You are playing on your favorite online poker site for a chance to win your $10,000 seat into the WSOP. No money needs to be invested. You take down the first freeroll game, win a seat into the second round. You qualify in the top of the second round, guess what? You just won your buy-in to the main event for approximately six hours of your time! This is way too easy you’re thinking.

I must be the best poker player in the world! The determining factor of how good a player you are will be shown at the main event. Will you “suck out” with nothing lost but a few hours of time and a chance to brag to your friends that you made it and be humbled a little? Or, will you place in the top and your poker career has just begun?

Online poker allows “newbie-online” gamers to become famous practically overnight. I have no idea how many times I was watching poker on television, and I ask myself “where did that guy come from?” All the traditional poker players had to get “on board” with the online realm. Gaming sites spend billions of dollars to have these famous people play and promote their sites. Not to mention the well-knowns starting their own sites.

Where does it go from here? I just saw yesterday that my local brick and mortar casino was offering players points if you play online at their new site. So, I go play poker for a while, and make sure I mention that I am signed up online as well, and I am getting point money for really nice prizes and guess what else? A chance to win my $10,000 buy-in to the WSOP! And, since it is such a new concept, few people know about it. I enter the online tournament with my casino points with 24 other players. Wow! How the odds are in my favor! This is a way for the casino to entice online players to play in real life. Poker is eventually going to get so big there will not be a venue big enough to accomadate all the players except online.

New concepts also bring with it a whole new set of problems. What if your State does not allow poker in your casino? Why do you think online gaming sites are all offshore where it is not regulated by State or Federal law? There is much too much money in online gaming for the Courts to ignore this, and gaming sites are growing by leaps and bounds each day because the profit margin is insane! Think of this: $300 million plus to build a new casino-$1.5 million to start an online casino-and only have to pay a dozen or so salaries not to mention, little overhead. We will see a plethora of changes in laws and regulations in the upcoming years. Just recently, US citizens have to declare their online winnings on their taxes. That was just the start of it. Harsher laws will also be implemented due to the attraction online gaming sites are to underage players not to mention unfair gaming practices.

Online gaming sites are more susceptible to problems such as money laundering, fraud and collusion. It is more necessary than ever for a hacker-safe (that will never exist) software program to be developed to safeguard online players. Will a fair and fool-proof system ever be established? If so, will anyone leave their homes to play poker again, or will this be the next prohibition? Oh, yes, new notions but history will still find a way of repeating itself.

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