Local business media in Nottingham, England report that Rob Yong’s hard-fought-for live poker room in the city “Dusk Til Dawn” is “highly likely” to be shutting its doors in two weeks’ time.
Yong told reporters: “It’s very saddening after all the hard work that myself and my staff have put into the club but it’s highly likely we’ll be closing.”
If the club shuts it will result in over 100 people being made redundant.
DTD opened its doors less than two years ago in late 2007, becoming the first legal poker-only club by obtaining a casino licence despite strong opposition from UK gambling groups Stanley’s, Gala and Grosvenor who apparently feared that the move would spark the growth of more poker-only clubs.
A major part of the problems DTD is experiencing is that its licence is classified as a full casino licence, although it does not offer table games such as blackjack and roulette. This means that the company is unable to claim back VAT on its GBP 3.4 million refurbishment and is subject to new gaming duty laws.
It is not at present known what, if any, impact a closure of the live facility might have on Yong’s DTDpoker.com and DTDcasinos.com online interests. These Malta licensed and Cryptologic-powered Internet venues are operated through an intermediary agreement with MCP Entertainment Ltd.