Macau, the biggest legalized gambling hub in the world has gone through a rough patch the last few months. Casinos all across Macau have reported a decline in gambling revenue which directly relates to a drop in customer attendance. Macau, which is an hour away from Hong Kong and Mainland China has faced the simultaneous backlash from protests in Hong Kong as well as the corruption crackdown enforced by Chinese President Xi Jinping.
The protests in Hong Kong have gone on for well over a month and there does not seem to be a mutual solution at hand.
The protests, violence and danger posed by these protests have discouraged residents of Hong Kong and Mainland China from visiting Macau, as they prefer to stay indoors and avoid any security risks.
Chinese President Xi Jinping has instructed authorities to crackdown on financial corruption and authorities are carefully monitoring casinos and the sums of money that individuals spend and earn. All this has discouraged Macau’s high spenders from visiting these casinos and playing high cash games. Macau hopes that the 2014 Asia Championship of Poker (ACOP) will be a turning point for Macau casinos as the event is set to generate international publicity and bring in some of the top poker players in the world.
Macau Billionaire Poker (MBP) and the PokerStars.net Asia-Pacific Poker Tour (APPT) will collaborate to host special events at the 2014 Asia Championship of Poker (ACOP). The tournament is set to begin on the 24th of October and will go on till the 9th of November at PokerStars LIVE Macau.
These two companies will collaborate to host a couple of high roller events at the ACOP. The first event will be a Super High Roller for $65,000 and the second event will be a High Roller for $32,000. Speaking about the collaboration, APPT President Danny McDonagh said
It’s incredibly exciting to work with MBP again and to have them sponsoring our high roller events at the ACOP. Their reach in the region is outstanding and could double or triple the participation in both the 250K and 500K events.
The 2014 ACOP event will be attended by a number of professional poker players from Asia as well as from around the world. Some of these professionals include Team PokerStars Pro Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier and WSOP Main Event champions Jonathan Duhamel and Greg Merson.
