In shock news, Europe’s largest poker room, King’s Casino in Rozvadov, has declared that all Italian players will not be welcomed at its casino due to the possibility of transmitting the COVID-19 – or Coronavirus – infection.

While just under 100,000 cases have been reported worldwide, with an estimated death rate of 3.4% being declared by the World Health Organisation (WHO), King’s Casino regularly organizes events for players who travel from a specific country – such as Italy – to play in Rozvadov. Barely anyone lives in Rozvadov to play poker, with the King’s resort almost exclusively welcoming travelling players, so the exclusion point may be a valid one, but Italian only?

The King’s Casino statement in full is unequivocal in its specificity of the request:

“King’s Resort communicates with regret to its customers that, given the evolution of the epidemic phenomenon coronavirus that for a few hours has been interested in the Czech Republic (with two [cases] contracted in Prague after visiting Italy), in order to safeguard the health of our international guests and prevent the spread of the Covid-19, we have chosen to completely limit access in all areas of the casino, not even accepting hotel reservations, to all residents and coming from Italy indefinitely, canceling from now all the events of March and April 2020 that target mainly target the audience mentioned above.