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Almost every component of the industry – from the card makers to casinos themselves – has in one way or another striven for a more eco-friendly outlook

Green is the new black. Numerous people, governments, and companies all over the world are stepping up to do their part in cleaning up the world. The poker industry is no exception. Almost every component of the industry – from the card makers to casinos themselves – has in one way or another striven for a more eco-friendly outlook in recent years.

Let’s start with the cards. The United States Playing Card Company, who makes the popular Bicycle brand of playing cards, has an eco-friendly deck made out of sustainable forest papers, starch-based laminating, and vegetable-based inks. It’s not just the cards themselves that are fully recyclable but the case they come in as well.

It doesn’t stop there, of course. In 2008, Executive Gaming Monthly changed the way poker players think of the color green by introducing a line of eco-friendly poker tables under their EGM Green brand. All of the wood used in the tables’ manufacture was Forestry Stewardship Council certified, all paints and stains were free of formaldehyde, and water-based adhesives were used to assemble them.

The tables were featured as part of the 2008 World Series of Poker’s exhibit area and one was even given away to the main event winner. That man, Denmark’s Peter Eastgate, auctioned off the table he received a year later to benefit his charity, Friends of Eastgate. EGM, for its part, continues to offer a wide range of eco-friendly equipment to casinos and other luxury establishments.

Speaking of casinos, major casino establishments are also doing their part. WSOP sponsor Caesar’s Entertainment purchased carbon offsets to mitigate the environmental impact of energy consumption and waste during the 2008 tournament.

In fact, Caesar’s Entertainment (under their old moniker Harrah’s) was the first gaming corporation in the US to receive an Environmental Quality Award, the highest recognition given by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Region Two.

Even online casinos are getting in on the green movement by opting for newer, more environmentally sound processors to run their servers. IT firm TEKsystems notes that online giant Betfair, which aside from operating a casino and betting service runs an online poker site at https://poker.betfair.com/, was able to reduce its overall energy consumption by over 80% after switching out older processors for low-energy eco-friendly ones.

The world is still far from reaching a point where most of the damage humans have done to the environment is healed, but it’s definitely encouraging to see the green movement reaching as far as the poker and casino industry. After all, every bit helps. 

From the Editor
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Photo Source: Primo Travel