Home / Poker News August 2013 / UKIPT Galway Poker Festival’s Effect on Local Economy
UKIPT Galway Poker Festival’s Effect on Local Economy
Posted by: James Carter. - Sun, 2013-08-11 09:41
Major live poker events always generate a lot of economic motion wherever they take place, and it is always up to the local community to “milk” them to their full potential in this respect.
According to Padraig Conneely, the mayor of Galway, the
Full Tilt Poker-sponsored Galway Poker Festival is expected to generate around €3 million for the local economy. After all, the Series has drawn around 3,500 poker players to the coastal community and the local authorities have indeed been doing their best to make them spend as much as possible. According to Conneely, poker players like to live well, eat well and drink well and they’re generally not stingy with other entertainment-related expenses either. In order for the €3 million projection to be fulfilled, every one of them would have to spend around €857, not exactly an unrealistic expectation indeed.
Full Tilt Poker’s sponsorship was indeed a genuine godsend for the Galway stop of the UKIPT. The
online poker operator has erected two massive tents as part of a “poker village” making one of these tents entirely about socializing. Breaking down all live poker stereotypes, the Galway Festival was about encouraging poker players to take to the streets and to hit the various local entertainment hotspots, and thus far the strategy seems to be working nicely indeed.
Most players – including Gus Hansen who has become something of a main spokesperson for the event - have said that they loved the atmosphere in Galway.
The local authorities are obviously already looking ahead to 2014, when they hope the UKIPT will make their town the scene of its Poker Festival yet again. According to mayor Conneely, pairing the Festival with the Galway Races is crucial as poker players were drawn out of the poker village by the horses this year too.
Play at Full Tilt Poker and watch the likes of Gus Hansen go through massive swings online.
