Difference between revisions of "Online Poker"

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==Beginnings==
 
The rise of online poker has been evident in the last two decades, much of which is due to Chris Moneymaker.  In 2003, Moneymaker entered an $86 buy-in tournament on Pokerstars and came in first place with the reward being a spot in the $10,000 buy-in World Series of Poker(WSOP) main event.  He eventually won this tournament and $2.5 million in earnings.  This led to a boom in the online poker industry as by 2006, the field for the WSOP main event increased ten-fold and there were more than 38 million tournaments hosted by Pokerstars.<ref> https://www.forbes.com/sites/nathanvardi/2020/01/24/the-incredible-rise-of-pokerstars-cofounder-isai-scheinbergand-his-surrender-to-federal-agents/?sh=45d6c0ed4fb0 </ref>
 
The rise of online poker has been evident in the last two decades, much of which is due to Chris Moneymaker.  In 2003, Moneymaker entered an $86 buy-in tournament on Pokerstars and came in first place with the reward being a spot in the $10,000 buy-in World Series of Poker(WSOP) main event.  He eventually won this tournament and $2.5 million in earnings.  This led to a boom in the online poker industry as by 2006, the field for the WSOP main event increased ten-fold and there were more than 38 million tournaments hosted by Pokerstars.<ref> https://www.forbes.com/sites/nathanvardi/2020/01/24/the-incredible-rise-of-pokerstars-cofounder-isai-scheinbergand-his-surrender-to-federal-agents/?sh=45d6c0ed4fb0 </ref>
  
 
However, in 2006 President George W. Bush introduced the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA), <ref> https://www.gamblinginsider.com/in-depth/9636/online-poker-a-great-comeback-story </ref>, which led to the illegalization of online poker in the United States.  In 2011, Pokerstars was taken to court in United States vs Scheinberg, the founder of Pokerstars, for a multi-million dollar internet gambling business in violation of UIGEA.  <ref> https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/pokerstars-founder-pleads-guilty </ref> This resulted in Europe being the powerhouse in online poker, evident still today.
 
However, in 2006 President George W. Bush introduced the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA), <ref> https://www.gamblinginsider.com/in-depth/9636/online-poker-a-great-comeback-story </ref>, which led to the illegalization of online poker in the United States.  In 2011, Pokerstars was taken to court in United States vs Scheinberg, the founder of Pokerstars, for a multi-million dollar internet gambling business in violation of UIGEA.  <ref> https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/pokerstars-founder-pleads-guilty </ref> This resulted in Europe being the powerhouse in online poker, evident still today.
  
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==Current Day==
 
Today, there are numerous big name sites that command thousands of players daily, such as PokerStars, Partypoker, and Americas Cardroom.  Additionally, the emergence of covid-19 in 2020 significantly hurt casinos but was extremely beneficial for online gaming.
 
Today, there are numerous big name sites that command thousands of players daily, such as PokerStars, Partypoker, and Americas Cardroom.  Additionally, the emergence of covid-19 in 2020 significantly hurt casinos but was extremely beneficial for online gaming.
  

Revision as of 00:38, 12 March 2021

Beginnings

The rise of online poker has been evident in the last two decades, much of which is due to Chris Moneymaker. In 2003, Moneymaker entered an $86 buy-in tournament on Pokerstars and came in first place with the reward being a spot in the $10,000 buy-in World Series of Poker(WSOP) main event. He eventually won this tournament and $2.5 million in earnings. This led to a boom in the online poker industry as by 2006, the field for the WSOP main event increased ten-fold and there were more than 38 million tournaments hosted by Pokerstars.[1]

However, in 2006 President George W. Bush introduced the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA), [2], which led to the illegalization of online poker in the United States. In 2011, Pokerstars was taken to court in United States vs Scheinberg, the founder of Pokerstars, for a multi-million dollar internet gambling business in violation of UIGEA. [3] This resulted in Europe being the powerhouse in online poker, evident still today.

Current Day

Today, there are numerous big name sites that command thousands of players daily, such as PokerStars, Partypoker, and Americas Cardroom. Additionally, the emergence of covid-19 in 2020 significantly hurt casinos but was extremely beneficial for online gaming.

Regulations in the online poker industry have become looser as time has passed. Most recently, Gretchen Whitmer passed the Lawful Gaming Act [4] which legalized online gaming, such as online poker, in the state of Michigan. The effects of this were recently realized, with Pokerstars being the first site available in Michigan and their MCOOP(Michigan Championship of Online Poker) series have already awarded over $2 million to users. [5]

Ethics in Online Poker

Collusion

A major issue within the online poker industry is collusion. This is when two players are sitting at the same table and give each other information about what hole cards they had in their hand, or other information that is unfair to the opposing players at the table.

Bots

Gambling Addiction

One of the psychological issues related to online poker is the idea of gambling addiction, or the the uncontrollable, compulsive urge to keep gambling despite the negative impacts that result from it. Gambling addiction occurs because the actions "activate the same reward circuits in the brain as drugs and the clinical characteristics of gambling disorder are the same as those of drug addictions or alcoholism"[6]. While this is a major issue related to gambling in general, it is compounded with the accessibility and improvements of the online gaming industry. Playing poker has never been easier as all it requires is to sign up online and make a deposit, a task that takes no more than five minutes.

Additionally, poker is a "

All of these ethical issues are more and more relevant as the number of players increases.

References

  1. https://www.forbes.com/sites/nathanvardi/2020/01/24/the-incredible-rise-of-pokerstars-cofounder-isai-scheinbergand-his-surrender-to-federal-agents/?sh=45d6c0ed4fb0
  2. https://www.gamblinginsider.com/in-depth/9636/online-poker-a-great-comeback-story
  3. https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/pokerstars-founder-pleads-guilty
  4. https://www.michigan.gov/documents/mgcb/Lawful_Internet_Gaming_Act_PA_152_of_2019_684325_7.pdf
  5. https://www.pokerstars.com/en/news/pokerstars-launches-in-michigan/69124/
  6. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5797763/