The World Poker Tour (WPT) has signed an agreement with the China Leisure Sports Administrative Center to promote “the sport of poker, by helping to create, expand and commercialize China’s first ever national poker competition,” according to reports.

In a press statement, the WPT said that “the partnership will promote the sport of poker, by helping to create, expand and commercialize China’s first ever national poker competition.” Details of the planned poker tournaments has not been revealed but WPT says the partnership agreement will run for at least five years.

WPT recently acquired rights to broadcast the first two seasons of the WPT in the region via a deal with Macau Cable and MediaCorp in Singapore, reaching some two billion viewers.

China strictly forbids all forms of gambling. In fact, gambling is categorized as a criminal act and an anti-social behavior just as drug use and prostitution.

However, the Chinese government decided to define the game of poker as a sport a few years back to define the game as one of skill. The same is being attempted in the US but has generally failed.
Tags: WPT China, poker tournaments, online poker

This entry was posted on Monday, August 6th, 2007 at 10:22 pm and is filed under Online Poker, Poker Industry News, Poker Tournament. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

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