To put in simple words, the casino poker industry of India is yet to grow.
Reasons for the lack of poker’s popularity
There are some restrictions holding back the growth of casino poker in the country. Still an offshore casino is needed to run live dealer games. Only electronic machines are run by land based casinos. The action involved in these is not enough to attract gambling enthusiasts. Casino Pride and Casino Royal are two leading casino brands of the nation. These off shore based casinos are in Goa. Only a small part of the earnings made by these casinos is contributed by poker. But there is a slow change in the scenario as suggested by reports.
It is not only the young crowd (between 18 and 25) which plays poker but also a large section of people belonging to the age group of 40 and above is showing interests in poker. From Flush, with which they were associated for so long, these players are turning towards poker. The buy-ins of poker games go up to INR 10 lakhs and above while the stakes range between 100 and 20,000 blinds.
Some other aspects of Indian poker
A lot of money is made by casinos from cash games. A small percentage of every hand played is taken by casinos. Hence more the number of hands played, more is the profit made by these casinos. For a cap worth INR 5000, 3-5% is taken by casinos.
A lot of players are engaged in the country to organize tournaments as well. Organizers are capable of receiving large sums of money. Another advantage of tournaments is that, once a player gets eliminated from them, they opt for cash games. This is the point where a casino makes huge money.
In India, only small poker rooms are found. Maximum eight tables are present in these rooms while in USA, there are as many as 30 poker tables in The Bellagio – a Vegas hotel.
