HOW DO POKER SITES MAKE MONEY?

Ok, I consider myself an average tournament player, below average cash player. What I want to know is how are the poker sites making any money?
I log a losing session..maybe 1 of 4...losing month 1 of 12, never had a losing year.
I have at least 30 poker sites downloaded, think I am down at one(hint: I HATE pokerstars)
What I want to know is, who is depositing? Who is losing money? Are all the doctors watching too much wsop on tv with deep pockets and no common sense supporting us(and the sites)? Who in their right mind would keep depositing and losing? I know the sites make their money off of rake and tourney fees, but I don't know of one single online player who will admit to being a loser. Do you?

ALL LOSING PLAYERS POST YOUR NAMES HERE, I WILL ADD U AS FRIENDS

I didn't think so.

I guess where I'm going with this is, I believe the online poker sites are a pyramid scheme, a house of cards held up by depositors, doomed to come crashing down on our heads....just my opinion, I could be wrong.(shamelessly stolen from Dennis Miller)

If this is your belief (pyramid scheme) perhaps stop playing online & find something else to do...why would you continue to support/do something you don't believe in?

bazerk said:

If this is your belief (pyramid scheme) perhaps stop playing online & find something else to do...why would you continue to support/do something you don't believe in?

Click to expand...

I was just wondering how the industry is supported...I make a tiny bit of money and have fun...I have a day job. Don't get me wrong, I love poker..I play every night....great fun for me, just wouldn't be fun if I was losing money every night. Seems like the peeps here are well informed...like to hear some insights on the matter...are there really enough losers out there to support all the winners and all the sites and employees, etc???

maybe there is, casinos are packed.

U seem defensive, please post your tablenames, I will add u as friend.(just joking, please dont send hatemail)

isuldur lost like 4 million last year, so yea people lose a lot

How do pokersites make money...? Rake...? If you lose, other players win, no matter if you lose or win, the site takes some of the profit... rake.

OK, the sites make money off the rake collected from each hand or tourney. Now what you seem to be asking is who is doing the depositing. Well, 80% (Low estimate) of online poker players are perennial losers.

/thread

Kasanova King said:

OK, the sites make money off the rake collected from each hand or tourney. Now what you seem to be asking is who is doing the depositing. Well, 80% (Low estimate) of online poker players are perennial losers.

/thread

Click to expand...

Did you just call me a pernenremeral loser?!? PPP lol.

salim271 said:

Did you just call me a pernenremeral loser?!? PPP lol.

Click to expand...

lol....post was directed at OP..

luckyhearts said:

I was just wondering how the industry is supported...I make a tiny bit of money and have fun...I have a day job. Don't get me wrong, I love poker..I play every night....great fun for me, just wouldn't be fun if I was losing money every night. Seems like the peeps here are well informed...like to hear some insights on the matter...are there really enough losers out there to support all the winners and all the sites and employees, etc???

maybe there is, casinos are packed.

U seem defensive, please post your tablenames, I will add u as friend.(just joking, please dont send hatemail)

Click to expand...

Intent was not to come across as defensive; in the OP it was acknowledged the sites make $ off rake & tourney fees (which doesn't coincide with the thread title asking how sites make $?) so I read the purpose of the thread as a claim towards sites being a pyramid scheme of some sort...just not understanding why one would support/do something he/she doesn't believe in...for me, I would not willingly participate in an activity I thought was/is deceptive...

If peeps are losing $, they're losing it to other players since poker is not a house game.

The casinos here make a good portion of their monies from sportsbook betting from what I understand (but I haven't analyzed any of their financial stmts so unable to confirm).

I agree poker is great fun & also agree that losing $ every night is not fun.

How do poker sites make money? Hand over fist.

Better question: How does someone with 30 poker sites on their computer not know how poker sites make money?

Well I deposited three times on pokerstars and went broke within a week everytime, so know I just play freerolls and hope I win. I think all sites mainly get their money from rake and tourney fee's.

Poker has nothing to do with a pyramid scheme.

