Chinese Authorities shut down Asia Poker League live tournament

About Asia Poker League Shanghai

After the big success of APL Beijing earlier this year, the Asia Poker League returned to China for a second stop in Shanghai.

Chinese Authorities shut down Asia Poker League live tournament(Picture: Somuchpoker.com)

To be exact, the tournament took place in Kunshan, a city with a population of 1.6 million people located just outside of Shanghai.

The poker festival kicked off on the 23rd of November and was supposed to be a six day event. Unfortunately, everything turned out very differently as the organizers decided to stop the tournament after a meeting with Chinese authorities.

Why was the APL shut down?

Even though the APL obtained a license to operate through the PokerSports Shanghai Club, which had hosted similar events before, the organizers bend to the pressure of local authorities:

“If there is a misunderstanding related to the scope of the event with the local authorities and that this problem cannot be solved it’s our responsibility to take such a decision. Our priority is to protect our players and to make sure that the Asia Poker League future in Mainland China remains intact”, said the President of the Asia Poker League Judic Kim.

According to Somuchpoker.com an argument among local authorities on how the event has to be conducted broke out.

Asia Poker League-shanghai-shut-down

As the two parties couldn’t come to a compromise, the agreement the APL had fought so hard for was simply called no longer valid by authorities.

Not the first time 

According to experts this was not the first time that something like this has happened in China.

Although the Chinese poker scene continues to grow rapidly, poker remains illegal and organizing a poker event is still a huge and unpredictable challenge.

Check out the best Asian Poker Sites and rakeback deals

Our new Asian Poker Sites page is online and there you can find information about poker in Asia and the best online poker sites for Asian poker players.

In addition to that, we are offering the best rakeback deals on the internet for Asian poker players and online poker rooms.

Check out our new site and sign up today to earning massive bonuses on Asian Poker Sites!

See the best Asian Poker Sites and rakeback deals here

Professional Poker Journalist
An avid poker player, he dreams of one day playing the WSOP Main Event and has promised himself he will fold aces and kings if he gets them on the first hand to avoid front-page headlines.
Filed Under: Poker Industry News Poker News

Categories

Brands
Date (UTC-0)
Prizes
 
29th Dec 18:30
$250
5th Jan 18:30
$250
12th Jan 20:00
$250
19th Jan 18:30
$250
26th Jan 18:30
$250
31st Jan 18:30
$250