Mexico will no doubt end up with the typical exponential graph like other countries once the number of local infections reaches a critical mass. It can't have been helped by a plane-load of college students from Texas going there on Spring Break. 44 out of 70 students on one plane to Mexico have since tested positive, and about half of all Covid cases in Austin are aged 20-40.

It's hardly surprising, but the CONCACAF Nations League Finals (Soccer) scheduled for Dallas and Houston in early June has been cancelled. There's probably going to be no international soccer anywhere in the world in June, or July. (Last I heard, the only professional soccer being played at the moment was in Belarus, and that's been quite controversial).
FIFA's Covid working group also recommended the postponement of the 2020 Under-20 Women’s World Cup in Panama and Costa Rica, originally scheduled for August and September, as well as the 2020 U17 Women’s World Cup in India, which was originally scheduled for November. [source]

Maybe there will be national sporting events returning within months, but international sport isn't coming back any time soon. In the tennis world, some people are suggesting tennis is over for the entire year. As Amelie Mauresmo put it on twitter: "No vaccine = No tennis".

EDC Vegas just got postponed until October 2nd-4th

https://mobile.twitter.com/PasqualeR...65712613396482

This is definitely a big shoe to drop for the WSOP. I would expect an announcement about a modified schedule and/or postponement/cancellation within 2-3 weeks.

Palansky: "No definitive date. But sometime next month would be the expected earliest."

I notice the article was posted April 3rd. I wonder if the interview might not have been a few days earlier, and "next month" actually meant April. Because to have meant sometime in May would be rather silly, since it's not possible to announce any later than that.

EDC cancel already happened or was 99% to happen a few days ago when I posted it.
That was before this interview with Seth. Not that it mattered at all on their decision.

so, i get that all u.s. players would not be able to play on wsop.com, just as it is right now, except for delaware/nj?
are you saying that despite the uigea, international players will be able to play on wsop.com?
are the banking/payment restrictions/regulations not being currently enforced?
if those regulations do not apply to wsop.com, then why are there not international players on the site, or, are they allowed to but i just do not know that?
**disclaimer: i know nothing about playing on wsop.com because i do not live in one of the 2-states;
i do understand that the uigea did not declare that online-poker was illegal, just the banking/payment processing;
if i misunderstand, please explain; thanks.

Absolutely zero chance the WSOP starts on time. Given how many deaths the US will suffer, I don’t see any games or sports starting within 3 months. My money is on the WSOP being cancelled.

It's 100% cancelled, the only thing left is whether they try some lame-azz online series and call it the WSOP.

You misunderstood.

The simplest way to put it is that the UIGEA only covers

"Unlawful
Internet
Gambling".

against which, it is an

Enforcement
Act.

If anyone wants an actual legal opinion, I provide those only for actual clients, based upon more than an illustrative acrostic.

Yeah at this point I would bank on the current iteration being cancelled, and I don't really see them offering it online when so many of the US states couldn't participate killing a lot of the people they would want to draw.

Not really sure of a solution, but maybe we'll know something in the next 4 weeks.

I've always thought that the first word of that acrostic was...problematic. Or rather presumptive, at least.

But I suppose that's a topic for another thread.

Look it gets cancelled oh well life goes on. 1 year without the wsop we'll all be okay. Intl travel is essentially non-existent, earliest that changes is probably mid to late summer. And even if it happens then, does Seth and his fellow Caesars cronies not get that most people will still not be traveling? And who knows which countries will be open and which won't. So best case scenario intl travel resumes but slowly. And the vast majority of people will still be uncomfortable flying, especially internationally so what kinds of crowds would they even get? And you gotta be sure that when restrictions start easing you are still gonna be told by the CDC to try and avoid very large gatherings if possible. Yeah um the wsop is infection heaven with how many people funnel into rhe Rio's rooms.

So all this wait and see and nothing has changed at this point is stupid. It's not going to happen and prolonging the inevitable cancellation of the series just doesn't make a bit of sense.

It does. My guess is if they cancel on their own they may not be eligible for some sort of state or federal restitution.

The best post I've seen from you.

They have seven major properties in Vegas alone, I don't think the cancelling of the WSOP will have much effect on any of Caesars Entertainment's total restitution benefits.

