It might have taken a bit of time, but it looks like the World Poker Tour is about to expand to a little bit more of the world with a recent agreement signed with China sort of.
Recently the WPT had nailed down the rights to broadcast two seasons of their show on Macau Cable and MediaCorp in Singapore, which puts the WPT in a new market with potentially two billion people. This was the start of, possibly, something big, as recent news (via a convenient press release) comes of the World Poker Tour prepping to set up tourneys in China after an agreement signed with China Leisure Sports Administrative Center. This agreement is set to run for five years, but details about the actual tournaments have not been released;possibly because they don't know themselves how they are going to make it work. It turns out that gambling is forbidden in China by their communist government, which puts all forms of gambling into the same category as prostitution and drug use, and is deemed "anti-social."
So it appears that something is going to have to change, unless Steve Lipscomb knows something we don't about the future of poker in China (a very strong possibility.)
Although, it might be more fun if they went ahead with the idea without poker's legal status changing. Then the WPT could combine elements of poker with a fugitive-like element, with players ready to cut and run if and when "the Man" comes bursting through the door, batons at the ready.
