The 2015 Asia Pacific Poker Tour (APPT) Nanjing Millions event in Nanjing, China was shut down by local law enforcement officials on Friday, leaving players and poker fans searching for reasons why. World Global Magazine originally broke the news of the raid, which had police officers blocking the entrance to the tournament’s venue, the Wutaishan Sports Center.
In its report, posted on the media outlet’s Facebook page, World Global Magazine included a photo of a sign that was taped to the Sports Center’s door. WGM also provided a translation, as follows:
Due to the APPT Nanjing Millions tournament being suspected of illegal gambling, the police are now investigating and the event is being ceased. All related staff should go and register at the designated location and co-operate with the police for the investigation.
There has been no indication as to what sort of “illegal gambling” was going on, if any. As Haley Hintze at Flushdraw.net put it, “….there’s as much of a chance that this was another example of corrupt local and regional law enforcement seeking bribe money — and shutting down the proceedings when none (or not enough) was forthcoming — as it is that any illegal game, separate from that already contracted and licensed for by the event’s organizers, was taking place.”
There really are no answers at this point. PokerStars is the title sponsor of the APPT as well as numerous other international poker tours such as the European Poker Tour and is known to operate some of the best live tournaments in the world. Right now, all we have to go on is a brief statement from PokerStars and Amaya Gaming’s Head of Corporate Communications, Eric Hollreiser:
After three very successful days of tournament poker, the organizers of the Nanjing Millions decided to postpone the event in order to address questions from local authorities. The tournament was sanctioned by the local government through the Jiangsu Provincial Chess Sports Association and held at the Jiangsu Wutaishan Sports Centre, an official Olympic venue. The event itself was organized and operated by a local poker operator, Star Poker Club, and sponsored by APPT China. We are in contact with Star Poker Club and are seeking additional details. The organizers have issued a statement apologizing for the inconvenience and plan to resume the tournament in the near future.
So, in other words, PokerStars is just as baffled as everybody else is. It seems that, if Hollreiser is being completely forthright (and there is no real reason to believe he is not), that all of the proper channels were gone through to put on the event and all proper licenses and permissions had been granted. The only real difference between the WGM report and Hollreiser’s statement is the former characterized the tournament stoppage as a police shut down, wherease Hollreiser said that the tournament organizers decided to postpone the event on their own. The difference likely doesn’t matter, though, and is probably just spin.
