Gala Casinos have announced they are scrapping The Gala Casinos British Poker Tour (GCBPT) with immediate effect as there will not be a tour in 2009. The GCBPT ran for two seasons with Alan Vinson winning the 2008 Grand Final back in December.

Vinson received £83,000 plus entry into World Series of Poker (WSOP) events in 2009 for triumphing in the GCBPT final.  Therefore the tour was well regarded by poker players.

It consisted of six legs across the country in Gala Casinos in Edinburgh, Nottingham, Bristol, Liverpool and Teeside with the Grand Final also in Bristol.
It has been reported that Gala Casinos decided to scrap the tour because they are now going to concentrate more on online poker.  The recession could also be another factor and also competition from the Grosvenor UK Poker Tour (GUKPT), although it is believed there would still be good demand with some top professional poker players for a GCBPT in 2009. 

Gala Casinos will instead be running a number of online jackpot poker games and satellites which will allow players to qualify for some of the top poker competitions in the world. Guaranteed prize money of $14 million will be made available for these online events. 

Mark O’Donnell, the Tour Manager of the GCBPT, said, “While we’ve had two fantastic years running the ‘Great British Poker Tours’, we’ve now decided to look at a number of new events and promotions for 2009 that will not only excite our players but are of great value and are accessible to poker players of all levels.”

“Through our poker websites we are already planning to run more satellites than ever to the world’s biggest poker tournaments including the European Poker Tour (EPT), World Series of Poker (WSOP) and Aussie Millions.”

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