Casino City's iGaming Pocket Directory - 2017 Edition

57 Sponsored by Visit iGamingPocketDirectory.com for more information. Poker Thanks to an unassuming amateur named Chris Moneymaker winning the 2003 World Series of Poker Main Event, online poker revenues grew at an astounding rate from 2000 to 2005, soaring from $82 million to more than $2 billion. But a combination of high-profile cheating scandals, the introduction of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, market segregation, and increased player fears regarding bots and unregulated technology stunted iPoker’s growth over the last decade. According to Global Betting and Gaming Consultants (GBGC), online poker generated a global gross gaming yield of $4.99 billion in 2010, but that number fell to $4.54 billion in 2011 when PokerStars and Full Tilt were shut down in the U.S. on a day now infamously known as Black Friday. In the following three years, the GGY remained on a downward turn, plummeting to $3.87 billion in 2014 and $3.61 billion in 2015. GBGC predicted a drop to $3.53 billion in 2016, meaning while still in decline, the numbers are falling at a much slower pace. In November 2016, encouraging news came from Amaya – parent company of the world’s largest online poker site, PokerStars – when it announced that its poker revenues were down just 1.3% compared to Q3 2015. The company said this stabilization was evidence of the “the continued positive impact of Amaya’s previously announced strategy of focusing on recreational players, including through POKER INDUSTRY OVERVIEW