While poker has been played for a long time now, online poker is a recent phenomenon. It has boomed in the past couple of years, and it has changed the face of poker FOREVER!

Other types of online gambling sites were launched significantly before the first online poker room. Online sportsbooks were born in the mid 90's time which also witnessed the birth of online casinos.

It was not until 1998 that, Planet Poker, the first online poker site was established. It enjoyed the status as the sole online poker site but only for a short period of time. While Planet Poker has since been overtaken by many other online poker rooms, the initial rake structure it set, 5% up to a $3 max rake, has been mirrored by other poker rooms. So while the industry has dramatically changed since 1998, the rake structure has remained fairly constant.

Paradise Poker was established in 1999 and would soon become the industry leader. During this initial period, the famous case of Poker Spot occurred. Poker Spot was an online poker firm founded by Dutch Boyd, a successful poker player.

Poker Spot was launched in May 2000. In September of that year, it would become the first online poker room to offer tournaments. However, troubles soon plagued Poker Spot. According to Dutch Boyd, it was unable to collect player deposits from its credit card processing firm. Essentially, all of the money players deposited and played with was not in the system, so Poker Spot was unable to pay its players their winnings.

It was not until 2001 that the two most dominant online poker firms entered the industry. Poker Stars became a popular destination because of its tournaments, and Party Poker made a splash in the industry.

Poker steadily gained popularity and the industry continued to grow. Paradise remained the dominant firm in the industry until 2003, when Party Poker launched its television advertising campaign. Party's advertising campaign during the World Poker Tour, and its launch of the Party Poker Million were very successful marketing moves that quickly catapulted the poker network to the top. Currently, the network represents roughly half of the entire online poker market.

While Party Poker was spending millions on marketing, one man's $40 buy-in truly put the entire industry on the map. Chris Moneymaker's Cinderella story of winning the World Series of Poker was the type of advertising the online poker industry could once only dream about.

Moneymaker qualified for the World Series of Poker main event through a small buy-in satellite event at Poker Stars. At the WSOP, he outlasted a field of 839 entrants, the largest in World Series of Poker history at the time. He pitted heads against some of the most well-known poker professionals in the world. Moneymaker's first place finish earned him $2.5 million, which is not bad considering it was his first live tournament.

Online poker exploded in 2004. The increasing popularity of the poker and the "Moneymaker effect" resulted in even more play at the virtual tables. Because of this, the industry's revenues more than tripled. The industry also saw even more entry, with new sites such as Full Tilt Poker and Noble Poker and the hundreds of other sites we know exist by now

USC