While the popularity of
televised Texas Holdem poker tournaments has helped
drive business to casino poker rooms, online poker sites
may be equally, if not more responsible, for the surge
in casino traffic.
"There are people
who would not be in a
Texas Holdem
poker room (in
a casino) if not for the Internet," said Jennifer
Harman, a professional poker player who participated in
one of several panel discussions about poker at last
week's Global Gaming Expo.
Online poker exists
in a legal gray area. Certain states such as Nevada
explicitly prohibit Internet betting or some forms of
gambling while others don't. Some legal experts say
poker is exempted from state gambling laws because it's
a game of skill while others disagree. The Justice
Department maintains that all Internet wagers are
illegal because they involve transactions that cross
state lines.
Meanwhile federal
prosecutors have threatened legal action against several
major media companies, claiming the companies are
"aiding and abetting" illegal gambling sites by hosting
advertising for the sites and providing other services.
Americans,
meanwhile, are paying little attention to such legal
maneuvering and are joining Internet poker games in
record numbers for a shot at winning a seat in televised
poker tournaments in casinos worldwide. Others have less
lofty goals of playing poker in a Las Vegas casino and
are practicing in the privacy of their own homes to
avoid making rookie mistakes.
"Everyone wants to
be on TV," said Anthony Curtis, publisher of the Las
Vegas Advisor gambler newsletter.
Curtis said many
Internet sites that are concerned about legal
restrictions will find a way to make money by selling
ads to sites that offer free games and prizes for
winners, he said.
Online
Texas Holdem
sites are
engaging in subtle advertising and sly marketing
campaigns as standing outside casinos to sign up
customers on mailing lists, said Debee Silverman,
marketing manager of GoneGambling.com, an online portal
that caters to Internet casinos.
The lure of the
game is enough to attract others to the Internet,
Silverman said.
"It's all word of
mouth," she said. "People are winning big money online."
About half of the
roughly 2,600 people who played in the World Series of
Poker at Binion's Horseshoe this year likely came from
"satellite" poker tournaments online, said Doug Dalton,
director of poker operations at the Bellagio.
Jack Binion, former
chief executive of Horseshoe Gaming and former owner and
manager of Binion's Horsehoe, estimates that some 60,000
people are playing online poker during peak hours
nationwide.
Online
Texas Holdem
poker jackpots
have risen from the hundreds of thousands of dollars to
the millions of dollars, Harman said.
Many people are now
making a living largely by playing poker online, experts
said.
Some pros are
playing online "thirteen to fifteen hours a day" in two
or three
Texas Holdem
poker rooms and
then supplementing that with playing a few casino
tournaments a year, said Peter Marcus, marketing
director of adsdotcom, a U.K.-based marketer of Internet
gambling sites.
While some forms of
gambling like sports betting will always be
male-dominated, poker has witnessed a steady increase of
female players, Silverman said.
About 72 percent of
members who play poker online are men, down from 84
percent last year, she said.
For the typical
customer, poker has become an expected part of their
gambling vacation, said Lyle Berman, chief executive
officer of Lakes Entertainment Inc., which owns the
televised World Poker Tour.
"The average
Texas Holdem
player wants a
poker experience," Berman said. "If you don't have a
poker room they're going to go somewhere else. They see
it on TV and they expect to be able to play."
Seeing people play
poker on television also gives players an excuse to go
to Las Vegas or elsewhere to gamble, Curtis said.
"It entitles them
to go back because they think they can beat the casino,"
he said.
Dalton said many
casinos are making the mistake of slapping up a poker
room in the back of their casino without spending the
time and money to promote it or make it an important
part of the casino floor.
They're saying,
"We'll put it in and make a lot of money off it, too,' "
Dalton said. "But you have to support it and make it
high profile."
