I think very few people will doubt that online poker has been a phenomenon over the past decade. Not this many people have flocked to the internet for a single event since Pam Anderson and Motley Crue’s Tommy Lee put their love on public display in way that would have gotten a standing ovation from Jenna Jameson or the late John Holms. Online poker has been one of the catalysts of the rise of Texas holdem. The who thing really exploded when online poker sensation Chris Moneymaker won the World Series of Poker main event, and proved that poker players could crawl out of cyberspace and bloody the noses of the most experienced poker pros on the planet. Without online poker, we may not have all the Texas holdem television shows that are currently packing the broadcast schedules of network and cable stations across the planet. With that said, according to the latest Rasmussen poll, internet poker is not as popular as well all think.
Anybody who is familiar with Scott Rasmussen would be pretty sure that this guy has never been in the same room with a Texas Holdem tournament; live poker or Online poker. It is unlikely that he has ever logged on to an internet poker site, and probably even less likely that he could pick a poker pro out of a lineup of celebrities that included O.J. Simpson, Rosie O’Donnell, Vanessa Rousso, and Eric Cartman. So it is unlikely that he has any strong feeling on the topic of poker tournaments, poker pros, poker players, Texas Holdem, the World Series of Poker, or anything else that has to do with the industry. Add this to the fact that he is an idiot savant when it comes to public opinion polls (he has the annoying habit of just about always being right), and any poll he has on the subject will be more than credible.
According to Rasmussen, only 4% of American adults have been on an internet gaming site. This obviously includes online poker. The America consumer market is generally a good indicator regarding what the rest of the world is doing, and contrary to popular belief, going to an internet poker site is not yet completely illegal in the USA. Some of the top poker sites operate in America, and they are still only drawing 4% of the adults. So what does this say about the industry?
Well either the bulk of Americans are a rampaging pack of liars (or they are just afraid to admit to an activity that they perceive is completely illegal) or internet poker has simply not made as strong an impression as everyone thinks it has. The pessimist would look at these numbers and say that the popularity of the internet poker industry is a media myth and the optimist would say that there is plenty of room to grow. I am going with the growth opinion.
The same survey found that of the same adults polled, 66% of them have gambled in a casino before. So it is apparent that there is no moral objection to gaming or Texas Holdem. It is just that most of the American public has yet to make the connection between the internet and poker. This may be for any number of reasons. The hype over the laws is one explanation as well as a lack of trust when it comes to poker players making financial transactions in cyberspace. The trust issue will start to go away in internet poker as PayPal becomes a bigger part of the online Texas Holdem industry. Already such sites as LuckyAcePoker.com are taking this trusted form of payment. Unfortunately they don’t operate in the United States.
The American poker players have, according to the survey, have not gotten on board with internet poker. The one big question mark in the survey is that they asked only adult poker players and gamblers about their online gaming habits. The percentage of Americans who gamble in cyberspace may have been much different if they asked those under 18 how many of them play Texas Holdem online.
