Where has the Poker Market Gone?
The online casino poker industry has caught a lot of international attention
lately because it seems that the industry is growing exponentially and gaining
credibility at the same time. The Poker Players Alliance in the United States
has shown the U.S. that banning internet poker won’t be tolerated – at least
that is what they are working toward (online casinos and internet gambling are
still banned at this time). And beyond that, several countries have recently
weighed in on the issue of whether poker is a game is a game of skill or a game
of chance.
All of the international attention about online casinos and internet poker, and
new legislation has put all lot of focus on internet gambling, which in turn has
introduced new players to the pastime. But with all of that international
attention comes the other side – once the game falls into the recesses of news
and the industry wide boom levels out. That is what has happened recently
according to the CEO of SportingBet, plc Andy McIver. McIver commented on the
recent state of online casino poker, he notes, "There has been a lot of hype in
internet poker and that has now come off a bit.” McIver’s company has
encountered problems in the past year because of the chilling effect that the
U.S. ban had on the online poker industry.
But for as much as McIver might have a point about the online casino poker
industry, there are certainly others who disagree with the notion that the
industry has chilled already. Statistics from the past year indicate that the
internet gambling industry is still growing, and industry analysts and
researchers predicts that the internet gambling industry, which includes
internet poker, online casinos, and even mobile gambling, will continue to grow
significantly for the next four or five years.
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