What is Online Poker?

Online poker is nothing but the game of poker over the internet. Playing real poker online has also been known as partly responsible for an increase in the number of poker players all over the world. Christiansen Capital Advisors said that online poker revenues grew from $82.7 million in 2001 to $2.4 billion in 2005.

Traditional or what is known as "brick and mortar", B&M, live, and land-based venues or casinos as well as poker rooms might be intimidating to novice players and are located in geographically disparate locations. In addition, many brick and mortar casinos don’t promote poker because it is difficult for them to make a profit from it. Though the rake, or time charge, of traditional casinos, is high, the opportunity costs of running a poker room are even higher. Brick and mortar casinos even make more money by removing poker rooms and adding more slot machines.

In contrast, online games are cheaper because they have much smaller overhead costs. For example, adding one more table won’t take up much space like a brick & mortar casino. Online poker sites also won’t allow the players to play for low stakes and often offer freeroll poker tournaments that attract beginners and wealthy clients.

However, online venues can be more vulnerable to certain types of fraud, especially collusion between players. So they have collusion detection abilities which don't exist in traditional casinos. For example, security employees of online poker rooms can look at the hand history of a card that has been previously played by a player on the site making patterns of behavior easier to detect rather than in a casino where the colluding players fold their hands without anyone ever knowing the strength of their holding. Online rooms also check IP addresses to prevent players at the same household or known open proxy servers from playing on the same table. Digital device fingerprinting allows poker sites to recognize and block players who create new accounts to avoid prior account bans, restrictions, and closures.

History of Online Poker

Free poker online has been played as early as the late 1990s in Internet Relay Chat or IRC poker. Planet Poker later became the first online card room that started offering real money games in 1998. The first real money poker game was dealt on 1 January 1998.

Many major poker sites offer various features that can entice new players. One common feature is that they offer tournaments like satellites by which the winners gain entry to real-life poker tournaments. The 2004 World Series has featured three times as many players as in 2003, and at least four players in the WSOP final table won the entry through an online cardroom.

This COVID-19 pandemic has also resulted in a massive increase in online poker traffic. The pandemic is believed to have directed both the professional and recreational players who generally prefer live poker games to online platforms due to the indefinite closure.

Let’s discuss whether poker is legal in India or not.

Although playing real poker India is extremely popular, most forms of gambling are technically prohibited. However, many gambling and gambling-related activities continue to flourish in most jurisdictions of local laws and regulations.