2009 EPT Moscow: Uh...?
It's now been four full days since the Russian government unilaterally wiped poker off the face of the list of official sports, effectively returning poker to a "gambling" activity that can only take place in one of four specially designated regions in Siberia and a few other remote places. That puts us just three-and-a-half weeks out from the scheduled start of the EPT season. If you've been reading this space this week you know that the EPT season was supposed to kick off in Moscow. Obviously that's a problem.
The Russia regional manager of the EPT said on Tuesday that the EPT would have a statement today regarding the fate of EPT Moscow. The business day has come and gone in Moscow and in London, where PokerStars is based, and there's been no statement. In fact the only statement I've seen from anyone remotely connected to EPT or PokerStars was a statement by a PokerStars PR rep who gave the wishy-washy non-answer, "As far as I know EPT Moscow is still going ahead. We are looking into the situation in Russia and if there are any updates we will let you know." Gee, thanks.
A few stories I've read on Russian-language web sites claim that the official statement has been postponed until some time next week. I know EPT / PokerStars was blindsided by this government action. And so I understand that they can't be expected to immediately make an announcement regarding what's going to happen to the tournament. No doubt there is a bunch of scrambling and back-room negotiating to either get a permit to hold the tournament in Moscow as scheduled or to move it somewhere else (Kyiv has been mentioned). But the simple fact remains that we're now 24 days until the start of the tournament. People need time to make travel arrangements. Each passing day makes it harder and harder for people to schedule their lives effectively to attend the tournament -- wherever it winds up being held and if it winds up being held.
Going four whole days without any sort of official statement when the tournament is less than four weeks away is inexcusable. Shame on you, PokerStars. You got your grace period. It's time to get on top of this and let your potential players know what they can expect.