The Punta Cana Poker Classic Will Now Accept Bitcoin Payments

(Photo: Codigopoker.com)

Bitcoin's growing influence on online poker reaches all the way to The Dominican Republic, as the PCPC becomes the first live tournament series to accept Bitcoin for both payments and cashouts.

The Punta Cana Poker Classic is a tournament series that runs at The Level at Melia Caribe Tropical Hotel and sponsored by the Winning Poker Network, which already accepts Bitcoin. 

While not even close to being the most well known Caribbean poker event, it has relatively low buy-ins and well sized guarantees and they make an effort to accommodate poker players.

To this point, the Punta Cana Poker Classic will now accept payments and pay cashouts in Bitcoin, the first international live event to do so.  

While Bitcoin's popularity and infrastructure made it a success amongst tech savvy communities -like online poker players - it's still hardly mainstream amongst the public, so major tournament series may not see the need of accepting it for payment and cashouts. 

This experiment could have huge implications for the future of Bitcoin in live poker, as other casinos and events might try to emulate the PCPC if the move proves to be a success. 

The move didn't come as a surprise to the locals, however. Punta Cana made Dominican news back in August when the Primaveral Hotel installed a Bitcoin ATM from a local company, BitRD.

The Bitcoin ATM has become a sort of low-key tourist attraction for Punta Cana, with many tourists and locals visiting the Primaveral exclusively to make use of it. 

While the Dominican government hasn't taken any official legal action to curve's Bitcoin movements on the island, the Central Bank has issued several warnings against businesses accepting it as a legitimate currency. 

The Central Bank argues that since Bitcoin is not issued by any government, it won't offer any of the usual legal protections they give to foreign currencies. These warnings have been largely ignored, however, Bitcoin is becoming a booming industry in the region. 

Despite the Dominican government's efforts, the cryptocurrency has been gaining steam in the Dominican Republic, with six Bitcoin ATMs operating in the small country. 

The Punta Cana Poker Classic will run from October 24th to 30th in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic.