People enjoy card games, and one of the most popular one is poker. Today, many people play online poker, and online poker led to a huge increase in poker players in the world. The revenues grew quickly: in 2001, they were around $80 million, and only four years later, they jumped to an astounding amount of $2.4 billion. Why is playing online poker so popular and what has led to such a surge in poker players worldwide?
Why do people play online poker?
Many people play online poker because regular casinos may be a bit intimidating for a novice player, and their geographical locations may require longer travel times. Also, regular casinos find it quite hard to make profit from poker rooms, and many of them remove the poker rooms completely and add more slot machines because their profit is higher. Now, online poker is cheaper, as there are no costs that plague the traditional casinos – if you add one more table for your online casino, this won’t take up space as it would with the traditional brick and mortar casino.
Play online poker: software and fraud issues
The software used for online poker rooms may be cross platform, so that people can play no matter if they are using Linux, Windows or Mac OS, and such rooms are usually online, meaning they require no additional downloads, only a browser and an internet connection. There are however, those who have downloadable software that is usually Windows only, so if people want to play on other platforms, they will need a compatibility layer, but many also have Linux and Mac clients. Many of them offer online poker for mobile phones and PDAs as well, with the same functionality as online clients. Online casinos are more vulnerable to some types of frauds, like collusion between players. There are, however, better ways to detect collusion, as they can check the hand history of the cards, check behavior patterns and the IP addresses or players so that they are sure the players aren’t playing from the same household. They also check if any of the players is using open proxies during their session. So, if you would like to play online poker, you don’t have to worry about other players conspiring against you, as the online poker room you are playing in won’t allow such behavior.
Play online poker: incentives
Most online poker website offer incentives to their players. This is a good way to keep the player and bring new ones. When you wish to play online poker, you will need to have a certain amount of money, and most poker websites will offer you a bonus based on how much money you spend. If you add $100 to your account, you will get another $100 bonus as a new player. Some online poker rooms have VIP programs for their regular players, offer additional bonuses to those who want to top-up their account. These bonuses are called reload bonuses, and these are good ways to keep the players satisfied.
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