Trump’s Effect: WSOP 2025 Warnings For Non-Americans

Players Attendance Predictions on WSOP 2025

Ryan Laplante thinks that overall attendance of WSOP 2025 will be likely down 5-10% but Main Event’s field specifically will lose about 10-15% of entries in comparison to WSOP 2024. He is even sure that all major U.S. live poker events will have problems in summer of 2025:

However, Rayan is expecting that Monster and Milly events on WSOP will both have larger fields because of additional flights.

Nate Silver disagrees about WSOP Main Event but agrees about overall negative dynamic on U.S. live poker arena:

However, Kevin Johnson expects that field will be larger because: “Dont people historically gamble more during bad times?”. It’s fair to say that his conclusion isn’t supported by statistics: we found a dozen of studies, such as “Do people spend more on luck-based gambling during recessions?”, showing that people tend to spend more on luck-based gambling when they have higher expectations of the economy — which is likely not applicable for the US economy in 2025.

Finally, Steve Roselius also predicts inevitable drop of fields on WSOP due to so called “Trumpression”:

“By June, the Trumpression will be well on its way, with people losing their jobs and inflation headed towards double digits. (Sorry, bros, but crypto will not be spared.)

Meanwhile, ICE keeps grabbing incoming tourists almost at random, sending them off to (essentially) concentration camps, then deporting them after a few weeks.

I’ve heard it’s been happening to Canadians, Germans, and Welsh, among others. That’ll make folks less eager to visit from overseas.

Are we great again yet?”

His opinion motivated a lot of people to share the opposite point of view and then poker debate transformed to a very heated political argument with personal attacks and exclamations about the rightists and leftists. But we followed this argument and found a few interesting reasons for poker players to be really concerned about the current situation.

Why Do Trump’s Politics Matter to Poker Players?

Firstly, the update of the USA Alien Registration Requirement makes traveling to this country for playing poker, especially such long series as WSOP, more complicated and uncomfortable than before.

According to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service, any 14 years or older foreigner who comes to the USA for 30 days or longer is now obliged to go through specific federal registration and being fingerprinted, if they have not done the last when applying for a visa.

And once they are registered and fingerprinted, they are obliged to carry evidence of registration and keep it in their personal possession at all times.

If they do not carry this evidence when approached by law enforcement, they will be considered guilty of a misdemeanor and will upon conviction for each offense be fined not to exceed $5,000 or be imprisoned not more than 30 days, or both.

If now you think: “Okay it isn’t a big deal, I do not have problems with going through all these processes” — be aware that if you change an address of your living in the USA after registration is completed, you will have an obligation to re-register again. And if you don’t do it, you will be considered a criminal by U.S. law with probable criminal and civil penalties, up to and including misdemeanor prosecution, the imposition of fines, and incarceration. They also reserve the right to deport you from the USA if you do not comply with requirements and even ban you from ever returning to this country again.

Of course, you can register and re-register online through myUSCIS account but you can’t be fingerprinted this way. So, if you for some reason have not been fingerprinted for a visa, you will be obliged to go to one of the physical Application Support Centers in the USA and do it in person.

And since WSOP 2025 will go for 53 days between May 27th and July 16th, every foreigner planning to play all the series or the majority of its events will be obliged to do as new requirements demand.

Secondly, from January to April 2025 a lot of media outlets wrote about literal witch hunting on any sorts of immigrants in the USA with a few pretty absurd victims. For example:

• German hiker Annika Ananias had a valid B2 tourist visa but was detained and deported from the USA with a five-year ban in re-entering because of accusations from the law enforcements of illegally working in the USA. This woman stated that she finances traveling by freelancing in Germany and being supported by her dad and even tried to show the officer her bank statements to prove it but was declined and punished.
• British tourist Rebecca Burke was planning to stay in the host’s house exchanging free living for doing some small house chores during her vacation but was detained and later deported because Immigration and Customs enforcements decided that she should have applied for a work visa instead of tourist visa.
• German tourist Lucas Sielaff who visited his long-distance girlfriend in the USA was accused of illegally living in the country, detained and deported to Germany despite having proof that he didn’t break any law.

In all these cases people were detained in the USA for weeks before deportation and never received any proof of violation of laws and regulations from their side.

It is very concerning for poker players too since they also visit the USA primarily via tourist visa and potentially can be targeted in the same manner while trying to cross the border.Thirdly, in light of the war of tariffs between the USA and almost every other country in the world — especially EU countries — it won’t be news to see an increase of economic issues for the common people in the near future. Especially when it comes to transactions of large sums of money while the Trump’s administration is fussily searching ways to slow inflation and replenish the treasury.

How Foreign Poker Players Can Prepare for WSOP 2025 to Avoid Problems With Law

Following these and other cases of tourist deportation, European governments and U.S. embassies in different countries began warning citizens to be careful when visiting the USA. For example, the U.S. Embassy in Serbia published a notice titled “Don’t Risk Your Future: US Cracks Down On Illegal Immigration” which strongly suggests citizens to follow the U.S. immigration law precisely and be careful with documents.

PokerListings joins these recommendations with the list of some crucial precautions to save you troubles during preparation for the trip to WSOP 2025:

1. Check the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services website for the most up to date information about visa and other documental requirements for visiting the USA.
2. Consult with the U.S. embassy in your country about changes in visa application process and registration specifics in the USA.
3. Prepare all necessary documents and accommodations in advance, especially if you plan to stay for 30 days or longer.
4. Be aware about visa fraud and avoid applying for a visa on any website or in the organizations except the federal Consular Electronic Application Center website.
5. Cross the U.S. border only via legal approved gates — seaports, border points on the land and airports.
6. Inform significant others, your attorney or immigrant consultant about every significant detail of your travel and always have their contacts on you in case of legal problems.
7. Always carry evidence of being in the USA legally as well as finished “alien registration” and any other required bureaucratic procedures to confirm your legal presence in the United States with you.

Think thoroughly about risks you will take traveling to the USA in the difficult political and economical time and do not stay in this country for more than necessary to fulfil the purpose of your visit.