Growth of Online
Poker
Growth and Development of Online Poker
The development of online gambling, especially in
the United States, cannot be described at a speed
anything less than furious. Given that online poker
is now a $2 billion industry it is hard to believe
it started only eight years ago on Planet Poker –
the first online card room. What effect, if any, US
Federal legislative action will have on this furious
spurt has yet to make itself felt, but what is
certain at the moment is the growth of online poker
shows no sign of letting up.
While the biggest movers and shakers in the field of
online poker development were all established before
2002 –Planet Poker (1998), Paradise Poker (1999),
followed by Party Poker, PokerStars, and Ultimate
Bet in 2001– popular online poker did not truly
erupt until 2003 when the Travel Channel broadcast
the World Poker Tour to achieve the station’s
highest ratings ever. It was after television
viability was established that ESPN started
committing more resources to covering events like
the World Series of Poker. It was also 2003 when the
presence of online players at the big tournaments
was first most firmly felt.
With the victory of online player, Chris Moneymaker,
at the 2003 World Series of Poker, repeated by two
other online players in 2004 and 2005, the spark to
the online poker explosion was set and tens of
thousands of people went online and activated
accounts for the first time. The online card rooms
offered enticements such as World Series of Poker
buy-in tournaments so that with a lot more poker
players and a lot more opportunity to join
professional levels of play, the number of World
Series of Poker No Limit Hold’em competitors
increased by an astounding 300% from 2003 to 2004.
According to FlopTurnRiver.com “In 2003, over 800
players participated in the No Limit Hold’em main
event at the World Series of Poker, the largest
turnout ever… That record would soon be broken with
the World Series of Poker in 2004, when 2,600
players competed… It is estimated that almost half
of the entrants qualified to the tournament via
online poker… In 2005, this record would again get
demolished with almost 6,000 entrants…” This record
was again broken this year with an enrollment of
around 8,000.
All of this frenzy feeds back into itself. As an
army of online players swept into the poker
tournament scene, long standing poker celebrities
like Phil Hellmuth, Chris Ferguson, Annie Duke and
Doyle Brunson (just to name a few) were either
busily endorsing online poker rooms or busily
owning/operating their own. All the ingredients were
present, expanding media attention and with it
additional celebrity via shows like Celebrity Poker,
Heads-Up challenge, Poker Superstars, Late Night
Poker, and continued coverage of the World Poker
Tournament. This coupled with accessibility of
online gaming produced a situation where now
hundreds of online poker rooms populate the word
wide web offering free, low limit, and high limit
tables for poker players of all skill levels and
from all over the world. Even though most of the
action these days is at the free and really low
limit ($.01/.02) Texas Hold’em, online poker is
still estimated to realize an additional $100,000
every month; and although the field of competition
has broadened and the software has evolved, the five
online poker rooms mentioned above still dominate a
sea of much smaller fish.
Some legislators continue to mount a battle against
online gambling activity, including online poker.
Meanwhile thousands of new players sign-up for free
and real money accounts with dozens of online poker
rooms every day.
