By Adam Ulick | October 30, 2007

The UK city of Nottingham is well known as home to the legend of Robin Hood, but now it has a much better claim to fame as home to the UK’s first (and only) exclusive poker club, Dusk Till Dawn.

Nottingham entrepreneur Rob Yong had the idea of creating a poker-only club, but found it difficult to obtain a casino license, as they usually require other forms of gaming alongside poker. Believing that the legal way is the better way, Yong applied for his license and persevered through two years of red tape, and his efforts have paid off big time, as he now possesses what may be the only legal poker-only license in the United Kingdom.

How did this come to happen? Determined to host a fully licensed poker room, Yong applied and was eventually granted a license by the Gaming Board of Britain, which disappeared shortly after to make way for the new Gaming Commission. The Gaming Commission will honor previous licenses, but its new regulations stipulate a minimum number of hard gaming tables, which rules out the possibility of another poker-only venue being licensed in the near future.

Dusk Till Dawn is scheduled to open on November 29th, and is expected to become the largest cardroom in the UK - and one of the largest in Europe - once it reaches its goal of operating 45 tables inside its 15,000 square foot building. The club will initially open only 4 days a week (Thursday to Sunday, 6pm-4am), but on a declaration to local Nottingham media Mr. Yong announced that they "are now completely focused on recruiting and training good quality people to work at the club and will only open seven days a week once we have these people in place.''

The club opening will be celebrated with an exclusive invitation-only £500 tournament for 108 players. More than 3,000 players have already applied for club membership, and poker pro Dave Colclough has been announced as the DTD resident pro.

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