Exploring Mongolia's Evolving Poker Landscape
The gambling status quo is not ideal, to say the least, in Mongolia.
Currently, any sort of land based gambling is illegal in the country. There have been multiple attempts by the government to set up a licenced and regulated market for economic reasons – however, to no avail. Thus you won’t find any legal casinos in Mongolia, as of now.
On the other hand, online gambling is not policed in any way. Mongolian residents can feel free to deposit to the online casino or online poker room of their choice and play.
In April 2019, the Mongolian legislature passed a law prohibiting any public officials from taking part in any form of gambling, whether at home or abroad. In November that year, two high ranking officials were the first “casualties” of the new law of the land. The deputy director general of the Mongolian Customs General Administration and a senior official of Mongolia’s state-owned national airline MIAT had been caught playing in a casino.
In 2014, there was an organized effort by poker players in the country to try to legalize their favorite game. It was led by a poker player named Bold Uundai. According to him, live poker was outlawed in 2000 – however, some card rooms still operate in the country. Also, you can still play online poker in Mongolia.
Famous Mongolian Poker Players
In January 2014, Mongolian Buyanjargal Bold took down the HK$100,000 Macau Poker Cup 20 for HK$1,487,000. The Asian cardplayer managed to top a 995-player field at the PokerStars LIVE Macau poker room.
As for online poker, a player playing under the screen name “flameshdee” on PokerStars from Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia has cashed for over $350,000 in online MTT’s.
Mongolia actually doesn’t have its own all time money list on Hendon – almost every other country does. You can find the profiles of a few players from this country, however. For example, the aforementioned Bold Uundai, who led the push to legalize live poker, has his own page. He has a modest $6,767 in live tournament earnings to his name.
Online Poker in Mongolia
Online Poker Legislation in Mongolia
As we wrote earlier, online gambling doesn’t have any legal restrictions in Mongolia.
In fact, online casino and card games are quite popular in Mongolia, including poker – among those with internet access. That is an important note: according to a 2013 Freedom House report, only 16% of Mongolians have access to the world wide web.
None of the major online poker rooms restrict Mongolian players. Partypoker, PokerStars, Natural8, 888 and many others are easily accessible to players from this region.
Best Online Poker Sites in Mongolia
Live Poker in Mongolia
Live Poker Legislation in Mongolia
As we wrote in our intro, any form of land based gambling is illegal in Mongolia.
There have been multiple attempts to pass legislation that would legalize it – notably, one in 1999 and one in 2010 – however, they both failed due to the parties involved being entangled in corruption scandals.
In 2015, there was a slight turn for the better. As CalvinAyre.com reported it, Mongolia’s Cabinet Secretariat approved the opening of two new land casinos in the country. However, they did so with a caveat: only Japanese, Chinese and Russian tourists are allowed to legally play in them.
Despite all that, however, you can still find a handful of poker clubs operating in Mongolia. While technically poker doesn’t enjoy any legal exemption, authorities don’t seem to be as eager to shut down these card rooms as they are to shut down other casinos. Perhaps the efforts of Mongolia’s poker player union to classify poker as a sport did have some positive effect.
Live Poker Venues in Mongolia
Although we know from the locals’ “reportings” online that poker clubs do exist in Mongolia, they are rarely advertised publicly. Evidently, they still want to keep a low profile due to the gambling prohibition.
The only exception seems to be the Montexas Poker Club which can be found in the capital city of Ulaanbaatar. They have a very active Facebook page – they even stream their games from time to time.
However, they have not shared any information about their games, be it cash game stakes or a tournament schedule. They don’t respond to Facebook messages either. If you are planning on playing in this card room, we suggest you call the phone number listed on their Facebook page for more information first.
![Mongolia [MNG]](/assets/images/flags/4x3/mn.svg "Mongolia [MNG]"){kind=small}
