Many of our readers are aware of the rain and snow storms that moved throught the west, including Las Vegas, in the last week. Driving back from a trip to LA I stopped and shot a few photos of some of the water left behind. The view is I-15 going north. The casinos in the distance mark the Nevada state line about forty miles south of Las Vegas. The surrounding desert, which is normally dry, smooth sand, is now a real lake.

Online poker rooms are estimated to number close to three hundred. There are approximately twenty stand alone rooms or networks. The online poker market, nonexistent two years ago, saw $16 billion wagered in Internet poker rooms this past year. I have been doing the numbers games for Internet gaming. While most Internet gambling sites have had minimal growth the poker rooms are enjoying tremendous growth. All of this dynamic capitalism at work and the Internet poker industry continues to be illegal here in the US. Most statistics available to the general public and probably accurate are from the UK, where many Internet sites are registered and maintain their servers. US operators and owners are fugitives from the law and risk arrest if they step on American soil so gathering stats about poker sites that have US threads can be difficult and often the numbers are not reliable.

The UK Register reported that the top UK poker site operators made $200 million or more this year. Two years ago the Brits were betting approximately $100K per day, today the Brits bet more than $200 million a day in online poker games. Considering the gross numbers reported for the Industry as a whole; this represents a rather small piece of the action, so the majority of profits are taken by other than British operators so I have to assume the majority must be US players and operators. Currently, the Brits make up 80% of the poker players considered to be the European market. This translates to an Internet poker market that is no where near saturation. Europe will continue to discover online poker and provide the fuel for long term growth. Another interesting stat is the high percentage of online poker female players. Approximately 40% of online players are women compared to 5% of live game players. The number is probably even higher since many females register as males to avoid the all-to-common gender abuse.

Another interesting set of numbers I came across for this unlawful industry was the recent sale of the online poker site, Paradise Poker. The business was sold to Sporting Bet in October, 2004 for $297 million dollars. Paradise Poker, one of the big four Internet poker sites, has more than 700,000 registered players with about 100,000 considered to be active. Is this a view of the future? Will the merging, trading and selling of online poker sites become as common place as land based casinos? Yes, of course. It's the new real estate and the next generation of developers, agents and investors will soon crowd into the business. And you thought real estate was a capped commodity limited by a finite number measured in acres, after all, no more land is being created. Or is it?