Chippendale Dealers Spark Sexism Row at Battle of Malta

4 years ago
Chippendale Dealers Spark Sexism Row at Battle of Malta
08:25
25 Oct

The MPN Poker Tour’s Battle of Malta descended into a sexist farce as male dealers were made to work topless for the Ladies event, the backlash quick to appear on Twitter…


The €110 buy-in BoM Ladies Event kicked off at the Casino Malta with players confronted by the dealers clad in Chippendale-style outfits, and the bizarre scenes quickly went viral…


Quite who came up with the idea hasn’t been made public yet, but MPN’s Senior Manager Clodagh Hansen tweeted that the Microgaming Poker Network were unaware of the stunt…


With women accounting for roughly 5% at best of live tournament poker players, Ladies only events have often been used to draw more females into the game. 

This incredible Battle of Malta faux pas, however, was instantly decried as unprofessional at best, and demeaning to all, dealers included, at worst.


With rumours that dealers were offered a bonus to go topless, Irish pro Dara O’Kearney had some to share:

‘One of dealers in High Roller told us he refused point blank and was taken off the Ladies event. This was one of the best top professional English dealers’.

After numerous complaints were made by the players, most of the dealers apparently got dressed or were replaced by female dealers, although MPN itself attempted to make light of the outrageous situation.

Jokes about players going ‘bust’, ‘feminist theory’ and ‘smash the patriarchy!’ are hardly likely to endear them to the masses and it will be interesting to see what happens next.

Just before going to press, the Battle of Malta organisers, Casino Malta, released an apology and indicated they would be ‘donating all registration fees from the Ladies Event to nominated charity – Pink October Malta’.


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Andrew from Edinburgh, Scotland, is a professional journalist, international-titled chess master, and avid poker player.Read more

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