Online Poker Sites - An Introduction

At the time of writing this article, there are currently more then 200 different online poker sites that offer multi-player online poker games such as Texas holdem, Omaha, Stud and various other poker games. Online poker first took off about five years ago with the US poker market being the first and biggest adopter of the game. Bakc then there were only a handful of decent online poker sites to play at for real money. These sites included Party Poker, Planet Poker, Empire Poker, Pokeroom and Pokerstars. In those days, Party Poker was by far the biggest online poker site and had the most numebr of real money players at any given time. They were also one of the first poker sites to introduce multi-player tournaments offering massive prize pools, upwards of $1million for the famous Party Poker Million Cruise.This online poker site was also one of the first to start advertising on local TV stations in the US and soon after, their market share grew to a staggering level in a very short time period.

Around a similar time, the World Series of Poker (WSOP) also started gaining some traction when Chris Moneymaker won the main event and became the first online player to feature in a major offline poker tournament. Moneymaker was representing a well know poker site called Pokerstars. No one could have expected how his influence on winning this event would have on the online poker industry. From that day forward, online poker became one of the biggest and fastest growing igaming sectors. So much so that 1 year after Chris Moneymaker won the WSOP, Party Poker went public and listed their company on the London Stock Exchange with a value of almost $1billion. This was a huge event and the rest of the gaming world stood up and took notice on the possible potential the online poker industry will have in the coming years.

Online Poker and US Legislation

At the time, most of the biggest online poker sites were targeting US players. Online poker in the United States was actually illegal however the US government had done nothing to address this. That was until they saw the amount of money that was at stake and the tax dollars that they were losing out on to online poker sites that were based offshore such as Party Poker and Pokerstars. The passing of UIEGA in 2006 had a dramatic impact on the poker industry with most major public companies having to withdraw from the biggest online poker market in the world. Shares in the igaming companies dropped a staggering 60% and companies over night lost more then half their market share and customers with it. This change in legislation did however positively effect the private companies in this sector as they did not need to satisfy their public shareholders and they continued to operate in the US market. This is when Pokerstars stepped up and took the lead as the webs biggest online poker site. They continued to allow US players to play for real money on their poker site and by doing so, captured a significant share of the market. Other smaller poker sites followed and changed their busines models so they too could accept players in the US. Online poker websites such as Fulltilt poker, Cake Poker and various other sites happily accepted US transactions and reaped huge rewards by doing so.

The Future for Online Poker Sites

Moving forward, it seems as if the US and most other governments will eventually legalise online poker. The UK, Italy and France were the first countries to fully legalise online poker and thus issued licenses to companies willing to pay the ridiculous tax rates. It does seem as if other governments will follow and start to regulate online poker separately from other forms of online gambling. The reason being is that online poker is more socially accepted game and is considered by most to be a game of skill. These legislative changes will however take some time to implement and while the various lawmakers are formulating the legislation, online poker sites such as Pokerstars and a few others are reaping the benefits while the various bureaucrats make up their minds. By the time this does occur, the governments will actually need the help and guidance of the so called "illegal" poker sites as they would be the ones that have the most knowledge and skill on how to run the market.

The future of the online poker industry does in fact look very bright, as more and more governments around the world start to regulate this form of gambling, the more benefits that online poker players will see and the more tax money that the various countries will make in order to enforce responsible gambling laws and procedures.