Briefing: Tencent shuts down Texas Hold’Em Poker amid government gaming crackdown

Tencent shuts poker platform amid widening gaming crackdown —Reuters

What happened: Tencent has announced it will shut down its popular poker video game Texas Hold’Em starting from Monday. The company has promised to shut down the game’s servers by September 25 and compensate users.

Why it’s important: The news comes as Tencent is facing strict scrutiny over its gaming business. The company lost $15 billion in value after regulators blocked the sale of its blockbuster game Monster Hunt in August. Last week, China issued new regulations to fight poor eyesight limiting the number of new games and announced a content rating system and limits for underage players. This has also dragged down the company’s valuation. Tencent has also been forced to adopt more stringent real name verification for its most popular mobile game Honor of Kings this month.