Poker Against Plastic Pollution has had an unbelievable start. It’s great to know that poker operators and casinos are doing what they can to help protect the environment.
ECOSEC, a UK company that designs and supplies security tamper-evident bags, has now added Grosvenor Poker, the Irish Poker Tour, and French poker room Fivebet to its roster of poker rooms that will introduce biodegradable poker-chip bags at upcoming live events as part of the company’s Poker Against Plastic Pollution campaign.
All three will start rolling out biodegradable poker-chip bags at upcoming live events as the industry adopts greener alternatives to single-use plastic.
Poker Against Plastic Pollution endeavors to:
- Reduce plastic pollution
- Reduce energy within the manufacturing process
- Create awareness around environmental issues
- Plant trees
The new trifecta of partnerships comes after 888poker paved the way as the first poker operator to sign up with Poker Against Plastic Pollution in May of this year. 888poker was the first top-tier operator to shun single-use plastic chip bags at their events. Now it offers biodegradable bags at all live stops thanks to the partnership. It credits this move as a key component to reaching its lofty goals of generating net zero carbon emissions by 2030.
“Poker Against Plastic Pollution has had an unbelievable start, Karim Louis, CEO of ECOSEC, exclusively told pokerfuse. “It’s great to know that poker operators and casinos are doing what they can to help protect the environment.”
The partnership with Grosvenor has allowed ECOSEC to replace 250kg of traditional plastic from the live events that the poker operator runs. Thanks to the alliance, 400 trees will be planted through ECOSEC’s environmental partners.
“Since supplying 888poker, we now have Grosvenor Poker on board; they are rolling out our bags across their estate, using them for all of their live events. Seeing the bags in use at Goliath, the largest poker tournament outside of the World Series of Poker in Vegas, was a huge step forward for the initiative. Seeing players post images of their bags on their social accounts and driving the environmental awareness aspect of our initiative was inspiring.”
Grosvenor Poker has been conscious about using single-use plastic at its events and called joining the Poker Against Plastic Pollution campaign a “no-brainer.” It already distributes reusable water bottles at events to cut down on bulk ordering bottled water.
“We’ve previously been conscious about the level of single-use plastic used at poker events and have endeavored to take responsibility and cut down [on usage]. When we were made aware of the biodegradable bags, it was a no-brainer as it was another way of cutting down on the single-use chip bags currently used across the poker scene,” Luke Hobbs, Poker Marketing Manager at Rank Group (the parent company of Grosvenor Poker) told pokerfuse.
“Upon understanding the alternative choice to poker player’s using plastic bags, I was proud to champion this project & support the movement to a more sustainable, eco friendly option,” Katie Swift, Grovsenor Ambssador told pokerfuse, exclusively. “When Karim reached out to me, I was happy to bring it to the attention of the management in Grosvenor Poker & most recently the Malta Poker Festival too, helping wherever I can to promote the use of these biodegradable bags & removing the use of plastic in poker. Reducing plastic waste is essential and it’s great that the poker industry can be responsible to help play a part with this initiative.”
Founder Fintan Gavin of the Irish Poker Tour highlighted his and the IPT’s desire to make poker a sustainable industry. “We were very happy to purchase our chip bags from Poker Against Plastic Pollution and then we were delighted with the quality of their product.
Since the rollout of the Poker Against Plastic Pollution campaign, ECOSEC has replaced 400kg of traditional plastics from live poker events and planted 640 trees.
“Since the rollout of the Poker Against Plastic Pollution campaign, ECOSEC has replaced 400kg of traditional plastics from live poker events and planted 640 trees.
“Poker Against Plastic Pollution has had an unbelievable start. It’s great to know that poker operators and casinos are doing what they can to help protect the environment,” Louis said. “There’s still a lot of work to be done, and we are looking forward to welcoming poker operators from all over the world.”
Poker Against Plastic Pollution is not stopping at only offering biodegradable chip bags in its quest to make the poker industry greener.
The company has eyes on delivering more biodegradable products across this industry next years, such as money note wrappers and coin bags which the company believes will help remove tonnes of traditional plastics from circulation. ECOSEC wants to go beyond poker and target casinos too.
“For the casinos, we have a biodegradable bag which can be used for poker and also across the gaming floor to secure dice and cards used in casino games,” Louis told pokerfuse. “Next year, we will be in full swing getting the initiative rolled out globally. We will have several partners located strategically so that we can be competitive on price and maintain a low carbon footprint.”
