Big news out of the Russian Federation, as the global (and inevitable) poker shakedown continues …
According to this PokerListings article translated via Google, the Ministry of Sport, Tourism, and Youth Policy have revoked poker\’s status as a sport — making it illegal to play except for in four designated gambling zones, one of which happens to be in Siberia.
Some 70 Russian poker clubs face a shutdown as a result of the non-sport designation, and it\’s not yet clear what this will mean for the fate of EPT Moscow, the next European Poker Tour event, scheduled for August, other than that the Pokerstarzistan-spawned tourney tour would likely have to cough up some extra bucks for appropriate licensing to play — as that event has been planned to take place in a Radison hotel, as opposed to a casino.
Fuckin\’ commies! Russians won the fourth highest amount of money for any nation at the 2009 WSOP, and the Ruskie Federation finished 6th in the world in terms of bracelets and final tables.