Poker mania

The poker-mania has swept across the world. As poker is becoming more and more accessible thanks to the Internet and the rising number of TV-transmitted tournaments, the mania has hit us for good. Poker has to a great extent moved out of sinister basements into PCs in the living rooms within recent years. Several million people play on various levels from 0.02 USD to 10,000 USD, in games lasting many hours. Therefore, it has become one of the fastest growing industries on the Internet today. 

 

Popular Poker

Despite its great success, it is still not allowed to host such games in the US and other countries. Therefore, many gaming places are run from either Europe or other exotic places with not overly strict rules, even though the game is played all over the world.

The game appeals to many who have not tried it before, because it is easily accessible and anonymous, enabling you to sit peacefully learning the rules without being the laughing stock of the table. The massive TV coverage is one of the factors that have helped the game in its current success. In the UK large poker tournaments and celebrities playing poker are transmitted on a weekly basis. Poker has quickly become the fastest growing people’s sport in the UK.

Loan statistics from libraries testify that books about poker are the most popular at the moment. In cafes across the countries tournaments are played, which are open to public and where you can win fair amounts.

Empirepoker.com recently hosted a large tournament in Copenhagen with participation from many professional players. Many players have been inspired by poker stars from TV – one of them being Chris Moneymaker, who won the World Series of Poker (WSOP) in 2003 after having qualified through PokerStars.com.

In January 1.8 million players betted money playing poker on the Internet, according to PokerPulse. In 24 hours time span, players bet 191 million USD on average from their home computer. January alone saw a collective rise of 9% for the entire industry, which means that the market is rocketing with unforeseen speed.

 

Investors bet as well

The increasing interest in the game has attracted attention from the London Stock Exchange. PartyGaming, which owns PartyPoker.com, considers entering the stock market with an expected value of 3 to 5 billion GBP, which will be the largest entering in London since 2001.

Neteller Plc, which take care of most transactions between players and gaming places, have experienced a more than tripling of stock value since their entering in April 2004. Likewise, Sportingbet.com has experienced an increase in stock value of 50% since October, when they announced that they would buy Paradisepoker for 300 million USD. Since November 2004 ParadisePoker.com has contributed with 13.5 million USD to Sportingbet. This tendency will continue as more people are starting to play. ParadisPoker.com is working on expanding the options for player and will, according to Scott Wilson, MD, continue to make poker more accessible in the future e.g. with poker on cell phones and in other media not yet used for gambling.
 

Anti gambling US

While the UK and other countries are opening up for online gaming, the US Justice Department is sticking to a law from 1961 stating that games are prohibited by phone lines including the Internet. Being pressured by the US Justice Department services such as PayPal and Visa have blocked transactions to game-related websites and the media are refusing to run campaigns. This simultaneously with America accounting for more than half of all online poker players, who are not being punished for their otherwise illegal activities. This means that when Americans want to play poker online they simply log on to a server in Gibraltar, which before long will be traded on the London Stock Exchange. The money is transferred via Quebec to Gibraltar not using VISA and PayPal.

 

Huge numbers

Last year online poker sites earned more than 1.3 billion USD. A number expected to increase to 5.8 billion USD in 2008 or the equivalent of 28% of the Internet’s turnover on online gaming. Therefore, it is expected that in time it will be accepted in the US, once they realize the large amounts they are missing out on in taxes and employment, according to Joseph Kelly, commercial law professor. He has helped countries writing laws allowing online gambling and is thus a recognized person in the industry. It is anticipated that the US will gradually legalize online gambling, as they realize that it cannot be stopped.
Several rulings state that the law from 1961 cannot be used for poker and other games on the Internet. This simultaneously with the WTO deciding last year that the illegalization of online games is in violation of international trade agreements – a decision which the US has appealed.