Top Gambling News: Ultimate Poker Growth Stagnant, PokerStars Boosts Growth

Submitted by Patrick Flanigan on

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Patrick Flanigan

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These are the top gambling news stories here at Gambling911.com Wednesday June 19, 2013 (early morning hours Eastern Standard Time). Follow us on Twitter here.

*Is There a Ceiling for Online Poker Growth in Nevada? – One of the biggest concerns regarding legalization of Internet poker on a state-by-state basis centered on the limited intrastate player pool for most states.

Nevada, the first state to legalize real money online poker, can already be used as a test case.

With a population hovering just over $3 million, the Silver State can hardly sustain a single Web card room let alone the nearly two dozen that have applied for licensing.

Ultimate Poker is the first and only online poker site to launch in the state for real money play.  While the Stations Casinos backed brand enjoys peak player activity just shy of 500 on occasion, according to traffic monitoring site PokerScout.com, it has just barely cracked the 200 mark in terms of average weekly players during its one month existence. 

This average has remained constant over the past two weeks.

And things could get worse before they get any better as the World Series of Poker website plans to launch its “for money play” site some time this summer. 

*PokerStars Helps to Propel Sector Growth – With its 100 Billionth Hand promotion last week, PokerStars managed to help the online poker sector grow a whopping 9 percent compared to this same period last year.  The chart above demonstrates what transpired leading up to the dealing of the 100 billionth hand (a la PokerScout.com). 
From PokerScout.com:

PokerStars traffic soared during the 100 billionth hand celebration, but where did the players come from? Indications are that they came mainly from within PokerStars, many of them drawn from games that did not qualify for the promotion, while other players just expanded their volume of play. Although ring game traffic rose more than 50%, the number of hands dealt per hour climbed only about 20% as liquidity in Zoom Poker, sit-and-gos and scheduled tournaments dropped significantly.

Why Join Americas Cardroom- 100 percent cash bonus up to $1000, the world's first progressive rake race, fastest payouts of any North American facing online poker room bar none, credit cards accepted, new depositor freerole, Bad Beat Jackpot, $100,000 guaranteed tournaments, sports betting available Learn More About Americas Cardroom Here

 

*Ban Booze, Gambling Ads During Sporting Events – Australia’s alcohol industry is raising a ``one-fingered salute'' to society by continuing to push its product onto youngsters, Western Australia's top cop Karl O'Callaghan says.
And he says heavy alcohol promotions during AFL and NRL matches should suffer the same backlash as bookmakers with their blanket advertising during sports broadcasts.  (source: Herald Sun)

*Genting Lifts Stake in Echo After Crown Backs Out - SYDNEY (REUTERS) - Malaysian gambling giant Genting Bhd has increased its stake in Australia's Echo Entertainment Group, just weeks after rival casino company Crown Ltd sold its 10 per cent stake in Echo.
Genting raised its stake in Echo to 6.6 per cent from 5.22 per cent via its Genting Hong Kong Ltd unit, according to a regulatory filing. Financial details were not disclosed.

- Patrick Flanagan, Gambling911.com

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