PokerWorks

The Nuts Poker League (TNPL) is Europe’s largest pub poker league, boasting over 19,000 members. Now, those members have another place to play with the opening of the NPL poker room online.



With help from Inside Gaming, one of the leading service providers in the UK, the TNPL members can now play for prizes in special tournaments held throughout the month. In addition, every night a special “Lock-In” tournament will be held. These nightly events are made to give players the feeling created by the live tournaments held in pubs across the UK, even when the player can’t get down to the local pub.

Public awareness of the TNPL got a big boost last year when The BBC program “Dragons Den” invited managing Director Steve Bellis to be a guest on the show. After his appearance, membership swelled. Over 600 players can be found playing in the TNPL participating pubs around the UK, almost every night of the week.

Recently, while talking about the club’s move online, Bellis said, “I have always believed and understood the value of TNPL. We have been looking to combine the pub poker league with an online offering for a while- but it was important that we took our time to find the right partner. Inside Gaming has grasped a true understanding of our business and has the flexibility to create bespoke tournaments to suit our players and allow us to continue creating the community environment that we've worked hard to establish."

In March of last year, TNPL filed legal action against the West Mercia Police. The league claimed that police misled pub owners, making them believe it was illegal for the pub’s to host the poker games. Evidently, the police sent letters to the pub owners, threatening them with revocation of their license if they hosted the league’s poker games.

The Nuts Poker League games, like their US counterpart, The Bar Poker League, are set up with a point system to win prizes, so no money is involved, therefore, deemed legal. The tournaments are hosted by the pubs/bars to boost their businesses.

In September of this year, the rules requiring UK pubs to get a license to offer poker games changed. That is when the Gambling Act came into force. The Act allows equal chance gaming, which makes poker in pubs across the UK legal.