The Asian casino gaming industry is something of a misnomer. While the activity itself is "officially" disproved of by the Chinese government, gambling is still tolerated and allowed to take place in regulated jurisdictions. Take China's "special administrative region" of Macau for instance, which is fast becoming a Casino Mecca surpassing the epic proportions of Las Vegas. Bringing in almost $7 billion in revenue last year alone, the majority of which came from Chinese gamblers crossing the border into Macau, Macau has indeed already surpassed the yearly revenues of Vegas.

Now, it appears that poker will be coming to China as well. The Associated Press in China is reporting that despite resistance from the Chinese government, World Poker Tour Enterprises is close to signing a valid deal with China Leisure Sports Administrative Centre to bring tournament poker to the Chinese mainland.

Potentially becoming a monumental business enterprise for World Poker Tour Enterprises, the deal with Leisure Sports will apparently stand for five years with options to extend. No other details were given. The deal is so close to being finalized, in fact, that WPT founder and CEO, Steve Lipscomb, is scheduled to attend a ceremony at a hotel in Beijing today.

While Western-style casino gambling has undoubtedly been catching on in China, there are still many cultural differences characterizing China's gambling industry. Although poker has not been an entirely foreign game to the Chinese, it is certainly not as popular as other games like Mahjong. Despite the doubts and concerns that poker would not flourish in China, World Poker Tour Enterprises sees great potential in their formidable poker tournament circuit. Now an international game (World Series of Poker has expanded into Europe), the worldwide television and media coverage of the World Poker Tour has no doubt made its way into China.