There is no doubt that the online poker boom is over but online poker looks like it is going to be around for many years to come. During the boom years there were dozens of poker networks but these have been amalgamated into 3 main networks and 4 or 5 smaller networks. A few years ago Paradise was one of the leading poker networks and had over 100,000 players at the tables during peak times. Paradise today though is a fraction of what it used to be and now is just a skin on Boss which is one of the smaller networks. Another of the leading networks, Party Poker expanded into Europe and other forms of gambling such as bingo and casino and Party continue to do well although they are no longer classed as one of the top three poker networks.
So lets take a look at the top three poker networks and see how they have developed. Most poker networks were hit hard by the Safe Port act which was an American law which forbids American Citizens depositing into online poker and casino sites. Many of the poker networks had no choice other than to ban Americans from playing at their tables and overnight lost up to 50% of their player base. Other networks decided to continue to let Americans play at their network and saw a rapid boom of new players to their site.
The biggest poker network without doubt is Poker Stars. It is not uncommon during peak hours to see over 250,000 players at the Poker Stars tables. Where other networks have branched into other forms of gambling Stars have solely stuck to developing their network as the number one poker site. You will not find blackjack or casino games at Poker Stars unlike most other networks. Stars offer the biggest choice of games and variants of poker at all levels and their poker interface is classed by many to be the best so far.
Full Tilt is the second biggest poker network and they followed the stance taken by Poker Stars to allow Americans to continue playing at their site. Full Tilt also stick solely to poker and don’t offer bingo or casino games.
The third biggest network is Ipoker. Many of the European sites since the Safe Port act moved to the Ipoker network. Americans are not allowed to play at Ipoker and this network does offer casino type games such as blackjack. It is predicted that Ipoker will continue to grow during the next few years as sites on the smaller networks switch to Ipoker. Unless Americans are allowed to play online again legally, Ipoker will always be lagging behind Stars and Full Tilt as the American market is by far the biggest.
Although many are fighting the Safe Port bill there seems to be nothing in the near future to suggest this law will be repealed. Many suggest it could be up to 5 years before we see Americans allowed to play at any online poker site.
The growth of Poker Stars though is simply amazing. As the number of poker networks is bound to shrink Poker Stars are bound to benefit from this and continue to grow and dominate the online market.
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