will on line poker survive with the bad economy

can and will online poker survive with the economy being so bad.

Nope, it's obviously dead. I logged on this morning and there were only 111,000 people on Stars and 32,000 on Full Tilt.

Gambling actually goes up when the economy is bad. People took a bad beat in life and are looking to catch up with their loses .

My grandmother told me to get into the gambing or liquor buisness. Because everybody wants to drink and gamble when their down on their luck

French companies report that sexy female underwear is also selling very strongly in the current economy. Go figure...

Because people are staying at home more, so more interested in home entertainment...

glad i peaked in on this one!!
french underwear too funny!!
grandma's advice - sounds good to me, and also sounds true.
life's bad break, again sounds good.
i think it might slow things down a bit, but it won't die.
anyone that's unexpectedly won anything through gambling will again try it. it's the hope that it brings. and besides those that've played online and won aren't going to give it up. atleast i don't think so.

i recon that its will be a struggle through these bad times and the poker site will prob put up the rake and torney entre 2 help out there losses because just l8ly on a few poker site there havent been as many people on line than normal

Online poker is here to stay.

I wouldn't worry about that too much ?

How is the automobile industry doing ?

Did Wayne Gretzky stay in hockey ?

All those people laid-off with nothing to do! Full Tilt should insert flyers into the unemployment check envelopes.

I would imagine that the current climate will have an effect on online poker.. maybe less will play because of the need to save money.. maybe more will play through the boredom of being unemployed.

As for it being the end.. I cant see that.

We didn't take our anniversary (52nd) trip because of the bad economy, so I played online poker for those two weeks.

Poker isn't going anywhere. People look for distractions and easy money when they are losing money. A distraction they'll get. As for easy money...

Cant see it ending any time in the near future.

Grandma has the best idea~!

I think online poker will be stronger than ever. People are not going to stop playing, and you get more bang for your buck online than you do in a casino. Granted, you can't partake in an awesome buffet at home

I think that there may even be a push to legalize online gambling in the US, as long as they find a way to tax it.

Less time working + more need for money = more online poker being played.

i think online gambling will stay and become stronger with time, good or bad economy both give reasons to gamblers to play

Online Poker will never die! The 'Poker Economy' is a separate entity!

In some respects online poker may be recession proof for a lot of the reasons stated above, plus the cost structure of the business is so low. Everything is virtual - it can contract and expand almost on demand (assumes the underlying architecture was done properly).

as long as theres sinners (joke) there will be online poker :P

......


What? No Pics?

Gambling and Liquor sales up way up... I saw the most people ever on full tilt it was 93k+... So need less to say Idol hands do the Devils work... LMAO... Im one of the unemployed I made my first deposit last week... Go figure...

The economy going up or down really has no effect on online poker. If it has any it's an increase since it costs less to play online than to take a trip to the nearest casino. As long as people are willing to buy a lottery ticket to get a 1:10000000000000 chance to win the big one, I think the sane ones of us like the odds of online poker better.

After a few years working for a casino and a couple more working the casinos, I know the truth of what JD Dirty's grandma had to say. A guy down on his luck takes more risks.

I have already know of a few people here in my area who have turned to online poker because they can't find work.

And I Hope that they start taxing online poker. But only if they figure the tax and regulate the sites along lines similar to the Nevada Gaming Commission.

I often wonder if the software of the site I'm playing would pass a going over by the NGC. I can think of a few I'm sure wouldn't.

If I could have some level of the oversight Nevada Gaming provides, it would be well worth paying taxes on pots over $1199.

Well if they started taxing in the US then it should start getting easier to join poker sites too.

Here in the UK income from gambling is not taxed... it seems a strange notion to tax it.. simply because if you can tax, it allows people to offset gambling losses against their tax bills.

Just seems a huge tax scam waiting to be exploited.. people offsetting their tax bills by loosing large amounts of money to companies that suddenly vanish.

Thats essentially the jist of why the government here doesn't get involved with trying to tax gambling income!!!

correlation of bad economy and poker. That's a good one. It's hard to say. Some people say people will play poker more. some people say, people will stop playing poker to save money. it's very hard. But honestly, i think it reduces instead of increasing. bcz although people who usually play poker will keep playing. but there are people who play poker for fun as hobby, not to build bankroll. those people will stop playing.

Yes Unger, a very valid point and an issue well understood when I lived in Nevada.

But I should point out, (and it has been 9 years since I left Nevada so my #'s are a bit out of date), the tax on gambling winnings exceeding $1199 was in the neighborhood of 28%.

If you only have to offset a few barely taxable payouts, you can probably offset a good bit of the tax, but it's tricky and a BIG hassle. Coming up with loss statements exceeding your reported winnings isn't often easy. My personal experience with trying to offset winnings was that you were very lucky to bring the tax rate in line with all your other reported income.

Personally, I think any tax on online poker specifically, should be something like a haf-point rake tax collected and paid just like a sales tax. It would be cheap/easy to track and collect without adding six dozen new pitfalls and loopholes to the personal income tax codes.

Maybe we should start another thread to discuss tax implications?

Yeah I see what you mean.. again this is kind of whats done in the UK.

You don't pay tax on winnings.. but you cant claim tax back against losses.

However companies pay tax on their earnings from gambling so the personal tax is sort of collected that way. Its easier and cheaper to collect tax if you collect it from the companies rather than the individuals.

should be fine, its a passion for most of the people who play it, and we spend money on our passions before otherthings sometimes

the economy will have little to no effect to online poker. as long as people are allowed to play, play they will. i would guess each site has a growing clientele on a monthly basis.

My bet is that the on-line industry will do just fine.

Dont quote me on this but i believe that there have been studies of gambling in bad economic times, and that in fact it actually increases. Cant see it slowing down any time soon.

Its definately not goin to slow down, old habits die hard. We were built on dreams and poker is the 1 dream that anybody can acheive.
Sure there are mathmatics and implied odds that help give you an edge but as in football any given sunday, or in this case, any day can be your day at the poker tables.