sky poker channel 861 in N. Ireland

jdsallstar

Anybody able to watch 861 who lives in northern ireland? 

I've manually added it by entering the frequency but that means it's not in your tv guide, you have to go through options to watch it and therefore cant pause, rewind or record etc

Contacted sky who say they'll get back to me in 72hours but just wondering if any others can watch it or managed to get it added? 

Cheers jd

bearlyther

In Response to sky poker channel 861 in N. Ireland:

Anybody able to watch 861 who lives in northern ireland?  I've manually added it by entering the frequency but that means it's not in your tv guide, you have to go through options to watch it and therefore cant pause, rewind or record etc Contacted sky who say they'll get back to me in 72hours but just wondering if any others can watch it or managed to get it added?  Cheers jd
Posted by jdsallstar

Yea i managed to get it on my tv through entering the frquency thing and like you say it means it wont be on your tv guide so i cant rewind or record either.  Its do to with the Northern Ireland government who make it illeagal.  Doesnt make much sense to me why poker is illeagal considering there is countless amounts of bookies in each town and people can go in there and punt on the computerised roulette machines and bet on sports but pokers a big no no.

stuarty117

exact same mate with me i have to go through the options and stuff.

Someone told me its because of the gambling laws in this country.

PS. you just wanna tape urself on the FT on thursday night

jdsallstar

Ha stuarty - my participation on that final table wouldnt make for a long recording what with Tommyd's voodoo working its charms!!! sigh!

Bearlyther, yh thought it was something to do with poker being illegal here but jeez surely I can watch it lol I mean I can watch plenty of channels every night of people being murdered and I'm pretty sure that's illegal too

Theres also the live phone in roulette channels that run in the early hours too.

I'll post up what Sky come back to me with but I'm going on a mini crusade on this one lol

jdsallstar

Just done a little bit of digging and it doesn't sound like there's to be much change to the law going forward. Below is the minutes from the gambling review in northern ireland in 2013:

Alex Maskey (The Chairperson): One other issue that had been raised with the Committee, which seems to me to be a very small issue that probably affects a very small number of people, is the issue around poker clubs.  The case was put to us that a very small number of like-minded people had come together and wanted to have it regulated on the basis of small stakes that involve only the people who are involved in the game.  There are very firm, formalised stake and prize-money levels, and so on.  I do not play poker, but, at the end of the day, it certainly seemed to be reasonable for consenting adults to have the facility to do that, particularly when it would be governed and regulated.  There would not just be open-ended high stakes like some of the Hollywood movie stuff that you might watch.  So, had you given any thought to that particular lobby?  They did come to the Committee, and made representations to the Department.

Mr Quinn: I met the individuals who are involved in that lobbying.  We had an interesting discussion with them.  However, again, as I said to Mickey, the Minister decided that he was not prepared to increase the range of premises where betting would be permitted.  That includes poker clubs.

Mr F McCann: He remained poker-faced.

Alex Maskey (The Chairperson): We are not going to go down the puns this morning.

Tikay10

In Response to Re: sky poker channel 861 in N. Ireland:

Ha stuarty - my participation on that final table wouldnt make for a long recording what with Tommyd's voodoo working its charms!!! sigh! Bearlyther, yh thought it was something to do with poker being illegal here but jeez surely I can watch it lol I mean I can watch plenty of channels every night of people being murdered and I'm pretty sure that's illegal too Theres also the live phone in roulette channels that run in the early hours too. I'll post up what Sky come back to me with but I'm going on a mini crusade on this one lol
Posted by jdsallstar

Hi JD,

You will need to conduct your "crusade" against the legislators in Northern Ireland, not Sky Poker.
 
As things stand, Sky Poker cannot offer the Show in Northern Ireland due to current legislation. As far as I can recall, that has always been the case, since Sky Poker TV began in early 2007.

jdsallstar

Tikay thanks for the reply. 

Yeah i realise it's our incompetent politicians who deserve my wrath lol

It's completely absurd, bookies advertise 24/7 as does the lottery but I am not allowed to watch poker.

jdsallstar

Ok so my little girl is not well today so I thought I'd start my little crusade to be able to record Sky Poker whilst im sitting at home doing nothing because shes sleeping  So for anyone who is interested I'll keep track of my futile attempts here lol)

Ok first part of my crusade was to contact Sky to see if I could get more information. They informed me it was due to a licensing restriction that they could not allow NI residents to have 861. I queried that I could manually add it so surely that is allowing NI residents to have it. The rep informed me that because they dont add it to the programme guide and the only way to watch it is by adding it manually then this means they are legally complient. 

