Online Casino Campaigns to Make Poker an Olympic Sport
December 30, 2008
Leading online casino CircusCasino.com has started a campaign on Facebook that would see the sport of poker become a demonstration event for the 2012 Olympic Games in London before being fully recognised for 2016.
The Alderney-licensed site is operated by Genting Stanley Alderney Limited, part of the UK’s largest casino operator, and is lobbying the International Olympic Committee (IOC). However, it faces stiff competition from women's netball and Twenty20 cricket, both of which have launched online campaigns of their own.
CircusCasino.com stated that poker is thought to date back to 15th Century Germany and is now one of the fastest-growing games in the world after being officially recognised recently as a sport.
It revealed that the card game stands a better chance as it ticks more of the IOC's regulatory boxes. Unlike netball and cricket, for example, it is a cross-gender pastime that has a far wider international appeal and could become the first truly age and class-neutral Olympic event.
"Poker's appeal is global,” said Peter Nolan from CircusCasino.com.
“It transcends gender and age and is the fastest-growing sport in the world. It's ripe for Olympic recognition. Millions play every week, millions more watch it on television but perhaps more importantly, we've got some world-renowned British players.”
CircusCasino.com even released a list of eight professional poker players that it believes could take on and defeat the world as part of a British Olympic team. The selected players include Jon Kalmar from Chorley in Lancashire, Adrian Lambe from Abingdon in Oxford and Dave Colclough from Carmarthen in Wales. Also in the list is Dave Ulliott from Hull in East Yorkshire, Victoria Coren from London, Neil Channing from Reading in Berkshire, Lucy Rokach from Stoke-On-Trent in Staffordshire and Mark Goodwin from Birmingham in the West Midlands.
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