Sponsored by 61 Poker Visit iGamingPocketDirectory.com for more information. POKER Industry overview Online poker started gainingmomentumover 20 years ago, with the first real-money online cardroom, Planet Poker, going live in 1998. This was the same year that Rounders, a film about high-stakes poker starringMatt Damon and Edward Norton, was released. Then Chris Moneymaker’s 2003World Series of Poker Main Event victory in Las Vegas from a mere $86 satellite tournament caused a boomof epic proportions and became known in poker circles as the “Moneymaker Effect.” Moneymaker, a previously unknown recreational player whoworked as an accountant in Tennessee, beat the field of 839 entrants, up nearly 200 players from2002, but the craze resulted in a tripling of the field in 2004, up to 2,576 players. By 2006, it reached a record 8,773 players. However, the massive growth was eventually stunted by cheating scandals, fear of bots and general distrust of policing the product, as well as the U.S. market being dealt a near-deadly blow due to the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act. After posting global gross gaming yield of $4.99 billion in 2010, that figure fell to $3.61 billion in 2015. But the game continues to rebound. The 2019World Series of Poker Main Event attracted 8,569 entrants, the second-most in the 50-year history of the event. In 2020, due to the pandemic, an international WSOP Online 2020 tournament series, played on GGPoker, was created and a number of long-standing poker records were smashed over the course of the 54 event series- -including the largest prize pool ever for an online tournament. Later in the year, a heavilyrestricted 2020Main Event, with the final tables being played live, drew 1,379 players, despite requiring a hybrid structure between online and in-person, as well as domestic and international play. While in-person poker tournaments display symptoms of improvement, research by the Edison Group shows online poker still represents 5% of the online gamblingmarket. Data released by the EGBA for the European Union echoes that figure. This is behind sports betting, casino games and state-run lotteries. Amore detailed look reveals mixed results from around the globe.
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