Gambling News
“Meet the rising star of online gambling – online poker.”
Poker has always been a popular gambling game from way back when the
game first appeared. Internet poker seems to have fueled the game to new
heights. New players, pouring into the internet sites, seem to feel that
the Internet is a good place to learn before one goes out to play for
real money, whereas in a bricks and mortar casino, it is impossible to
practice and hone up one’s skills. The stakes are also lower on
the online sites.
The online poker sites also allow gambler to play hundreds of hands
in an hour whereas in a real casino only about 30 hands can be played
in the same time.
The major disadvantage to the online gaming sites is the question of
its legality. Online gambling sites are illegal in the United States and
a huge gray area exists in which lies the question of whether someone
residing in the U.S. is within in the law if he uses a computer to participate
in gambling activities. The other major disadvantage of the Internet gambling
sites is whether they are “straight” or whether they manipulate
the results of the games. Also, no one can be fully protected from collusion
in a game by other players.
The problem of collusion can be addressed by players if they look out
for excessive raising activity and by remembering to play only at the
large and reputable online casinos which have large numbers of players.
It is preferable to play only in online sites that show they have live
monitoring and auditing. One should also take a look at the feedback reports
posted by other players.
Whatever the advantages and disadvantages, the online casino operators
are seeing only the rapidly growing side of online gambling and, in particular,
of online poker. Statistics bear this out. There are approximately 1.8
million online poker players worldwide at this time and poker operators
took in about $1.4 billion in revenues last year. They are also expecting
to generate revenues of $2.8 billion in the coming year.
Online gambling sites garner their revenues by taking between three
and five percent from the pot. They also make really good money from poker
tournaments where they take between five and ten percent of the prize
money.
That small percentage added up to about a half a million dollars!
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