WPT reverses decision to take percentage of prize pool for charity
Related Articles
The World Poker decided yesterday not to donate a percentage of the prize pool for its 2008 Ladies Championship to charity after top women’s players said they wouldn’t play in the event because of the policy.
Two-time champion Susie Isaacs led a group of players who said they wouldn’t play in event because 15% of the prize pool would be given to event partner Susan G. Komen for the Cure.
According to a story at pokerpages.com:
World Poker Association Chairman, Wendeen H. Eolis explains, “The furor has centered on the WPT’s insensitivity to the varying financial means of ‘working players’ and more broadly on the decision to compel a charitable donation in an event labeled as a championship.” The WPT has never exacted such a pledge in any previous championship event. Eolis called upon the WPT to “reverse this mistake” for the future.
Today, Lyle Berman, Chairman of the Board of World Poker Tour Enterprises told Eolis, “The WPT has re-evaluated its decision to make a charitable donation a condition for participation in the WPT Ladies Championship.” He added, “In the future there will be no such requirement in a WPT championship event.”
The group of women threatening the boycott have said they don’t have a problem with donations being made to charity, as long as the decisions were made by each player and were voluntary.
World Poker Tour officials said they thought the decision to link the event to charity would increase its visibility and draw more interested.
