Gaming | Two poker rooms in Cotai cease operation

Two poker rooms in Cotai have reportedly shut down, cancelling an international poker tournament that was scheduled in the SAR next week, as a result of Beijing’s recent crackdown.

City of Dreams Macau ended their partnership with Poker- Stars after their partnership was launched in 2013, as per several reports.

“We can confirm that the PokerStars partnership with City of Dreams Macau has come to an end. We are working on ensuring that we can continue to bring high quality live events [to] Asia,” Eric Hollreiser, vice president of Corporate Communications for The Stars Group told PokerNews.com.

The renowned PokerStars LIVE Macau poker room at City of Dreams has hosted the Macau Poker Cup, APPT Macau and the Asian Championships of Poker, yet is looking for a new base after Melco Resorts & Entertainment did not reportedly renew its contract.

The eight-table poker room – which was exclusively for cash games rather than tournaments – in Galaxy Macau also allegedly closed down after it was re-launched just over a year ago.

The Times contacted the two gaming operators but a response was not received by press time.

Macau is left with just one regular tournament poker venue – the Macau Billionaire Poker Room located in Babylon Casino, which hosted the APT Macau Championships 2018 last week.

Meanwhile, the International Poker Tour Macau, which was scheduled to be held from May 16 to 20, has been cancelled.

Organizer Alisports released a statement last week informing players that the event had been postponed “after careful consideration.”

Last month, Chinese authorities announced that poker would no longer be recognized as a competitive sport and simultaneously banned the promotion of Texas Hold’em via social media applications.

Thus, all apps offering any form of social poker game will be required to be shut down and removed from app stores by June 1.