POKER ROOM REVIEW NEWSWIRE

Aussies to Mike Tyson: Stay Home

Ex-heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson had been planning on taking a little break in January, 2009, to travel to the southern city of Melbourne to attend the Aussie Millions Poker Championships. When word of his travel plans got out, however, Australian crime victims demanded he be barred from entering the country. “We seem to have reached a new depth of lowness. He is being brought out here to be trotted out as a celebrity, like some kind of Mother Theresa. It's an insult,” Crime Victims Support Association President Noel McNamara commented. “We don't think it's right and we will be urging the Immigration Minister not to let him into the country,” McNamara added.

Australian visa rules guard against arrivals with criminal records and holidaymakers must also be judged by immigration officials to have good character. Tyson was convicted of raping an 18-year-old beauty contest entrant in 1992 and served three years in prison.

Rapper Snoop Dog was refused entry to Australia in April 2007 because of his extensive criminal record, sinking plans for him to co-host the MTV Australia Video Music Awards.