Gambling News - May 2005 Edition

"Hot Hands: The Surge of Online Poker"

Internet gambling sites draw millions of players but remained oddly silent about their success.

An internet gambling site, comScore Network attracted over 29 million unique visitors during the month of April compared to 25 million last November. This represents a remarkable 15 percent increase in only four months.

In another example, IGlobalMedia Entertainment’s sites, which include PartyBingo.com, PartyPoker.com, and StarLuckCasino.com, attracted the most visitors in April with a total of 10 million. This is a 166 percent increase over last year’s figure for April, which was under 4 million visitors.

Since its first appearance on the internet, online gambling has consistently shown tremendous growth. During the last six months, the number of visitors has spiraled out of the normal thanks, in part, to the fascination with the game of poker.

Why then are the parent companies of these poker sites so oddly silent about their success? iGlobalMedia’s corporate site lists only email addresses for contact purposes. No phone numbers are provided. Live agents at PartyPoker.com’s customer service center which is located in India will answer your calls but will politely decline any requests for corporate contact information.

The reluctance of the companies to publicize this information is probably due to the question of legality that surrounds the whole Internet gambling industry. The Internet gambling issue has become an international problem especially since the WTO’s ruling that the U.S. Internet gambling policy violates international free trade rules to which the U.S. is a party. Of comScore’s 15 top gambling sites, all but two, iWin.com and FreeSlots.com, are based outside of the U.S.

While on site poker advertisements clearly state that Pokerstars.com is not a gambling site, a quick visit to the site demonstrates otherwise. The main page of the site advertises a weekly No Limit Texas Hold Em tournament with a guaranteed minimum prize pool of $350,000.

Poker sites are not generally against advertising their services in spite of the ongoing question of legality. Some sites even feature television advertisements that show endorsements from well-known American players. World Series of Poker Champions, Chris Moneymaker and Greg Raymen, were recently featured on PokerStars.com, a London-based poker site.

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