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Most Recent Online Casino News
Winning Hands
Lee-Ann Smyth started playing poker online because she did
not like what was on television. As a student, it was fun to spend an
hour or two each evening playing poker in online casinos for not much more than the price
of a video rental.
Even after starting work for Halifax bank, Smyth continued to indulge
her hobby. As she became more competent, so the stakes got higher and,
these days, Smyth’s hobby is her job. She spends up to 10 hours a day
playing poker online, earning up to £4,500 a week. She has turned a room
in her house in Carrickfergus, on the outskirts of Belfast, into a poker
den.
While Smyth is an exception, it is people like her who are behind
much of the remarkable growth in online poker.
Last year, she was one of about 250 dedicated players who, along with
their partners, joined Ladbrokes on a poker cruise of the Mediterranean.
Smyth did not win on the high seas, but it was not through lack of
effort. John O’Reilly, managing director of Ladbrokes’ online
operations, said the ship docked every day at a European port but nobody
got off, such was the appeal of the cards.
Online casinos poker is a massive business — it is estimated that the
worldwide commission earned by operators of poker sites runs at about
$4.5m a day.
Last week, the growth of the market was brought into sharp focus by
results from Hilton Group, parent company of Ladbrokes, and
Sportingbet.com, which last year acquired Paradise Poker, one of the
world’s leading online casinos poker sites.
Read the
entire article at:
Times Online
2004 Online Casino News Archive
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