Poker is the game closest to the western conception of life, where life and thought are recognized as intimately combined, where free will prevails over philosophies of fate or of chance, where men are considered moral agents and where - at least in the short run - the important thing is not what happens but what people think happens.
- John Lukacs
Welcome to the 21st century - the era of technology revolution - the era of Internet, where the brick and mortar casinos have paved way for online casino culture. The intimidating casino halls for the amateurs and novices are still there but there is an option for the diehard fans. Your favourite games of poker and blackjack can now be played in the boundary-less frontiers of Internet. The online poker and online blackjack rooms have proved to be a boon for the gambling industry and the fans alike.
The major online poker sites offer varying features to entice new players. One common feature is to offer tournaments called satellites by which the winners gain entry to real-life poker tournaments. It was through one such tournament that Chris Moneymaker won his entry to the 2003 World Series of Poker. He went on to win the main event causing shock in the Poker world. Another feature offered by the online poker sites is the bonus of free poker games on satisfying some minimum criterion.
In October 2004, Sportingbet Plc, at the time the world’s largest publicly traded online gaming company (SBT.L), announced the acquisition of ParadisePoker.com, one of the online poker industry’s first and largest card-rooms. The $340 million dollar acquisition meant that for the first time an online card-room was owned by a public company. Since then, lots of card-room parent companies have gone public.
The legality of online poker also varies from country-to-country. The UK and the Caribbean countries consider online poker legal and regulate their functioning accordingly. Online poker is also legal in most of the American states. However, majority Muslim nations consider gambling irreligious and thus illegal.
Various technical security features adopted by the poker rooms ensure the fairness of online poker. Moreover, there are certifying bodies like Kahnawake Gaming Commission, which ensure the fairness in the game. The services of auditing firms, like PriceWaterhouseCoopers, are hired to ensure transparency in the operations of online poker.
0 responses so far ↓
There are no comments yet...Kick things off by filling out the form below.
Leave a Comment