Sure it does:

I live in the UK and had been looking forward to playing the main event this year. I turned 50 earlier in the year and the wife had agreed that this would be the year for me to fulfil the dream of going to play the main. Earlier this week I cancelled my flights and hotels. Even if the WSOP does go ahead it seems beyond stupid to go and sit in halls filled with people to play poker. Coronavirus won't be gone by then even if it is on a downward trend. I'm sure I'm not the only one who has decided not to play regardless of what the WSOP decides to do.

As for online, I'm not interested in playing an online main event, even if they somehow manage to make it a global event and not restricted to legal US territories. It's the atmosphere and experience I want, the main event is supposed to be special. I'm lucky that I live in a country where I can play online all the time and so an online event doesn't seem that special to me.

I'm now looking forward to WSOP 2021 where everything is hopefully back to normal and I can go and tick the main event off the bucket list.

Any estimates of total revenue lost if they don’t run it?

Does the WSOP brand have any current contracts with Euro/ROW providers of online poker? I know in the past that they had some kind of link up with 888, and further into the past there were tons of satellites to the Main Event on Stars etc.
It's no help to US-based live players, but I can imagine a major online series with the WSOP branding being offered on one of the popular Euro sites. It could run in parallel (but separately) to a similar online series in the few US states that are licensed to offer online poker.
Obviously a big online series wouldn't replace the Vegas experience, but there are a lot of players from Europe and elsewhere that would have traveled to Vegas this summer and that would love to play in WSOP-branded events with massive prize pools online. There are also tons of online players in Europe/RoW that might never have planned to go to Vegas but that would love to play in an official WSOP series online.

In comparison to normal casino revenues, next to nothing

I mean, that is just not true. These are 150.000 people who will NOT ONLY PLAY POKER. They go gambling, they use entertainment venues, they fill all the hotels.

Yes, poker is not a money maker for casinos, but that's just not the point of running a series. If you get people into your casino with poker, a decent percentage of them will lose their house in pit games. They're degens, and a large portion of them is gonna be on tilt.

Sure it will be moved from May start to the end of June or beginning of July start. But it will run !!!!!! All Tables will be 7-8 handed and rectal thermometer exams will be administered by Hellmuth to all players

This thread is about postponement of the WSOP. Why is this actually being discussed?

This has been discussed at points in this thread. There are normally ~4MM visitors to LV each month. These people spend lots of money on lodging, transportation, food, entertainment, etc in addition to gambling. I don't know how many people come for the WSOP over the course of 2/3rds of the series (one month), but I don't think its the 150K number you cite (that appears to be tournament entries, not people). In any case, any number related to the WSOP is going to be a small percentage of what normally goes on in Vegas.

So, no, cancellation of the WSOP would not represent a significant loss compared to what the city is losing /will lose otherwise due to the COVID situation.

But the WSOP does make money. Lots of people, both those who participate, and obviously many people who work for them directly or indirectly, would be severely impacted by cancellation.

Maybe look at it as EBITDA (profit) loss vs Revenue loss. I think many over estimate the profit that WSOP generates after they look at the massive amount rake generated. Just for fun add up how much it costs to have 3,000+ people on a payroll for 8 weeks.

@Akashenk is right in comparison of total Covid related losses to Las Vegas to losses from WSOP.

Total Covid Losses measured in Dollars.
WSOP losses in fractions of pennies.

Above 150K estimate of WSOP foot traffic is way high. Its total entries minus number of entries by people playing multiple events. Ive always thought it was around 20,000ish.

Yes having 20,000 patrons is Vegas is always beneficial. But the 'poker is great think of the all the additional gaming win in the pit" argument falls on deaf ears of many Casino Execs. Some look at each butt in a poker room seat as one butt not in slot or table game seat. They figure they are gonna get all the butts in the casino regardless.

Lots of recent entry growth at WSOP has been in the low-buyin mega events. Just how much will a player rolled for several entries into the Collosus type entries be willing to drop in the pit? This demo is a big chunk of foot traffic. The are more likely to stay at Excalibur than Ceasars.

For Casino Execs poker is an amenity (sort of like the pool). Doesn't make money but have to have it. Always been like that, always will be. Certainly some of the top tier rooms are profit centers that matter a bit, but these are the exception.