Poker league moves into tourism market

Wales -- A PUB poker league supremo, who starred on the reality TV show Dragon's Den, says his venture is going from strength to strength.

Steve Bellis, from Wrexham, won over business tycoons on the BBC2 show in 2006 and they gave him £65,000 to help start the Nuts Poker League.

Now Steve has teamed up with a travel business in Holywell to offer poker holidays.

A party of poker players will travel to the Sands Beach Resort in Costa Teguise, Lanzarote in June.

Steve said: "We went out there last year with 50 players and it was a great success. A lot of places have karaoke and bingo but there are lots of people who want to play poker.

"Then we had a meeting with TR4 Travel in Holywell and discussed the possibility of taking 120 people."

Steve noticed a gap in the market when he did some research on the internet.

He said: "We did an internet search for poker holidays and most of them are in Las Vegas and are very serious.

"We wanted to offer something that wasa bit closer to home, more relaxed and less expensive."

Steve says the idea is that families can also go along for a break as there are also plenty of other things to do at the resort.

Steve's path to business success has not always run smoothly, however. Just as his pub poker league was really starting to take off following his appearance on Dragon's Den, Steve was facing a legal battle with police in Shropshire, who issued letters to pubs in the area, claiming what they were doing was illegal.

Steve argued successfully, though, that the laws only applied to playing poker for money, whereas his league is based on a points system.

Police have since withdrawn the letters and Steve says the Nuts Poker League is thriving.

He said: "The business is going through the roof and at the moment we have people playing in Cornwall all the way up to Scotland. It's growing by the day."

News Added: 29 January, 2008

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