The story of how poker came to New Zealand is quite interesting. It’s now time to learn how this game developed in the country.
Its Beginnings
Poker came to New Zealand thanks to the miners from the United States who were travelling in search of gold.
On October 7, 1864, in an edition of Hamilton’s Otago Daily Times, an article was published about a case of cheating on the cards of two miners at play called poker.
On December 8, 1874, in the Waikato Times, a story was published about three strangers who had come to town and in their free time were distracted by a game of cards called poker.
The strangers were accused of fraud during a game with other people. As a result, they were forced to explain in front of a magistrate what the game was about and the particular deck of cards that had 5 aces.
The Popularity of Poker in New Zealand
As a result of the previous stories, people who played poker were judged. The game was linked to criminality and street bars. However, the game has evolved and the WSOP made Texas Hold’Em a great variety. Public interest began to grow rapidly.
Online poker spread around the world and people’s interest continued to grow. In 1994 the first casino was built in New Zealand. It was called Christchurch Casino and it had a huge poker room. Since then online poker also started to grow.
Since the early 2000s, New Zealanders have taken advantage of it to make a reputation on the world stage. Online poker rooms allowed players to test themselves against the best in the world. In New Zealand, playing online is not illegal.
At the same time, it allows a wide market full of safe, protected NZ online casinos with great bonuses.During the World Series of Poker in Australia, many New Zealanders participated. The Australia New Zealand Poker Tour is a world-famous event that had its beginnings in 2009.
Today New Zealand continues to be a pioneer when it comes to excellence and innovation in online casino games.