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Copyright 2004 Biloxi Sun Herald (Biloxi,
MS)
All Rights Reserved
Biloxi Sun Herald
September 2, 2004 Thursday
HEADLINE: Virtual poker tables hopping; Whether
for fun, money or both, online
games are latest big thing
BYLINE: By SAM LAGRONE; RALEIGH NEWS & OBSERVER
BODY:
With a 16-month-old son to care for,
Norm Fournier can't take off for Las Vegas at the drop of an ace.
But that doesn't mean he can't get into the action.
The Knightdale, N.C., stay-at-home-dad and
Michigan transplant divides his time between taking care of his
son and playing online poker.
Online
poker has surged in popularity, as more Web sites pop up to
capture growing demand. It's partly fueled by interest in all
types of poker, thanks to tournaments shown on cable television,
increased marketing by casinos and games such as Texas Hold 'em
with multimillion-dollar pots.
Another factor is a role model: former Connecticut
accountant Chris Moneymaker, who started playing with a mouse
and a monitor. Last year, he went on to win $2.5 million in the
World Series of Poker at Binion's Horseshoe Casino in Las Vegas.
Moneymaker started out on Pokerstars.com and
paid less than $100 to enter an online tournament. He quickly
shifted to playing live and in-person. The Poker Stars site now
hosts 25,000 players a day compared with 300 a few years ago.
And Fournier wants in.
"The big hook was when Chris Moneymaker
won the 2003 world series of poker,"
Fournier said.
The role of Moneymaker's fame is also noted
by Matthew Hilger, a former Central American finance director
for Bristol-Myers Squibb turned professional online poker player.
He is also author of the book "Internet Texas Hold 'em:
Winning Strategies from an Internet Pro."
There are now about 140 sites with virtual
tables. And they're always jumping, according to Pokerpulse.com,
which monitors the number of people and volume of money that move
through more than 100 poker sites.
In May, there was an average of about $98 million
in play every day, up from $20 million in May 2003, said Dennis
Boyko, the administrator of Pokerpulse.com.
Playing
poker for money, in person or online, is illegal in most of
the country. But local law enforcers make no bones about their
lack of interest in dropping the hammer on friendly card games,
virtual or otherwise.
Noelle Talley of the North Carolina Attorney
General's Office said that it would be up to local district attorneys
to prosecute online poker
players.
In the past, larger games that involved high
stakes and criminal activity have been shut down, but having the
guys from work over for a round of cards is not on law enforcement
radar screens, said Colon Willoughby, North Carolina's Wake County
district attorney.
Federal law enforcers aren't as generous. According
to federal law, the Internet may not be used for gambling. In
May, the U.S. Department of Justice seized $3.2 million from Discovery
Networks for displaying ads for a foreign online casino.
Most popular
poker sites aren't on U.S. soil, so prosecution is difficult
and rare. Transactions involving a single session of online play
can reach to several different countries. The operations are usually
licensed in a foreign country, with the monetary transactions
taking place in a country where that is legal, such as Canada
or Costa Rica.
Given federal and state restrictions on gambling
in general, the Internet fills a void for poker fans, said Koleman
Strumpf, a professor of economics at the University of North Carolina-Chapel
Hill.
Fournier, who also likes live games, recently
played with a group of Texas
Hold 'em enthusiasts who got together through Meetup.com,
a Web site that has exploded in popularity as a way to link people
with common interests.
At the gathering Fournier attended, the players
ribbed each other as they competed. One wife threatened her husband
with, "You're sleeping with Rounder tonight," referring
to the couple's dog, named after the 1998 movie about shady card
players.
But as they leaned on their elbows and tried
to read their competitors for hints at their hands, their eyes
were all business. A woman who received a midgame call from her
daughter was heard to say, "I love you, babe," she said,
grabbing the cards, "but I got to deal."
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