With the spread of the new coronavirus, face-to-face poker championships needed to be postponed to comply with public health protocols.
As with the NBA, NHL and MLS, the World Series of Poker, held at Caesars Entertainment Casino, was forced to suspend face-to-face competition and migrated to the online format this year. However, this transition process had some obstacles.
In the first part, the contestants needed to reach one of the two authorized American states. And, if they intended to play for high payouts, they needed to leave the country. The option to migrate to the virtual model also ran into technological problems.
The poker event started in July using WSOP software. About 40 thousand people joined and had to present identity documents and proof of residence.
Even so, participants were forced to be, as determined by the geolocation applications, in New Jersey and Nevada, where Caesars has a license to operate online betting. “A viable option on both shores,” according to Ty Stewart, executive director of the WSOP.
Launched in 2017, GGPoker is based in Ireland and Canada and has legal clearance to promote bets in Curacao, Malta and the United Kingdom.
In addition, it paid for a licensing fee with the WSOP to host the championship. Thus, about 170 thousand players were able to enter international tournaments starting in August.
Technical and legal issues limit player accession to online poker tournaments
However, many competitors were left out because they did not want to travel because of the pandemic. Canada, like several nations, is imposing conditions for the entry of Americans due to the high number of confirmed cases in the country.
Some regions of Mexico even receive Americans, but only by plane. So some famous poker players, like Negreanu, Phil Hemuth, Maria Ho and blogger Brad Owen, flew to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.
Moving to other parts of the world to play poker championships is not uncommon, but playing in front of a screen is relatively new for many professionals. The online game, and not in a room in the company of opponents, becomes a challenge and even gives rise to new models of cheating.
In addition, several competitors were frustrated that the United States had not yet released federal poker. On social networks, players with no financial means to travel outside the country considered using virtual private networks (VPN), in order to circumvent the issues of geolocation.
However, the action is considered risky and may lead to the confiscation of the prizes obtained in the championships in case of discovery of the “maneuver”.
“United States law is stupid, it is stupid. I don’t care which sofa you’re playing on. The demand is huge. Poker is a game of skill. When there are more steps towards legalization, we will not need to rotate the globe to sit in front of a computer ”, criticized Faraz Jaka, a professional poker player.