Future Of Poker In India Cricket
Future Of Poker In India Rupees

For those who have tracked the poker and gaming industry in India, the name Jim Ramm needs no introduction. One of the early movers in the poker industry in India, Jim has been associated with almost all casinos in Goa at some points of time and is now running a poker room in Colombo’s Marina casino.

In this exclusive conversation, he talks about a wide range of issues including how he got associated with poker, his attempts to venture into online poker, the need for responsible gaming and a proper regulatory framework and much more.

Full interview:

Q. You are one of the senior-most persons in the poker industry in the Indian sub-continent and in a way, one of the pioneers of poker in India. Can you tell us a little bit about how you got acquainted with the game of poker and why you decided to start a poker venture in India?

Jim Ramm (Jim): In the early 2000’s I was based in the Caribbean islands in the jewelry trade and started playing poker then with friends at house games. Aruba, St. Kitts & Nevis and then South Carolina in the United States. I was present at the 2004 & 2005 WPT tours in Aruba and that got me more into poker. I was lucky to meet up with some of the big guys then. I even sold some jewelry pieces to them and their family!

In mid-2008 I returned to India for my USA residence visa renewal formalities, which took a little longer than I expected, actually only a month more, but this waiting period got me looking for a game of poker. I found that Goa was the only state in India which had casinos so I headed there for a short poker vacation. But there was no game there either. This is when I got the idea to start a poker league as I believed that this game would surely fit in with our Indian lifestyle and one day would become a popular house game like rummy.

Thus came into being India Poker Ranking Tour (IPRT) the very first Indian Poker League.

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Where does poker stand legally in the Indian society? This is a summary of that long journey and the possibilities of what lies ahead. Most importantly, it a.

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(I did get my USA visa soon after this but never used it. I stayed back in India).

Q. You brought both cash games and tournaments in Goa in 2008 by starting a poker room in Casino Pride (and later in other casinos). Tell us about your experience of running a poker room and poker events in Goa? How do you think the poker scenario has evolved over the last few years?

Jim: From the very beginning I decided to work only at legal and licensed venues and thus approached a couple of Goa casinos with my idea of holding tournaments and cash events at their casino ships. Casino Royale (now Deltin JAQK) and Casino Pride (now Casino Pride 1) were the two casinos I approached with my proposal. Mr. Narinder Punj, grand-father of Indian gaming industry, who was then heading Casino Royale and Casino Caravela, showed keen interest in this new idea.

Casino Pride guided me to Mr. Phil Sanders who had just entered into negotiations for starting a poker room at their casino. After meeting Mr. Phil I felt we shared many common ideas and decided to join him at Casino Pride. The cash tables became operational on 15^th August that year but it was the first IPRT tournament, held soon thereafter, which got us traction with the cash tables. In less than a year after that Mr. Phil decided to move to Casino Royale. I stayed back at Casino Pride as the poker room operator.

Those early days were tough as there was no data base of existing poker players available and we did not have Whatsapp, or Facebook to connect with players. Communication was via SMS’ on Nokia & Samsung first generation monochrome 1.5 inch screen mobile phones and also via emails.

I got on to the task of creating a data base from across the country which I considered to be most vital. The idea was to assemble poker players under one IPRT branded umbrella. The task was more daunting due to the fear in interpreting the ambiguities of the Indian gambling laws. Invitation to a casino could have been a violation of the law. It was indeed frightening then as there was no set precedent for me to follow. I started inviting players for IPRT tournaments and created a data base discreetly and steadily.

IPRT tourneys were being held regularly and so were the cash tables running. But those were different days. For most of the players it was the first experience at a casino with dealers dealing for them. Their nervousness was clearly visible on the tables and so was their excitement. Rs 10000 (approx. USD 200 those days) buyin tables with Rs.100/200 blinds was a big thing!

After a lot of trial and error we set the basic norms which are followed even today like the 5% rake and the Rs 5000 cap; the tournament structures suitable for our local players were modified and established with the help of Mr. Craig; the attractive free hotel stay and flight reimbursement promotions were introduced; the minimum number of play hours required to qualify for the freebies were established; bad beat jackpot was introduced first time by us; basic training programs for dealers was created; things like that.

In Goa I ran poker rooms at Casino Pride, Casino Carnival and Casino Caravela between 2009 and 2013.

Future Of Poker In India Cricket

There has been quite a shift in overall gaming in the last decade, primarily brought about by advancing technology. The demographics of our customers have also changed. The players are younger on average. I believe that the future of the casino industry is in slots & e-machines. For poker and other card games, it is in online platforms. As today’s customers were raised on electronic games, therefore, the real future innovations in gaming are going to primarily happen in the electronic versions. Even the payment models will slowly shift dominantly from fiat moneys to crypto currencies.

Poker as a game has indeed come a long way in India since those early days. IPRT was the first Indian platform to bring organized poker in brick and mortar format to the un-exposed Indian market and that will remain as a historical fact forever. However, the online poker platform Adda52 was the catalyst, the first booster for the poker popularity wagon in India, though there will be many who may argue it was Zynga Poker.

Now, with Delta Corp taking the lead by acquiring Adda52 and promoting Poker Sports League, the most exciting and credible league format in India, I feel this will be the second booster. With PSL, under the lead of Mr. Manoj Jain (Vice President of Delta Corp and head of operations of Deltin Royale) and my new visionary friend and fellow poker passionista Mr Manish Adnani of Deltin Royale, I see a tremendous growth in the industry in the next five years.

Other players in the industry like Mr. Anuj Gupta, Mr. Amit Burman, Mr. Pranav Bagai, Mr. Amin Rozani, Mr. Vinod Manoharan, Mr. Manoj Jain (Pokabunga), Mr. Madhav Gupta, Mr. Rajeev Kanjani and Mr. Navkiran Singh amongst others, have done and are continuing to do a great job.

However, credit should also go to the people working behind the scenes, who have been the back-bone of the Indian poker industry since the very beginning. Mr. Rajendra Chandrachud of Salus Technologies is one such individual who has dedicatedly devoted over a decade developing gaming software in India, including poker and rummy, and continues to service Indian and International markets on his robust platform. Mr. Wynn boston harbor casino resort spa. Rajat Agarwal and Mr. Aditya Agarwal of PokerGuru did magic for the poker industry at the right time in our country, and you, Mr. Jay Sayta have done great service to the whole gaming industry through your Glaws platform.

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