Casino City's iGaming Pocket Directory - 2017 Edition

58 Sponsored by Casino City’s iGaming Pocket Directory Poker Poker POKER Industry overview changes to its online poker loyalty program and rake structure, certain adjustments to Amaya’s multi-table tournament payout structure, and the introduction of new poker promotions.” PokerStars wasn’t the only site in recent years to place more of an emphasis on attracting amateur players and scrapping its rewards program for high rollers and VIPs. Other popular sites, such as 888Poker, made similar changes as the online poker industry continues its rapid evolution. Sites have adopted policies and marketing strategies that cater to recreational players rather than the online multi-table grinders in an attempt to create a healthier ecosystem. Inexperienced players can be put off from the game when they quickly lose their deposits to players whose skill level vastly exceeds their own. While online poker companies continue to improve their software, especially on the mobile side, the regulatory trend of ring-fencing players remained a cause for concern for operators. This had a direct impact on liquidity pools, since France, Italy and Spain – three of the five most populous countries in Europe – were removed from the global pool of players. Portugal also announced that it would ring-fence its players as its regulated market opened in November 2016. But gaming regulators from France, Portugal, Italy, the U.K. and Spain held talks in 2016 to discuss sharing player pools, hopefully by mid-2017. More promising news came in December when two online poker skins in Finland and Austria on Playtech’s iPoker network inked a liquidity-sharing deal. The U.K. does not ring-fence, and as a result it is one of the largest regulated online poker markets in the world. Players can gain access to any international site as long as it maintains a gaming license issued by the U.K. Gambling Commission. In the U.S., ring-fencing occurs at the state level. Players in New Jersey can only play other players in New Jersey. Nevada and Delaware now pool players to increase liquidity, but the combined population of the two states is barely 40% the size of New Jersey’s. (Nevada, New Jersey and Delaware are the only three states that have regulated iGaming as of December 2016).