Next step, find out why specifically the license restriction is in place by contacting the licensing people. So Sent Ofcom the below email. I will update when/if I get a response which I imagine will come back with something dismissive along the lines of "its due to NI gambling Act so refer to that" but we'll see.

Hello

I am looking for some information regarding a licensing restriction on a channel for residents in Northern Ireland.

The channel in question is Sky Poker TV (channel 861 on sky).

I recently tried to access this channel but it was unavailable to me. As far as I aware it is unavailable to all NI residents. I contacted Sky who said it was unavailable in my area but that it could be manually added by inputting a frequency. I have done this and can watch the channel but due to adding it manually I cannot use the record, rewind and pause features. As I wanted these features I contacted Sky again to get it added fully on my system. They informed due to a licensing restriction they could not do this.

So I am enquiring why there is this licensing restriction?

I am aware that this is probably something to do with the gambling laws in Northern Ireland which are different to the rest of the UK. However I do not understand why I cannot get full access to this channel for a few reasons. First of all I can watch this channel (by manually adding) but just cannot get the full features I would like. Surely it cant be legal to watch poker but illegal to record it in Northern Ireland?! The Sky Poker channel no longer is an interactive channel therefore I cannot interactively gamble/play poker by watching this channel using my remote or by phone in competitions etc. I can watch poker on various other channels including Channel 4, Five, Sky Sports and Challenge (there are probably others) which all show or have shown poker coverage in the recent past. The film "Rounders" which is a film all about poker was shown on BBC Northern Ireland within the last week. There are also various other channels available for me to record/rewind/pause etc such as channel 863 and 864 which are interactive roulette channels which I can gamble on and which I assumed would fall under the same bracket as channel 861 and therefore should also be blocked?! Poker websites and other betting companies are regularly advertised in advertisement breaks on many many channels so I don't see how this could be a restriction due to gambling/poker advertising.

(In the email there's a table summarising the above but wouldnt come out right on here)                              

I am, as you can imagine, not aware of the full details of the law in this area but I don't understand this and would appreciate if someone could let me know why this restriction is in place and if there was anything that could be done to remove this restriction. 

 

jdsallstar

surprisingly got a quick response:

"There are different laws in Northern Ireland in relation to transactional gaming.  Ofcom’s statement can be found here:

http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/binaries/broadcast/guidance/gambling.pdf

 

It should be restricted from all reception in Northern Ireland, including manually adding the service, which is why it is not featured on the EPG in Northern Ireland.

 

Regards

XXX"

I have replied asking how Sky Poker TV falls under the definition of transactional gaming as you do not interact directly with the channel to gamble/play poker and also why is their treatment different to other transactional gaming channels such as 863 and 864 and channels that show "live roulette" etc late on in the evenings. I'll see what they come back with.

NoseyBonk

Ofcom are very friendly aren't they? Signing off with kisses.....
:-D

jdsallstar

Not a smiley in sight tho, just plain rude in this day and age  

jdsallstar

The plot thickens..... 

After my questions ofcom replied  with :

"It appears your access to Sky Poker is not an issue to do with the Ofcom licence, rather how Sky have approached their compliance with the laws of Northern Ireland."

So sky says its due to licensing restrictions and ofcom its not an issue with their license?! 

Are ofcom not the body for ensuring that the regional laws and overall uk law are upheld through the issuing of licences?! 

I have sent ofcom another email asking them to confirm if from their point of view can sky allow sky poker to be shown to northern ireland residents. 

 

bearlyther

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-29228056

Mr Ekin said there were probably more dangers arising from "opportunities to gamble from home and on television."

"That is more dangerous than a well-run casino that has got the variety of things that were referred to such as restaurants, bowling alleys, bars, theatres and so on.

unknown_username

In Response to sky poker channel 861 in N. Ireland:

Anybody able to watch 861 who lives in northern ireland?  I've manually added it by entering the frequency but that means it's not in your tv guide, you have to go through options to watch it and therefore cant pause, rewind or record etc Contacted sky who say they'll get back to me in 72hours but just wondering if any others can watch it or managed to get it added?  Cheers jd
Posted by jdsallstar

Hi jd
Get yourself a 3rd party external recording device such as a pvr hard drive if you want to keep it for future reference. There is also the option of a DVD Recorder, but I prefer the hard drive option.

Failing that you can also video capture it from the live stream on your pc.

Anyone who ever cancels their Sky + subscription loses access to all recorded programs anyway......Not saying you ever will, but it's always good to have a backup plan just incase

Regarding the gaming laws & showing the program on TV in northern Ireland, I think it's pretty redic. The Sky Poker TV Channel is not interactive anymore like it used to be. When it first started you could play poker using your TV Remote, but that has long gone so I see no harm in adding the Poker channel to the TV Listings anymore.

Best of luck with your crusade.