The Australian Poker Championship or Aussie Millions is a well-known poker tournaments series that is held in Melbourne, Australian at the Crown Casino. The main event of Aussie Million is the Southern Hemisphere poker tournament which usually features a staggering prize pool of over A$7 million. The very first Aussie Millions poker tournament was held in June of 1997.

At the time, the Main Event was a Limit Holdem tournament with a $1K buy-in which attracted seventy-four players. Later on, the events’ buy-in increased to $5K and featured bigger prize pools of $200,000. Back in January of 2001, the event went bigger and it attracted a big field of one hundred and twenty-two entries and features a great prize pool of $1.2 million.

Then, four years later, the poker tournaments continued to grow with two hundred and sixty-three players who paid $10K each to participate in the tournament’s No-Limit Hold’em Main Event which generated the biggest prize pool of $2.6 million in the Southern Hemisphere. At the time, over half of the playing field included players from the USA, Norway, Denmark, England, New Zealand, Canada, Lebanon, the Netherlands, Sweden, and other countries.

Some of the biggest names in the world of professional poker games competed at the tournament including Daniel Negreanu, Phil Ivey, Joe Hachem, and John Juanda among others. The Aussie Millions as one of the biggest poker tournaments today as well as the sixth-biggest globally by generated prize pools has returned for 2020.

The Opening Event Included 242 Players

As every other year before, the 2020 Aussie Millions has attracted a myriad of poker fans and enthusiasts including some of the biggest names who have gathered at the Crown Casino to participate in one of the biggest poker tournament events. The 2020 Aussie Millions Opening Event started on the 4th of January. Needless to say, the series is fully committed to offering the best poker offering in the world while the event’s organizers are confident that everything will go as planned.

When it comes to the series’ Opening Event, it included two hundred and forty-two players while a total of twenty-eight players moved further on the second day. The second event started over the weekend with an exciting H.O.R.S.E. tournament which featured a $2,5K buy-in. Then, the third event kicked off on the 9^th of January offering loads of Pot Limit Omaha gaming actions for a buy-in of $1,1K. the event four included No-Limit Hold’em Mix Max poker actions while over the weekend, the 2020 Aussie Millions features No-Limit Hold’em, Pot Limit Omaha and Deep Freeze poker actions.

Jo Snell Winning the Opening Event; Two More Winners Crowned Later

It took six long days after the 2020 Aussie Millions started. The Opening Event included a massive field or players until Samuel Jefferies and Jo Snell competed in an exciting heads-up game. Jo Snell was the very first winner for this year’s poker tournament which took home a great prize of A$341K and of course, the Aussie Millions Championship ring.

Then, on the 10^th of January, we have witnessed amazing Freek Scholten winning Event #4 in No-Limit Hold’em Mix Max. This event gathered three hundred and forty-two players with only thirty-five of them managing to advance to the event’s final day. Freek Scholten firstly eliminated Karim Kamal who was the chip leader at the time, then Xiaqing Ji and finally Nino Ullmann to win the event and takehome A$86K. The series Event #3 in Pot Limit Omaha saw amazing Matthew Edwards taking the throne here and winning A$83K after defeating Matthew Sheils, Claudio Celenza, Sherif Deris and Ryan Hong among three hundred and forty-four of other players who competed in this event.

As it was reported recently, a couple of Australian casino junkets are under government investigation. One of the local newspapers has stated that the country’s law enforcement officials have launched an investigation into whether a couple of overseas casino junket operators may be promoting Chinese organized crime by using the country’s casinos for money laundering.

According to one report released several days ago by GGRAsia citing reports from The Sydney Morning Herald local newspaper, the latest special investigation by the ACIC or Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission was mainly initiated due to allegations that one land-based casino operator, the popular Crown Resorts Limited may be helping with facilitation of illicit activities with their high-stakes gambling lounges within its casinos.

Crown Resorts Limited Facing Obstacles Since 2007

Crown Resorts Limited is one of the country’s biggest, leading entertainment and gaming groups which had a massive market capitalization going over A$8.7 billion as reported in April last year. The company is located in Southbank in Melbourne and it both operates and owns two of the country’s biggest entertainment and gambling complexes including Crown Perth and Crown Melbourne.

The company was founded in 2007 when PBL or Publishing and Broadcasting limited fully divested all of its assets to Crown Limited. Later on, PBL was renamed to Consolidation Media Holdings. Back in December of 2007, Crown Limited agreed to purchase CCR for around $1.75 billion. Only two years later, this business deal was ended even though Crown Limited insisted on purchasing a smaller stake in the company.

One year later, Crown Limited entered the biggest Las Vegas entertainment and gambling market by purchasing almost a 20 percent stake in popular Fontainebleau Resorts for around $250 million. This business deal resulted in the company facing financial issues which led to several bankruptcy applications. Even though the company was on the edge of bankruptcy in 2008, it has managed to continue its operations and even expand further.

In 2013, the company’s then biggest shareholder and chairman invested in Crown located in Sri Lanka. One year later, the company partnered with Betfair. That same year in December, the company also partnered with another leading online gambling operator BetEasy. However, as of recently, the company is facing serious charges as well as further probes by the country’s regulators.

Alleged Organized Crime Charges

As it was reported recently, Crown Limited has been the center of a messy web or denials, allegations, and government inquiries and the biggest so fat is alleged reports which link the company to organized crime. The allegations are based on thousands of accidentally leaked internal company’s documents which suggest that the casino was not performing all necessary activities to ensure the government that there are no links between organized crime and junket casino operators.

It is also reported that Crown Limited allowed money laundering as well as exploited the country’s visa system weaknesses by allowing Chinese bettors who invest high stakes without any of vetting. The company has denied all of these allegations. It was also reported that the company’s board is extremely concerned for its stakeholders, shareholders and its staff. What is even more, the Crown Limited official press release also accuses others of attempting to destroy its good reputation. Another company which may be looked at by the government is Suncity Group as it offers VIP lounges at the Crown Resorts Limited and Crown Melbourne.