ShareThere is fresh hope that the much-loved Aussie Millions could be coming back after the host Crown Casino Melbourne decided to start offering tournament poker again.
The iconic event hasn’t run since 2020 and in January of this year Crown Resorts decided to postpone any future events.
“Our highly acclaimed Aussie Millions Poker Championship is an iconic part of poker history and brings some of the world’s most renowned players to Crown Melbourne.
“We are continuing to work with a range of stakeholders on new ways to bring the global poker community together and look forward to sharing more on the Aussie Millions soon.”
During the last couple of years, Crown Resorts has been under investigation for various compliance failures that have led to a deluge of new, strict gambling laws.
The company was lucky to be allowed to continue operating following a declaration that it was unfit to hold a casino license. The board pleaded with the regulators, offering to make sweeping changes that eventually saw almost all of the execs replaced.
Tournament Poker Back at Crown Melbourne
From Wednesday, November 29, a new weekly poker tournament will become a regular feature at Crown Melbourne, the first in almost four years.
The $250 buy-in event is being used as a taster to gauge how much demand there is for future tournaments and possibly some much bigger.
Casino Manager, Daniel Trubiano said:
“Our aim is to [start by bringing] back the weekly tournaments to gauge where our customer base is.Our aim is to bring tournament poker back to better than it was.
“The Las Vegas Room has served a very good tenure for us, but to reinvent the brand there is no doubt we need complete revamp.
“A significant change to what we offer is required so we can become a more guest-focused operator on what we deliver.”
Trubiano added that he hopes poker will once again become central to what Crown Melbourne offers its customers.
The Aussie Millions was a permanent fixture on the poker calendar since 1998 with well-supported fields for the biggest buy-in events.
Multi-million dollar guarantees with top-notch facilities meant that players couldn’t wait to make the trip during the European and North American winter.
At the time of writing, there are no guarantees and we are probably jumping the gun slightly but rumours persist that Crown Melbourne is also considering running a major event to see how many of poker’s big names they can get over there.
