WPT Cancels Its Historic Poker Tournament in Macau

The World Poker Tour announced that its WPT Macau event, set to take place in June, will not move forward. The poker company couldn’t provide an exact reason for the sudden cancelation but said that it is looking forward to hosting other events in the region.

The official announcement was shared by the WPT’s official X account. In the announcement, the company regretted this development, acknowledging that it might inconvenience many professional players from all over the world.

WPT, Wynn Macau, and Allied Gaming and Entertainment regret any inconvenience or disappointment for players from around the world who were planning to travel to Macau and play in the event.

WPT statement

WPT added that it remains committed to working with Wynn Macau and Allied Gaming and Entertainment in the future. The poker event organizer concluded that it hopes to bring other world-class poker tournaments to the special administrative region.

As of the time of this writing, no official reason as to why the event was canceled has been provided.

The Event Would Have Revitalized Macau Poker

The event would have marked the return of international professional poker tournaments to Macau. For context, no international poker tournament has taken place in Macau ever since the closure of the PokerStars LIVE room at City of Dreams in April 2018.

The organization of international events was further impeded by the ensuing pandemic and China’s Zero-COVID policy which significantly limited travel and postponed talks and plans about such tournaments.  

Set to take place at Cotai’s Wynn Palace from June 18 to 24, the WPT Macau tournament would have welcomed many players from around the world. The event was announced in March, promising to revitalize the special administrative region’s poker sector.

According to an earlier statement by Adam Pliska, CEO of the World Poker Tour, Macau has long been a “sought-after” destination for his team. Because of that, the company is not quite ready to give up on Macau despite the setback.

WPT’s decision to not move forward with the Macau tournament follows the cancelation of another poker event in Vietnam. Since the WPT was not the only company to cancel an event in Vietnam, experts believe that this might have been due to regulatory issues.

However, there is no indication that the cancelation of the Vietnam event might be related to the cancelation of the WPT Macau tournament.