Playing poker is like running your own casino, the casinos make money because people like to gamble and/or think they can beat the system and profit.

As long as there are people willing to gamble, poker players will profit.

If not, like any other biz, you will simply stop making money.

They don't care who wins or loses. They offer bonuses to get you to put more money on the site then play bigger stakes if they can get you to. It's all in the rake and tourney fees. And I've lost my fair share of money-mostly because I was learning the game and had no bankroll management. I still lose, but I'm gettin better and smarter at the game. Maybe you have to be a certain kind of person to enjoy poker and understand it's a gamble. If you really don't enjoy losing money you might consider the play money side. You can play but it won't hurt you.

WVHillbilly said:

How do poker sites make money? Hand over fist.

Better question: How does someone with 30 poker sites on their computer not know how poker sites make money?

Click to expand...

Think he knows as he said in his post from rake. I think the question he asking is of the smaller poker rooms how they making money. Merge Network ( poker.com, carbon, reefer, Iron duke ect) isnt a big room nor a small as some but I also wonder with as little people that are online there how week after week they can afford the 50K. There are never enough people that play it to have have 0 ev. The ev is usually 30k or more and with only 4000 players at a time online there how they making up the difference. And this is just 1 game the have guaranteed games all day, most do hit close to the ev or within couple hundred. It my opionion that newer sites arent making money and wont till they have a following of players that play there reg. I remember when UB wasnt a big site back in the day. Now there rolling in the money cause of players that play there all the time. So answer is The biger sites are making money because of how many people are playing at there tables, and the casino games. Sports booking is huge money maker and perhaps that why merge aquired them to make up the difference in there poker loses.

5TR8 FLUSH said:

Well I deposited three times on pokerstars and went broke within a week everytime, so know I just play freerolls and hope I win. I think all sites mainly get their money from rake and tourney fee's.

Click to expand...

I think you need to go on his list lol

luckyhearts said:

What I want to know is, who is depositing? Who is losing money?

Click to expand...

WHAT I WANT TO KNOW IS WHO ARE ALL THESE PEOPLE SPENDING MONEY ON FOOD?

WHERE DO THEY GET ALL THIS MONEY TO KEEP SPENDING ON FOOD AND HOW DO THEY KEEP SPENDING IT EVERY DAY AND WHY DO THEY KEEP SPENDING IT WHEN ONCE YOU EAT THE FOOD IT'S GONE I MEAN IT'S JUST LIKE THROWING MONEY AWAY.

I GUESS THE ONLY ANSWER IS THAT FOOD IS A GIANT PYRAMID SCAM.

Dorkus Malorkus said:

WHAT I WANT TO KNOW IS WHO ARE ALL THESE PEOPLE SPENDING MONEY ON FOOD?

WHERE DO THEY GET ALL THIS MONEY TO KEEP SPENDING ON FOOD AND HOW DO THEY KEEP SPENDING IT EVERY DAY AND WHY DO THEY KEEP SPENDING IT WHEN ONCE YOU EAT THE FOOD IT'S GONE I MEAN IT'S JUST LIKE THROWING MONEY AWAY.

I GUESS THE ONLY ANSWER IS THAT FOOD IS A GIANT PYRAMID SCAM.

Click to expand...

lol food is that a substitute for poker and heck i thought rake was something u did in the yard
but seriously rake is how they make there cash and they do alright as far as a pyramid scam u believe what u want!

luckyhearts said:

Ok, I consider myself an average tournament player, below average cash player. What I want to know is how are the poker sites making any money?
I log a losing session..maybe 1 of 4...losing month 1 of 12, never had a losing year.
I have at least 30 poker sites downloaded, think I am down at one(hint: I HATE POKERSTARS)
What I want to know is, who is depositing? Who is losing money? Are all the doctors watching too much wsop on tv with deep pockets and no common sense supporting us(and the sites)? Who in their right mind would keep depositing and losing? I know the sites make their money off of rake and tourney fees, but I don't know of one single online player who will admit to being a loser. Do you?

ALL LOSING PLAYERS POST YOUR NAMES HERE, I WILL ADD U AS FRIENDS

I didn't think so.

