Discover Solomon Islands: Poker, Events, and Gambling Laws
The Solomon Islands is a country located on its namesake archipelago in the Pacific Ocean. It is a former German and British colony, gaining independence in 1978.
Land based gambling has always been legal and regulated since the islands were a sovereign nation. Actually, it has been legal since before that, as the Gaming and Lotteries Act was passed by the local legislature in 1961, still under the rule of the British Empire.
The gambling laws have seen many amendments in the past few decades. However, what has never changed is that casinos have always been a big part of the country’s tourist-driven economy.
To this day, many hotels and resorts have gambling facilities within them. Their per capita casino is high even compared to most European countries, with 4 gambling houses (according to Google) running in a nation of around 700,000 people. However, all of them are located in the capital (and the most populous) city of Honiara. Outside the capital city, you’ll have trouble finding action.
As for poker action in the Honaira-based casinos, only one of the 4 mentions a poker room on their website, while another mentions “video poker machines”. You can read about them later. Online gambling, including poker, is also legal in this island nation in the Pacific.
Famous Solomon Islander Poker Players
The Hendon Mob doesn’t have a Solomon Island-specific all time money list. In fact, they don’t even have any players from this country listed in their database. However, you can find two players who listed the Solomon Islands as their location on the online poker tournament database PocketFives.
One of them plays under the screen name “mrmojo728” on PokerStars, as well as two now defunct poker sites, Full Tilt and UltimateBet. He has $9,822 in online MTT cashes. The other uses the alias “aquavitix” on PokerStars, and has $7,312 in online MTT cashes.
Online Poker in Solomon Islands
The Solomon Islands has limited regulations concerning online gambling, including online poker. Currently, the country’s gambling laws are primarily focused on regulating land-based gambling activities, such as lotteries and physical casinos. There is no specific legislation that regulates online poker or gambling, and as a result, online gambling largely operates in a legal grey area.
However, players in the Solomon Islands can access international poker sites without facing legal consequences, as there are no laws that explicitly prohibit residents from playing on offshore platforms. These international poker sites, such as PokerStars or partypoker, are generally accessible to residents, though players should exercise caution, as the country lacks regulatory oversight for online gambling.
Given the absence of specific regulations, the Solomon Islands has not implemented any local licensing schemes for online poker operators. As a result, there are no domestic poker sites operating within the country.
Best Online Poker Sites in Solomon Islands
Live Poker in Solomon Islands
Live Poker Legislation in the Solomon Islands
We covered some of this in our intro. The first piece of gambling legislation was passed under British rule in 1961. In 1978, the island nation won its independence from The Crown.
Since then, the gambling legislation has been amended a number of times. The latest version is from 2004. All types of land based casino games are legal (evidently, including poker) as long as it is properly licenced.
Licencing and regulation of gambling establishments in the country are under the purview of the Gaming and Lotteries Board. The legal gambling age is 18.
Live Poker Venues in the Solomon Islands
A simple Google search yields you 4 results for casinos in the Solomon Islands. However, only two of them have websites, or any additional information available about them on the internet.
One is the Pacific Casino Hotel (which is strangely listed as “Supreme Casino” on Google Maps) in the capital city of Honiara. According to their website, they do have a poker room. As they put eloquently it: “Poker, the king of card games, is an exciting blend of strategy, mind games and the random fall of the cards. It can be played simply for fun or with a great deal of complexity.”
However, this doesn’t tell us anything about the game types, the stakes, or whether they’re offering cash games or tournaments. You can try contacting them for more information through phone (+677 25201) or through email ([email protected]).
The other casino with a working website is the Coral Sea Casino & Resort, also located in Honiara. They do not write anything about a poker room on their site, only telling us that they have 64 video poker machines on their premises.
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