The European Poker Tour will no longer take place in Moscow next month as planned but will have an alternate venue for its Season 6 opening.
This follows Russia’s clampdown on gambling in the country and stripping poker of its sports classification. Russia has also made it illegal to play poker outside of designated gambling zones.
The event will now be known as the EPT Kiev Sports Poker Championship and will take place at the Kiev Sports Palace from August 18th to August 23rd. It will be in partnership with the Ukrainian Poker Federation.
All players who qualified online for the Moscow event have been notified by the sponsors of the EPT event, Poker Stars, that their packages, including their buy-in and hotel can be converted to EPT Kiev packages. They also have the option of taking a credit for a future event or receive the cash equivalent value.
Following the steps taken by Russia, the Ukrainian government has also recently approved new laws temporarily banning gambling in the country. There is probably going to be new legislation drawn up in an attempt to restrict gambling to specific zones in the country.
The temporary laws ban bookmaking, casinos, slot machines and online gambling from Ukrainian citizens while the law on poker remains imprecise and is still classified as a sport.