View From The Sky
Worldwide online poker traffic fell by a further 2% this week, a pretty significant dip, making this the tenth week in a row that traffic levels have fallen. 7 of the top 10 poker sites saw a loss of traffic, with 3 of them posting a gain.
So in spite of the size of the drop it wasn’t as broad based as it could have been. Compared with this time last year, things are down by 10%, which is significant but is a lesser amount than we have been seeing lately.
Full Tilt Poker continues to hold on to third place overall on the strength of their "Build Your Bonus" promotion. They have widened their lead over third and fourth place this week in fact and also narrowed the gap between them and second place 888 Poker. Their sister site in first place, Poker Stars, still has almost 10 times the traffic of anyone else though.
The Lights Go Out In Gibraltar
Gibraltar may not be a significant country overall, and in fact might be one of the world’s least significant overall, but this sure isn’t the case in the world of online poker.
A power outage hit Gibraltar for a few hours on Sunday, resulting in several popular online poker rooms going offline for a while, and causing iPoker’s numbers to suffer that day as several of their skins were involved. Party Poker took the worst of it, being down for a total of 13 hours, and forcing the cancellation of several planned events that day.
Decline of New Jersey Market Starts To Level Off
After three months of steady decline, the regulated poker market in New Jersey is showing signs that the falloff may be slowing down at least. Overall traffic only declined by 3% this week, not much higher than the worldwide average decline of 2%.
This might not look too exciting but it is actually much better than what they have been seeing there lately. The question is what level will they end up settling at, and in spite of the losses being smaller this week we likely have not seen the bottom quite yet.
As poker traffic declines, a loss of momentum is seen, as some players may not see things as busy enough to be worth their trouble playing, which leads to further declines and can become a vicious circle. So the participants in the market are no doubt hoping that we don’t’ see much more of this.
U.S. Federal Legislation Turns In The Other Direction
For several years now, bills enacted in Congress to look to regulate online poker have suffered from the lack of overall support needed for them to have any chance to pass. The current bill sponsored by Congressman Joe Barton is suffering the same fate and is likely to fail as well.
However, the anti-internet gambling coalition is starting to flex its muscles and is looking to get legislation of its own passed, especially to look to counter the growing amount of states that are considering regulating online poker.
The efforts are led by billionaire casino owner Sheldon Adelson, who has vowed to spend whatever it takes to oppose online gambling. With the recent removal of limits on campaign contributions, he may get the opportunity to do just that.
While Adelson is afraid that online gambling will reduce his casino business, fellow casino owner Steve Wynn is not looking to get involved for another reason. He feels that the potential market for regulated online gambling is too small to bother with.
If online gambling is anywhere as lucrative as Adelson fears, you would think that it would be better for him to join in on the bonanza rather than fight against it, but for whatever reason he remains hell bent on opposing it.
Russia Expands Its Black List Of Poker Web Sites
Russia has taken further steps to prevent its residents from playing online poker, as they recently expanded their list of blacklisted poker domains. The list now includes hundreds of poker websites, including some of the biggest names in the business.
Russian internet service providers are complying, as they are required to do, and poker players in Russia are reporting that they are no longer able to access the websites. However, several major providers, including Poker Stars, continue to serve the market, as those who have already downloaded the software are not prevented from playing as of yet.
Poker Stars is also telling their Russian players that their funds are safe, so this appears to be a less drastic move than the one taken by U.S. authorities during Black Friday. Only time will tell though where this all ends up.
