Online Poker In Asia: What's It's Status?

[Postiga]

I'm just curious as to why the sites haven't expanded into asia yet. If say just Japan took to online poker it would dwarf the good old days in terms of the amount of easy games available. Then if you added south-east asia and China...(excuse me while I visit the bathroom).

I've searched but Ihaven't found any discussion on the net about this. So what's the story? Will we see asians on the poker sites any time soon?

[Kintamayama]

I doubt Japan would bring much into the mix, as Japan, by and large, is not a nation of card players.

[bkkdude]

people in thailand wouldnt know a royal flush if it hit them in the head.....lol.

if any thai person willing to open me up an account we could split the profits.

[NoMeansYes_]

Start an Online poker site for asians and watch the money pour in. Everyone knows asians like to gamble, its only a matter of time

[PokerSpiv]

1. The typical Japanese person doesn't have enough spare time to sit at home playing online poker. They only go home to sleep, if that. Most Japanese do their gambling in Pachinko parlours located on the street near their office.

Additionally, Internet Cafes in Japan are extremely expensive by any standard, and especially by asian standards.

2. Gambling is completely illegal in the Kingdom of Thailand. The web pages of most online gambling sites are blocked by the government net filter, although if you bring the client install file with you on an ipod (or get someone to send it to you over MSN) then you can usually access the site. You cannot withdraw money from most poker sites from a Thai IP, although you can play on Party the last time I tried (1 year ago, it might be different now).

3. Asians like to gamble, but most asian countries have never heard of Poker. Casinos in Macao don't spread poker.

4. Gambling is also illegal in China (apart from in Macao). Those online gambling sites that aren't blocked by the great firewall of China typically experience timeouts and connection issues due to the firewall.

So that leaves Hong Kong and South Korea that have cheap, reliable internet connections and no gambling bans.

Malaysia, Singapore and the Phillipines don't currently ban online gambling - but all have strong religious groups (Islam in Singapore/Malaysia, Catholicism and Islam in the Phillipines) that would be utterly opposed to any form of gambling boom in those countries.

China would probably allow online gambling ONLY on sites that were wholly owned and run by the Chinese government. They aren't stupid enough to let some foreign company take all those profits offshore. On the plus side, any theoretical Chinese-owned Gambling site would probably allow foreigners to play there (but you'd probably need to learn to read Chinese).

In other words I wouldn't hold your breath.

[Postiga]

[ QUOTE ]
1. The typical Japanese person doesn't have enough spare time to sit at home playing online poker. They only go home to sleep, if that. Most Japanese do their gambling in Pachinko parlours located on the street near their office.

Additionally, Internet Cafes in Japan are extremely expensive by any standard, and especially by asian standards.

2. Gambling is completely illegal in the Kingdom of Thailand. The web pages of most online gambling sites are blocked by the government net filter, although if you bring the client install file with you on an ipod (or get someone to send it to you over MSN) then you can usually access the site. You cannot withdraw money from most poker sites from a Thai IP, although you can play on Party the last time I tried (1 year ago, it might be different now).

3. Asians like to gamble, but most asian countries have never heard of Poker. Casinos in Macao don't spread poker.

4. Gambling is also illegal in China (apart from in Macao). Those online gambling sites that aren't blocked by the great firewall of China typically experience timeouts and connection issues due to the firewall.

So that leaves Hong Kong and South Korea that have cheap, reliable internet connections and no gambling bans.

Malaysia, Singapore and the Phillipines don't currently ban online gambling - but all have strong religious groups (Islam in Singapore/Malaysia, Catholicism and Islam in the Phillipines) that would be utterly opposed to any form of gambling boom in those countries.

China would probably allow online gambling ONLY on sites that were wholly owned and run by the Chinese government. They aren't stupid enough to let some foreign company take all those profits offshore. On the plus side, any theoretical Chinese-owned Gambling site would probably allow foreigners to play there (but you'd probably need to learn to read Chinese).

In other words I wouldn't hold your breath.

[/ QUOTE ]

Thanks for taking the time to type all that. Great reply.

I cling to some hope that poker will arrive in China soon, with the old communist apparatus being torn apart. The capitalist reforms are coming thick and fast, and what's more capitalist than poker?

[MegaFossil]

[ QUOTE ]
1. The typical Japanese person doesn't have enough spare time to sit at home playing online poker. They only go home to sleep, if that. Most Japanese do their gambling in Pachinko parlours located on the street near their office.

Additionally, Internet Cafes in Japan are extremely expensive by any standard, and especially by asian standards.

2. Gambling is completely illegal in the Kingdom of Thailand. The web pages of most online gambling sites are blocked by the government net filter, although if you bring the client install file with you on an ipod (or get someone to send it to you over MSN) then you can usually access the site. You cannot withdraw money from most poker sites from a Thai IP, although you can play on Party the last time I tried (1 year ago, it might be different now).

3. Asians like to gamble, but most asian countries have never heard of Poker. Casinos in Macao don't spread poker.

4. Gambling is also illegal in China (apart from in Macao). Those online gambling sites that aren't blocked by the great firewall of China typically experience timeouts and connection issues due to the firewall.

So that leaves Hong Kong and South Korea that have cheap, reliable internet connections and no gambling bans.

Malaysia, Singapore and the Phillipines don't currently ban online gambling - but all have strong religious groups (Islam in Singapore/Malaysia, Catholicism and Islam in the Phillipines) that would be utterly opposed to any form of gambling boom in those countries.

China would probably allow online gambling ONLY on sites that were wholly owned and run by the Chinese government. They aren't stupid enough to let some foreign company take all those profits offshore. On the plus side, any theoretical Chinese-owned Gambling site would probably allow foreigners to play there (but you'd probably need to learn to read Chinese).

In other words I wouldn't hold your breath.

[/ QUOTE ]

Me fail Chinese? That's unpossible.

[solucky]

A few are still there. Know 5 chinese, 2 korean 4 japanese. The most on Party 2 on stars. Possible that it was americans /europeans that stay in asia.

[minwoo]

Anyone know of the status of poker in South Korea? I know that gambling was illegal there in the past but I've heard rumors that casinos accept korean citizens now. A 2+2er actually wrote a trip report not too long ago about his experience at a new poker room that opened at Walker-Hill casino in Seoul. I'm Korean-American myself and am 99.999999% sure that Koreans would LOVE poker if they came to know the game. There's already a card game that's extremely popular in Korea known as Go-Stop that has some similarities to poker.

[lefty rosen]

It has arrived in a trickle. I have seen Chinese nationals on Party in the past. Many are are atrocious gambling addicts or weak tight rocks. For the size of Japan I have seen barely any players from that country. But I have seen a few here and there and most have been atrocious. I have seen a few South Koreans too and it was similar. As for the Filipinos the working classes are too poor to play even micro stakes as poorer Filipinos only earn about 100 US a month. Many reasons why Asians aren't seen much online in poker rooms is because of income levels.