No other card game made such a rave as online poker. In fact, the fame of this card game was so far reached that the World Series of Poker accepted winnings from the online poker rooms.

 

— Acquisitions In The Online Poker Industry

Acquisitions were also present in the online poker industry. The online poker industry made a landmark acquisition on October 2004 when Sportingbet Plc, which during that time was largest publicly-traded online game company in the world, has cemented its acquisition of ParadisePoker.com. ParadisePoker.com is one of the first and largest poker card room in the online poker industry. The acquisition was made at a whooping US$ 340 million dollars.

The acquisition also was recorded to be the first time that an online poker card room was bought by a public company. Other public companies followed suit and marked a big boost to the online poker industry.

— PartyGaming In The Online Poker Industry

Such public company that followed suit was PartyGaming on June 2005. PartyGaming is the parent company of PartyPoker, which at that time was the largest online card room.

PartyGaming went public on the London Stock Exchange. Its going public raised a market value of about US$ 8 billion dollars in excess.

During the Initial Public Offering, about ninety-two percent of PartyGaming’s income was raised from online poker operations.

PartyGaming then made a move in early 2006, it acquired EmpirePoker.com in full from Empire Online.

— Other Online Poker Gaming Companies

Besides PartyGaming, other online poker gaming companies have since gone public. The parent company of UltimateBet was also available at the London Stock Exchange for IPO. Presently, other poker sites such as PokerStars & Poker.com are said to be thinking about extending their reach to initial public offerings.

— Legality of Online Poker

From a different point of view, “Online Poker” basically connotes the same poker card game played on traditional casinos. The main difference of “Online Poker” from the traditional game is its availability as well as it accessibility.

Basically, from a legal view, many of the same issues being applied to the online casino gambling is also being applied to poker card games that have been defined under “Online Poker.”

Though those card games defined under “Online Poker” may differ in several ways from online casino gambling, most of the same issues do apply.

Games defined under “Online Poker” is said to be legal as well as regulated in various countries that includes the United Kingdom, as well as several nations within Caribbean region.

— Legal History of Online Poker

The North Dakota House of Representatives passed a bill on February 2005 not only to legalize but also regulate the online poker card game. It also aims to regulate the operators of online poker sites throughout the State.

— A Testimony From An Online Poker Operator

The CEO of Paradise Poker once testified before the State Senate and pledged that he will relocate his business to the state after the passed bill became law. The bill, however, was not pushed through and was defeated on March 2005 by the State Senate. One of the main supporters of the bill, Jim Kasper, vowed to continue in his efforts to push for the legalization of the online poker. He even said that the government is missing this which is too great to pass up.

— Question of Integrity of Online Poker

The main problem being faced by the online poker sites is the distrust that online games have created as an image among potential clients. In reality, comparable to the other styles of online gambling, most of the critics have questioned the operators of games defined under “Online Poker.”

Discussion forums about “Online Poker” are also filled with allegations that are yet to be proven. Most of these allegations include card dealing that is non-random. The card dealing is non-random to possibly favor players that are house-employed similar to “bots.” Bots are poker-playing that are disguised as a poker-playing human opponent.

Non-random card dealing can also provide multiple players good deals that increase their bets and the rake. It can also prevent new players from losing fast that they would soon become discouraged.

These claims, however, are hard to prove. Also, others counter this claim saying that the rake is large enough that the fraud and abuses would be unnecessary.