| | |  | Last Updated: Tuesday, June 19, 2007 |  | | | Gambling Fans May See the End of the Poker Fad
- Thursday, 29 Dec 2005
In online gambling poker is an Ace, the game is the top played gambling game on the Web. It is estimated that poker brings in about 20% of all online gambling profits. Considering the fact that the internet gambling industry is worth over 12 billion dollars, this is truly a large sum of money. However, as with most things, this may be a fleeting phase. The worldwide poker industry appears to have hit every possible inside straight, flush and full house that it could, accumulating a large pot of cash in the process. But as this holiday season nears an end, the industry's luck seems to be running out as boxed sets of cards and chips are discounted, ratings fade for some poker-themed television shows and shares of a poker-linked stock slump.
Televised celebrity poker tournaments, Internet gambling sites, thronged tables at Las Vegas casinos and countless dinning room table games show that poker remains an obsession. Industry group American Gaming Association found the level of interest in poker rose significantly in 2004, with consumer spending on the gambling event in Nevada and New Jersey increasing to $151.7 million, or 45% over the previous year.
Yet there are signs that interest is waning among some of the demographic groups who fueled the gambling craze.
'It is a pop fad,' said Bill Thompson, author and professor of public administration at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. 'Fads pass'. In the last few Christmas seasons, stores such as Toys R Us did a booming business in poker chips, said Sean McGowan, an analyst at Harris Nesbit. But now chains such as Target Corp. and Wal-Mart Stores Inc. are deeply discounting the gambling sets to move them off the shelves. Ratings for poker shows and tournaments, which mainstream sports networks such as ESPN rushed to televise in recent years, are no longer growing as fast. It seems like the poker fad is nearing its end, but for the true Poker fan, this is nothing to worry about, as poker will always be available at online gambling and land-based casino sites.
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