I guess where I'm going with this is, I believe the online poker sites are a pyramid scheme, a house of cards held up by depositors, doomed to come crashing down on our heads....just my opinion, I could be wrong.(shamelessly stolen from Dennis Miller)

Click to expand...

I dont think you understand what a pyramid scheme is.

Online poker is not a pyramid scheme.

The difference between online poker and a PS is that if people stopped depositing then the game as a whole would stall. In a PS if people stop investing the scheme collapses because a PS hinges on diluting a commodity multiple times whilst maintaining its original price.

SO when a PS collapses people essentially become aware that the commodity they hold is not worth as much as they believed and hence they lose out.

If online poker stalled, your money is still worth what it was worth before so its not collapsing like a PS.

So if games got hard to find.. withdraw, you cant do that when a PS collapses because you $100 isnt worth $100 thats why the PS is collapsing.

The only way a pokersite could become a PS, (in reality a financial pump) would be if they offered finance packages to depositors and then those depositors defaulted, because then there would be more money on the site than the site could pay back out. As far as I know, this isnt the case.

Dorkus Malorkus said:

WHAT I WANT TO KNOW IS WHO ARE ALL THESE PEOPLE SPENDING MONEY ON FOOD?

WHERE DO THEY GET ALL THIS MONEY TO KEEP SPENDING ON FOOD AND HOW DO THEY KEEP SPENDING IT EVERY DAY AND WHY DO THEY KEEP SPENDING IT WHEN ONCE YOU EAT THE FOOD IT'S GONE I MEAN IT'S JUST LIKE THROWING MONEY AWAY.

I GUESS THE ONLY ANSWER IS THAT FOOD IS A GIANT PYRAMID SCAM.

Click to expand...

:rofl: ^^^

OMG...in the US, food = pyramid (AND the Govt is involved ) >>> http://www.mypyramid.gov/.

Dorkus Malorkus said:

WHAT I WANT TO KNOW IS WHO ARE ALL THESE PEOPLE SPENDING MONEY ON FOOD?

WHERE DO THEY GET ALL THIS MONEY TO KEEP SPENDING ON FOOD AND HOW DO THEY KEEP SPENDING IT EVERY DAY AND WHY DO THEY KEEP SPENDING IT WHEN ONCE YOU EAT THE FOOD IT'S GONE I MEAN IT'S JUST LIKE THROWING MONEY AWAY.

I GUESS THE ONLY ANSWER IS THAT FOOD IS A GIANT PYRAMID SCAM.

Click to expand...

Best I ever read on the internet.

So you think online poker is a scam? or is rigged?Tell me why you have over what was it......30 Poker rooms downloaded on your computer?Seriously guy i don't understand the logic here because if you feel like something wasn't legit you wouldn't take part in it right ?

When X amount of money is won or lost, the poker room gets a % of X no matter what. So with the money you're winning, you're making money for the poker room.

Sure no one likes to admit they're a losing player, but they're out there funding the winning players.

There are loads of recreational players where I work, they look on it as how much they would spend on a night out, but they're spending it on a night in instead.

WVHillbilly said:

How do poker sites make money? Hand over fist.

Better question: How does someone with 30 poker sites on their computer not know how poker sites make money?

Click to expand...

I agree..... Plus you can't lose when its all play money anyway!

Dorkus Malorkus said:

WHAT I WANT TO KNOW IS WHO ARE ALL THESE PEOPLE SPENDING MONEY ON FOOD?

WHERE DO THEY GET ALL THIS MONEY TO KEEP SPENDING ON FOOD AND HOW DO THEY KEEP SPENDING IT EVERY DAY AND WHY DO THEY KEEP SPENDING IT WHEN ONCE YOU EAT THE FOOD IT'S GONE I MEAN IT'S JUST LIKE THROWING MONEY AWAY.

I GUESS THE ONLY ANSWER IS THAT FOOD IS A GIANT PYRAMID SCAM.

Click to expand...

Obviously, money grows on trees...