Official language: Hungarian
Population: 10,034,000
Currency: Forint (HUF)

Current Exchange Rate
1 EUR = 265.57 HUF
1 GBP = 292.85 HUF
1 USD = 179.15 HUF

Poker in Hungary
Poker is big in Hungary, and it gets bigger every year. Alan Bowden, the editor of InsidePoker magazine, thinks that Hungary is a place to watch when it comes to the game, and calls Budapest "a key growth area for poker". In 2008 the European Poker Tour stopped off in Hungary for the first time which is a strong sign of this new trend.

Even though poker can only be played in licensed casinos in Hungary, it's not hard to find games and tourneys. The annual Budapest Poker Open, co-hosted by the Tropicana and Las Vegas Casino, is the biggest poker event of the year in Hungary. Las Vegas Casino also holds freeze out tournaments twice a month.

Online Poker in Hungary
Hungarian online poker is not as easy to find, unfortunately. The only legal internet poker game in Hungary is really just poker themed – it's the World Poker Tour instant ticket game, which is the first licensed product ever offered in Hungary by Szerencsejáték, who holds a monopoly over all sports and lotto games in the country. Hungary is also the only place outside of North America to offer this product. While it is available online at the Szerencsejáték website, it really doesn't count as Hungarian online poker.

For proper online poker sites, Hungarians must turn to foreign poker rooms. Since 2006 the Hungarian government has prohibited Hungarian banks from transferring funds to or from online gambling websites, including online poker rooms. This has driven some international casinos to not accept players from Hungary, but there aren't many that do that. Fortunately, there are still a lot of sites out there where Hungarian online poker can be found.