I think you may have misunderstood...they have to have a Casino Licence
How do hotel tournaments work then?
Oh, and that reminds me, any idea what happened re the idea of APAT moving out of casinos into hotels, or is that dead?
I checked this with Tighty some time ago and to do this the organisation (APAT/EPT etc) has to have something called a "travelling licence" (I think). It"s not cheap and, IIRC, it would also involve APAT in having their own tables, chips, TD etc. etc. all of which would have to be transported to and from venues and stored in between.
Not an economic proposition.
As for why the venues have to hold a casino licence, AFAIK, if they don"t then there is strong likelihood of the tournament contravening the Gambling Act due to the stakes involved. DTD spent £1m or so just to get a full casino licence because (at the time) there was no such thing as a full poker licence.
Some of the above is pretty broad and quite possibly out of date but if you have a delve round the
Gambling Commission website I think you"ll be quite surprised at how much of what is going on in Poker Clubs is skirting the legislation.