[DesertCat]

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2. Poker does NOT have to be a "mass market" activity in China in order for China to be the biggest poker market in the world. If 1 out of 1000 people in China were to play Texas Hold'em, then China will have more Hold'em players than the U.S. The overall GDP of a country really doesn't matter to a business when the business is only trying to capture 0.1% of the country's population.


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GDP does matter, because in China the GDP averages around $2,000 per person, while it averages about $40,000 per person. Even if China produces more poker players than the U.S., it won't matter if the vast majority are playing $.01/$.02.

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3. It is actually to WPTE's advantage to have online poker BANNED in the U.S., so that WPTE's online poker competitors, especially the likes of Full Tilt, PokerStars, and even Harrah's WSOP unit, will have their "air supply" choked off.


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Think carefully about this. The U.S. just imprisoned the CEO of BetOnSports, a U.K. Citizen, for operating an enterprise that was legal in the countries it was hosted in and run from. Do you really think the management, and board of directors of the WPT (Lyle Berman for example) want to leave the U.S. forever to avoid imprisonment? It will only take one U.S. player gaining access to their web site for the U.S. justice department to apply for arrest warrants.

Getting online poker banned in the U.S. reduces their TV audience, doesn't increase the amount of players at their web site (unless they violate U.S. law) and exposes the WPT to unlimited and impossible to manage liabilities.

Oliver, while I have no doubt the WPT is trying to penetrate the chinese market, I think you are seeing too many conspiracy theories. And remember, "penetrating the chinese markets" is the last strategy of failed businesses nowadays, like "building a web business" was in 1999.