Official language: Slovene
Population: 2,053,355
Currency: Euro (EUR)

Current Exchange Rate
1 GBP = 1.0681 EUR
1 USD = 0.6754 EUR

Poker in Slovenia
Like most countries in the region, Slovenia has only enjoyed legal gambling since the early 1990s. Prior to then, all forms of gambling were banned by the Soviet regime. Today, there are about 20 casinos across the country, mostly concentrated in the south near the border with Italy, heavily targeting Italian tourists who come to gamble. Poker is available in nearly all of Slovenia's casinos, but since it has had such limited exposure, the game is not as popular in the country.

Despite the lack of poker rooms and the small number of casinos in Slovenia, the country has been host to some major poker tournaments in recent years. The largest so far was the Slovenian PokerNews Challenge that took place at Casino Korona. The casino is nestled in the southern mountains of Slovenia in a town called Kranjska Gora. The tournament proved quite popular, and is sure to turn into an annual event.

Online Poker in Slovenia
The Slovenian PokerNews Challenge began with online qualifiers at the major international poker site, PokerStars. This site, like some other large online poker sites, offers services that are targeted to Slovenian poker players. This is fortunate because there are no internet poker rooms actually hosted in Slovenia.

The lack of Slovenian online poker rooms does not reflect a lack of interest among Slovenian people. The game is growing increasingly popular with every passing year. Instead, it boils down to the fact that the Slovenian government has been slow in deciding the fate of online gambling. There is currently no legislation that sets out rules for gambling on the internet, and the government does not give out licenses to host sites. This might change in the future, but until such a time, Slovenians can still play online poker at foreign sites.