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Online poker has been partly responsible for a dramatic increase in the
number of poker players worldwide. In 2005 profits from online poker were
estimated at around 200 million US dollar per month. Free poker online was
played as early as the late 1990s. Shortly thereafter Planet Poker was the
first online card room to offer real money games. Online poker rooms in the
online casinos are a lot cheaper
to sustain because they have much smaller overhead costs.
The major online
poker sites offer varying features to attract new players. One common
feature is to offer so called satellite tournaments by which the online
winners gain entry to real-life poker tournaments. Another strategy for
attracting beginners is the offering of free-rolls and also allowing the
players to play for low stakes. This is especially important as traditional
sites for playing poker may be intimidating for novice players. Another
disadvantage of live poker rooms is that they are often located in
geographically disparate locations. At the same time traditional casinos are
not willing to promote poker because although their time charge is high, the
costs of running a poker room are even higher. As with other forms of online
gambling, many critics question
whether the operators of such games-especially those located in countries
with a different judicial system from most of their players-might be
engaging in fraud themselves. Online poker rooms may be more vulnerable to
certain types of fraud, especially collusion between players. However, they
have collusion detection abilities that do not exist in traditional or live
casinos. Online poker rooms can check players' IP addresses in order to
prevent players at the same household from playing on the same tables.
Internet discussion forums are full of allegations of non-random card
dealing, possibly to favor house-employed players or prevent new players
from losing so quickly that they become discouraged. Others argue that the
rake is sufficiently large that such abuses would be unnecessary and
foolish.
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