2008-11-20 • Gugster • Views:163
I think something really interesting is about to happen in Asia in relation to offline and online poker. There has been a lot of talk recent years, when or if the Asian market in online gambling will open up. A lot of prospectors are already making some moves towards the Asian scene and a lot more will surely be following. Since Macao (China) opened up to foreign investors in 2002 to better exploit the current Chinese and Asian market, west how got a more profound insight in how big the market really is. Macao has already past Las Vegas in revenue in 2006 with $6.8 billion VS $6.6 billion. And with 10.5 million visitors coming to Macao from China alone in 2005, it’s bound to be some of those people interested in online poker.
A friend of mine where in Macao last year playing hold´em and reports back that there is an interest in poker in Macao, but yet very chilling interest compared from the thousands of baccarat tables. However I think it´s not hard to imagine the impact of poker could have if commercial and other poker related events would be able to act freely in Asia.
And today Everest Poker announced that they where sponsoring the 27 year old Japanese female poker player Kim Wooka aka –icebeer-- in the Asian Poker Tour and Asian Pacific Poker Tour this year. She has a track record of playing in some of the biggest tournaments in the world, like EPT Finale in Monaco and WSOP, where she cashed out $25,090. And she also won the All Japan Poker Championship, ladies event tournament in May last year. Wooka has a business exam from Kwansei Gakuin University, has two restaurants and been playing poker successfully since 2006. You can read her blog at http://www.icebeer.jp/
There are some countries already thinking about legalizing gambling in Asia. And that is perhaps not so strange, in a study made by professor Pasuk at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, the illegal gambling has $6.1 billion in turn over a year in Thailand. It´s no wonder, they are planning to build casinos. (Read more about it here )
So I don’t think the question is if, rather when the Asian online tiger will awaken.
Kim Wooka
