Inside Asian Gaming

September 2008 | INSIDE ASIAN GAMING 23 Asian Grab ‘Em As poker’s popularity continues to spread in Macau and the rest of Asia, the world’s largest poker event will soon be staged in the region S peaking at the 13th Annual Asian Casino Executive Summit in Singapore earlier this month, David Briggs of the Asian Poker Tour (APT) announced his company’s strategic objective to stage the world’s largest poker tournament in Asia within 4 years. This is an ambitious objective at this stage considering that the most recent APT event had a prize pool of US$1.5 million, compared to the US-based World Series of Poker, which this year will have a first prize alone of $9.1 million. Mr Briggs pointed out, however, that several emerging factors have convinced the APT that in the poker realm, just as in the sporting arena at this year’s Olympics, America will eventually lose its number one position to Asia. To understand why APT’s prediction is more than just a pipedream, you need to take into account the speed and scale