Inside Asian Gaming

INSIDE ASIAN GAMING | July 2012 8 Cover Story brainchild of Kings Consulting, launched earlier this year on free satellite broadcaster Lotus TV. It’s a mix of ESPN-style game coverage with tutorials, guides and commentary airing on Friday nights from 10 to 11. Mr Yu hopes it will carry the word into the 40 million households, stretching from Tokyo to Beijing and fromTaipei to Auckland, that comprise Lotus’ reach. “Historically, poker has grown where there has been TV exposure, but this has been very limited in Asia as gambling content on television is very restricted,” says Tom Hall, a co-founder of AsianLogic and former group CEO of Playtech who currently serves as business development director for ONEworks, a sports book services provider. “It’s interesting to note that where it is allowed on TV, poker jumped in popularity.” The Poker King Club hosted its first major tournament in April, the APT-accredited Asian Poker King, which drew 174 players to the ballroom at StarWorld for prize money of HK$870,000. Its stay at the Grand Lisboa ended, PokerStars Macau is enjoying a homecoming of sorts, taking up residence under the direction of Danny McDonough this summer on the main floor at Galaxy’s Grand Waldo, where he helped introduce tournament Hold ’em to Macau back in 2007. The new venue will host daily cash games and weekly tournaments, spiced with big-money special events: two HK$11,000 buy-in“Red Dragons,” culminating in September with the HK$4.5 million Macau Poker Cup Championship, and in October, a HK$100,000 buy-in Asia Championship of Poker kicks off, a 17- day extravaganza running through early November at the Grand Waldo’s new Conference and Exhibition Center. The prize pool: HK$10 million. “Macau has every opportunity to become home to one of the biggest live events in the world,” Mr McDonough says. “One day, an event in Macau, in my opinion, will rival the WSOP in numbers and prize money.” High stakes—the Asian Poker King Tournament at StarWorld Recently vacated—PokerStars Macau recently moved out of its home at the Grand Lisboa (pictured here) and back to GrandWaldo