WGM broke the story this afternoon after learning that police had blocked the entrance to the Wutaishan Sports Center, where the event had been running since Tuesday. A sign on the door of the stadium read: “Due to the APPT Nanjing Millions tournament being suspected of illegal gambling, the police are now investigating and the event is being ceased. All related staff should go and register at the designated location and co-operate with the police for the investigation.”
The Nanjing Millions was being run by the team from PokerStars Macau at City of Dreams. The dramatic raid saw the office of the tournament organizers seized and surrounded by police but it is unknown as of yet whether there have been any arrests.
Prior to the raid, the Nanjing Millions had been a stunning success with the sheer volume of people wanting to register forcing the APPT to add an extra Day 1 flight – pushing the total number of players to over 2,300.
The rapidly surging popularity of poker in Mainland China, as evidenced by these numbers, is precisely why organizations such as the APPT, APT and WPT have been pushing to host events there despite the many regulatory hurdles they have faced in trying to do so.
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