Personal Finance

Poker as a form of gambling has been in existence for nearly two centuries but has reached new heights with the arrival of its online version. Various online casino gambling sites have sprouted in the past few years driven mainly by the popularity of poker. However, online poker did not pioneer casino gambling online, as sportsbooks were the first to arrive in the Internet during the mid-90s.

1994 was when the first online gaming casino was introduced by Microgaming, who are now a popular gaming software developer.

Established in 1998, Planet Poker was the first mainstream online casino. However, over the years there have been bigger and better poker sites introduced into the industry.

The unreliability of Poker Spot’s system that was introduced in 1999 eventually resulted in its collapse afterwards. Basically, they couldn’t withdraw player funds from credit card suppliers and thus couldn’t pay anyone their winnings!

By that year there were around 700 online gambling casinos, while a March 2001 survey found that nearly 8 million people have gambled their money in the Internet. A year later, the first millionaire from an online casino was produced. The lucky winner pocketed $1,594,649 on May 30 2002.

Other online casino gambling sites were able to avoid Poker Spot’s fate with the use of Neteller’s e-cash system. Neteller is today known as having the top funds transfer system for the online casino gambling sector. The e-cash system frees the player from using a wire transfer service or a credit card when depositing in an online poker room. Neteller’s system has also minimized fraud and boosted the credibility of the industry.

Party Poker and Poker Stars came about in 2001, being a major changing year for the online poker world… with Full Tilt Poker following not long after. Ever since then, these three players are the major players in the industry, hosting major tournaments and paying out millions of dollars each and every year.

The world poker tour was also introduced through online poker rooms such as Full Tilt and part Poker. Through such events, people such as Chris Moneymaker have contributed to the success and popularity of online poker… Chris went from paying a $40 entry fee to winning the world poker series!

When Chris defeated 839 other online poker players to compete at the World Series of Poker, he walked away with $2.5 million dollars by winning that event too. Since then, poker is getting more and more popular by the day.

Mr Moneymaker’s inspiring Cinderella story attracted more beginners to learn online poker and the game expanded to new territories in 2004.

Online training sites offer easy to learn advise on how to play the game. Revenues of online casino gambling firms rocketed during the year, which also saw the entry of new players such as Full Tilt Poker and Noble Poker. Sportingbet’s acquisition of Paradise Poker also opened new doors given the new owner’s status as a listed company. Listing on the stock market has become an option for online casinos to raise funds for expansion.

The UK government also passed a bill that legalizes and regulates internet gambling, this indicates that online poker is here to stay… and is already a global phenomenon.