Will the Gulf become poker's next great hub?

For as long as anyone in the region has played poker, the game has meant a flight. Players from the Gulf, the Levant and North Africa have filled tournament halls in Cyprus, Europe and Asia for years, because at home there was nowhere legal to sit down. That may be about to change, in one place, slowly, and on very clear terms.

What is actually happening

Gambling remains illegal across almost all of the Middle East. In Saudi Arabia it is banned outright, with heavy penalties, and nothing official suggests that is changing.

The exception is the United Arab Emirates. In September 2023 the UAE set up a federal regulator, the General Commercial Gaming Regulatory Authority (GCGRA), with sole power over lotteries, casinos, online gaming and sports wagering. Since then, things have moved one licence at a time:

- September 2024. MGM Resorts said it had applied for a licence in Abu Dhabi. Its chief executive, Bill Hornbuckle, said: "As the capital it feels as if it might go first." No decision has been announced. - October 2024. Wynn Resorts received the first casino licence in the country, for Wynn Al Marjan Island, an integrated resort on a man-made island off Ras Al Khaimah, about an hour's drive north of Dubai. - November 2024. A single national lottery began, run by the first licensee, The Game LLC. - December 2025. The first licensed online gaming and sports site went live, open only to adults of 21 and over who are physically in the UAE. - December 2025. The Wynn tower, seventy floors and around 1,500 rooms, topped out. - August 2026. Wynn moved the opening to September 2027. Costs had risen, in part because of this year's conflict in the region, which also postponed at least one tour stop in Cyprus in March.

Dubai, for now, has said nothing. Neither has any operator announced what poker, if any, will be dealt at Al Marjan. That is worth remembering when you read predictions.

Why the Gulf could matter

Three things make the case.

Geography. The Gulf is a short flight from India, Pakistan, East Africa, Europe and the rest of the Middle East. Few places on earth put so many card players within a few hours of one table.

The hosts. The UAE already hosts some of the world's biggest events in sport, music and business. Staging a tournament festival is something it knows how to do.

The players are already there. Gulf and Levant players are regulars at festivals around the Mediterranean, where rooms have openly courted them. One festival at the Merit Royal Diamond in Northern Cyprus drew a record six thousand visitors from seventy-five countries in October 2024. When the Melco group opened City of Dreams Mediterranean near Limassol in 2023, it said plainly that it was aiming at the Middle East, North Africa and Europe.

Why it will be slow

The regulator has said so itself. Its chair, Jim Murren, told an industry forum in November 2024 that the authority was moving "very deliberately" and focused on the operators it had already licensed. "Nothing we are doing is going to rush that at all," he said, adding that other resorts could take five to ten years.

So the Gulf will not turn into Las Vegas overnight. If it grows, it will grow the way the regulator wants: a few large, tightly run resorts, with strict rules on who plays and how.

How Suited sees it

We think the region could become one of the great poker destinations of the next decade, not because of one resort, but because the players, the flights and the appetite for big events are already in place. What it lacks is rooms. If Al Marjan opens a serious poker room, and if Abu Dhabi follows, the festivals that now fly to Cyprus and Europe will have a reason to stop in the Gulf.

We also think it matters for the people who work in the game. A new resort needs dealers, floor staff and tournament directors by the hundred, and many of the best in the business, in India and beyond, already live a short flight away.

What you can expect from us

- The opening of Al Marjan, and whether poker is part of it, reported from the island. - The rooms that already welcome the region's players, in Cyprus and around the Mediterranean, in our Rooms section. - People: the players and dealers from the region, in their own words. - Jobs, as resorts start hiring for their tables. - The rules, in plain words, every time they change, and only licensed play. We will never point you to a game that is not.

We publish in Arabic as well as English, Hindi, Spanish, Russian and Italian. If you play, deal or run a room in the region, write to us. We would like to tell your story.