The Rise Of Internet Poker: From Zero To A Lot

By Author: James McCallister
Total Articles: 4762
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With so much poker on television, it's easy to forget about a time when poker was merely a fun game played at family gatherings. It wasn't until 2004 that poker became a mainstream game for the masses. Online poker dates all the way back to the early nineties, when IRC Poker became the first form of virtual poker. Although no gambling takes place with this, it sets the stage for online poker as a whole.

In 1998, Randy Blumer launches the first online poker site called Planet Poker. This left many gaming companies scrambling to get the software needed to open their virtual doors to eager gamblers. The market was small at first, but the early adopters were quite valuable. A year after Planet Poker opened its doors; Paradise Poker came along and quickly took the lead as the number one online poker site.

By this time, numerous companies were ready to get their poker rooms on the web. Over the next few year’s players saw Ultimate Bet, PokerStars, and Party Poker joining the ranks of the online poker sites. Party Poker was the first site to promote their online tournaments and quickly gained a large ...
... following.

In 2002 the World Poker Tour was formed. Now with poker on television, the online poker sites had a way to bring in the masses. With the help of Chris Moneymaker's Cinderella story, poker swept the nation. By turning $40 into 2.5 million he essentially made everyone want to be a professional poker player.

With poker flooding the airwaves, Full Tilt Poker launches in 2004 at the peak of the poker boom. From here on out it's nothing but problems and scandals. Multiple poker sites go public and the world sees that online poker is now a two billion dollars per year industry. In 2006, President Bush signs the SAFE port act which essentially makes processing online gambling transactions illegal for banks.

Party Poker abruptly pulls out of the US market eliminating 80% of its customer base overnight. This leaves the US market wide open for the rooms who decide to remain. PokerStars continues to grow at an alarming rate ahead of Full Tilt. Players continue to play online poker from the US since banks cannot filter millions of transactions per day just to try to stop people from playing poker.

On the legislative side of things, bills are introduced to get online poker exempted from the previous anti gambling legislation. Barney Frank proposes a bill to tax and regulate online poker, claiming it will help our nation to crawl out of the recession.

Online poker continues to grow every day as new players log in to test their wit. It is now a $6 billion dollar per year industry. While legislation is getting close to being passed, the US facing poker sites continue to reap the rewards of staying put. It makes one think that regulating online poker will be impossible. Poker players in the US are willing to fight for their rights, and continue to pursue legal online poker within the United States.
About Author:
James is an avid poker player and poker writer. While not writing about poker he can be found playing at the best US poker sites or reading about poker roi and how to calculate it.