Thursday, Sept. 20, 2007

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Online poker still booming

By Arthur Crowson

If the Facebook community is any indication, interest in online poker is still growing at a rapid rate.

Facebook, a social networking Web site similar to MySpace and Friendster, launched in 2004. Recently Eric Schiermeyer and Mark Pincus developed a poker application that can be used by anyone who is a member of the Facebook community.

The program offers a standard No-Limit Hold'em poker game. Each user is entitled to 200 starting chips and an extra 500 for every friend they sign up. You can also find private tables, tournaments and more. In the future the creators are planning on holding their very own World Championship event. All of it is free.

Amazingly, over 150,000 Facebook users now play Texas Hold'em poker on a daily basis, making it one of the most popular applications on the Web site.

Despite the passage in the U.S. last fall of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA), the general public's hunger for playing poker has not diminished. There are over 60 million people who play poker in the United States and more than 100 million worldwide. More people play poker than golf, billiards or tennis.

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