opening poker room, lot of questions
Hey guys, this is my first post, so apologies if I post in the wrong place (put it where it belongs mods).
I am a 33yo semi professional (have a solid job) cash game grinder. I just love the game throughout a 10 years ride and didn't lose the passion yet. After some years as a losing player I managed to make a good side income over the years and poker gave me a great chance to travel and explore the world. Didn't make it to be a multimillionaire though. I am a medical doctor and, even though in Europe, it would be enough to make a calm living.
I am just extremely exhausted by it and just don't feel the same passion for it as I do for poker.
So my plan is to make poker my life. With cash games I could barely match my current income, so I have the plan to open a poker club.
You have to know that I am quiet international, grew up in Germany, studied in Hungary, live in Denmark, have a Hungarian wife and speak all respective languages.
Long story short we have the chance to acquire a license in Hungary for opening a poker club and found quiet a cheap ground to build it on exactly on the border to Austria and Slovakia, having both Vienna and Bratislava within an hour ride.
Google shows that we have around 6mio people in a 100km circle and Budapest just 2h by car away adding another 2mio people. I know for sure that poker is alive in both Hungary and Austria with limited game options (a new room just opened in BP though).
I guess the place itself is very attractive, since laws in Austria changed recently and Vienna turned from Europes poker capital to only private games and games in casinos with huge waiting lists.
That building a room outside of the city has Kings in Rozvadov proven, so I am not too concerned about location
I am not a business man though and have a structure of what I plan to do, how to sell it to the respective community, but nothing is solid yet.
On top I also miss funds as buying the place (2 ha of land) and the licence would essentially put me down to almost 0.
What started as a dream, could become solid now as I can acquire the license, so I feel pressured as in "now or never"
How can I find investors / business partners? We have a draft of a businessplan but it's full of estimations and I am scared that I see things through pink glasses. It requires huge investments to work without much risk.
Banks seemed quite uncertain with the idea and the only one that is open to help out puts enormous interest on it and evaluate it risky.
Does anyone have good tips about what to do? Is there anyone potentially interested and wants to hear more, optimise the idea, be a partner, invest?
5 Replies
Hey guys, this is my first post, so apologies if I post in the wrong place (put it where it belongs mods). I am a 33yo semi professional (have a solid job) cash game grinder. I just love the game throughout a 10 years ride and didn't lose the passion yet. After some years as a losing player I managed to make a good side income over the years and poker gave me a great chance to
They evaluate it as risky because of regulatory risk. As you say, laws can change very quickly surrounding gambling and a country that is very amenable to poker can turn on it overnight.
I don’t know if this is a great first time business personally, but if you are really passionate about it you can try talking to other players, current floor staff that you trust, and find someone who is interested that way.
Maybe just buy the land and building first then take out a loan against the property if needed? (This should get you a much better interest rate) Let's say poker doesn't work out will they hold their value relatively well? That'd be a big deciding factor for me on whether or not it's worth the risk.
I think a major downside for your plan is that it sounds like the building will be kind of out in the middle of nowhere? Yes that makes it cheap but I'd rather be in a city with a decent population. People are lazy and not going to want to drive a long way. Will there be convenient public transportation to your location from the nearest cities?
The license only allows you poker correct? No other types of gambling?
Financially speaking you'd be safer finding a space you could rent or lease out. Giving you the choice to run private, or proceed with the license.
You will know what's best depending on the property/terms of the agreement.
What you're proposing goes way beyond "loving the game." You would be making it your life.
IMO start generating $$ for a year or two through private/low overhead games, if you still wish to pursue a massive project, there will be more data points to work with.
1) Look into what the licensing options are. If you can also offer slot machines/table games, that could be a much higher source of revenue as well as generate more cross-over gambling that will feed into your poker player pool and vice versa.
2) Another important consideration is how easy it would be for you to reenter the medical field should this fail. If the answer to that question is negative, you should probably not quit the day job until the poker room is up and running and generating positive cash flow.
