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 Poker has been a
popular game for over 150 years. Playing poker online has been with us for less than ten percent of that time, but the popularity
of the game has skyrocketed since the first Internet hand was dealt. Texas Hold'em tournaments and ring games are television
broadcasting staples. Major tournaments are held not just year round, but often in direct competition with each other.
Online poker's growth has been very much like that of an adolescent -- large spurts, small spurts, uncomfortable orientation
periods, and even a bit of a delusional attitude that this sort of growth could go on forever. We know that is not the case.
The old growth arc could not go on forever, if only because there are only so many humans on the planet (it's not like there
are hundreds of thousands of people in Seattle or London who have never heard of poker), but some significant downsizing will
occur for other reasons. Internet poker has moved and is moving into a new universe of opportunities.
There still is an enormous potential for growth potential outside of the USA and UK, but for the most part online poker
has become a mature industry where it is the business of the corporate boardroom.
Online poker is big business.
But while a big business, online poker is unlike other multi-billion dollar industries. Poker card rooms are not casinos.
The card room does not compete against the players, but rather charges fees of one sort or another. Casinos are adversaries of
their players, cardrooms are not. Poker also differs from mainstream entertainment outlets like movies or concerts or video arcades
in that a significant number of the people who enjoy the activity actually come out with more money than they started with.
This is not a small point. While everyone who goes to a movie for entertainment leaves with less money than they started
with, the most skillful people who play poker win money -- even as they also generally get entertainment from playing.
The focus of Poker-2010.com is the business of online poker. While investors should be able to find useful information about
the stocks of publicly traded companies that have significant online poker interests, poker players should also be able to find
information that will help them make informed choices in terms of what card room they choose to invest their playing time and money in.
The links at left lead to information about the publicly traded parent companies of the online cardrooms, pages about the card
rooms themselves, information about governmental regulators of Internet gaming, and a bit about the stock exchanges where these
companies are traded. Whether they help make you a more informed poker player or poker investor, the future of poker is upon us.
-- Steve Badger |
