The World Poker Tour announces additional tour stops in Japan and South Korea in the wake of owners Ourgame International admitting six of their staff were involved in the recent illegal poker scandal in China. 

One of the toughest experiences a young boy can face is watching his old man get a beating. There was a time he held your hand, and you thought they were shovels. He was a giant, your protector. And then someone comes along and kicks everything you knew about the world in the head.

The World Poker Tour (WPT) has watched from afar as their father has been whipped and walloped this week. In June 2015, Ourgame International Holdings acquired the WPT from bwin for $35m. It was an appropriation that was supposed to herald a new era. A poker boom in Asia. Then the Chinese government began cracking the whip.

On June 1, social poker apps die in China. It’s like Thanos has clicked his purple finger. It seems ‘someone’ had been using the social poker apps as a veil to underground cash games generating millions of dollars in revenue. According to press reports, that ‘someone’ consists of several people, some of which occupy senior positions in Ourgame International Holdings.