Gaming Report: King’s Casino to Host Live Poker Tournaments & Poker News Sites in Spain Return Online

The prospect of live poker seems to be lighting up in Europe, with the biggest casino of the continent, King’s Casino announcing that it will be hosting the King’s PLO High Roller from June 20 to 21.

Moreover, the Spanish government has lifted the restriction imposed on online poker news sites for over two months on June 9. Popular poker news media sites from the region such as Poker10 and Poker-Red are finally back online.

King’s Casino to Host Live Poker Tournaments Starting June 20

King’s Casino located in Rozvadov, Czech Republic, is one of the biggest casinos in Europe. The continent was one of the hardest hit, and in early March, the casino had banned Italian players from entering their establishment. In April, the casino announced that it was closing its doors till at least September 1. The venue, however, reopened much sooner on May 11.

In the latest update, King’s Casino will become the first casino in Europe to host a live poker series from June 20. As reported by PokerNews, “From a mind-blowing €100k buy-in two-day PLO HIGHROLLER kicking off on Saturday, June 20, to an impressive lineup of poker festivals, the largest poker room in Europe aims to distribute over €1.2 Million in guarantees during the course of the next two months.”

The casino made the announcement on Facebook.

The Czech Republic has reported 10,027 COVID-19 cases to date, with only three new cases reported in the past 24 hours. The death toll is less than 400. Unsurprisingly, the country has decided to relax its lockdown policies and has allowed many European citizens to enter the country with no need for tests or quarantine.

This is the first time players from countries like Germany, Italy, Austria, Poland, Hungary, France, the Netherlands, and more will be able to get back to some exciting poker action.

The event in question, King’s PLO High Roller that will run from June 20 to 21, is a €2.5k buy-in tourney. Several notable names are expected to attend, including former professional footballer Sergej Barbarez, 2019 WSOPE bracelet winner Besim Hot, Slovakia’s second-largest tournament winner Marek Blasko, and Austrian pro Harry Casagrande, reports PokerNews.

Not only that, but the VIP’s and patron of the King’s Casino will also battle it out in the €5K invitational tournament with the same €100K prize pool from June 19 to 20.

However, it has not yet been confirmed if former CEO of King’s Casino, Leon Tsoukernik will be in attendance.

July will also be action-packed at the King’s Casino as the Balkan Poker Circuit (July 1-6), Bounty Hunter Days Warm Up (July 9-12), Benelux Classics (July 15-20), are all lined up to take the European poker circuit by storm.

Spanish Poker News Sites Return After COVID-19 Emergency Measures Get Lifted

On March 31, the Spanish Council of Ministers published Royal Decree 11/2020, which enacted various social and economic measures in response to the spread of COVID-19. As a part of the decree, Spanish online poker news and community sites had taken themselves offline. Others had to remove all promotional material since all forms of online gambling publicity was temporarily banned.

Leading community website Poker10 went completely offline; its primary competitor Poker-Red remained online but removed all promotional material. Meanwhile, while real money online poker rooms could continue operations, they had to pause all promotional offers and suspend all work with affiliates and other advertising.

After a blackout that lasted for over two months, sites like Poker10 and Poker-Red have returned to full operation after the country lifted emergency measures aimed to curb gambling activity during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The restrictions that were in place for over two months were repealed with the new Royal Decree-Law 21/2020.

The decree states, “Royal Decree-Law 21/2020, of June 9th, on urgent measures of prevention, containment and coordination to deal with the health crisis caused by COVID-19,” and explicitly includes the repeal of Article 37 of Royal Decree Law 11/2020 of March 31, which established the restrictions for online gaming and betting advertising.