It Fucking Pisses me off that these poker rooms are still in existence, robbing people of their money.
No, this isn't a rant about online poker being rigged. This is a rant about poker rooms and their enticing bonuses/promotions which they use to lure people in. They make these promotions sound so good to most people, but when it comes time to pay out, its a whole other story.
Now when I say 'most people' I mean the general public, not the semi-pro, or even the seasoned gambler. I meant the person who googles "online poker site" and downloads the first program he sees just to try it.
They offer things like 100% deposit bonus, I'm sure you've all seen it before. To a player who is just starting out, this is enticing. But wait! Heres the first catch, you need to deposit a minimum amount in order to get it! So the average person who was just looking to spend $20, now deposits $50, just to get the extra bonus. They use terms like raked hand (which has no standard definition), or points (which again, changes from site to site).
Then, the player wants to make a withdrawal, but finds he doesn't meet the conditions. What conditions? Well there is the minimum time (most sites require you to be active for 30 days or more). Then there is the minimum number of raked hands (which are often at an excessively high limit level, such as NL50 or more!) Finally there is a minimum amount to withdrawal. Which is often higher than the minimum deposit level!
Don't even get me started on the rake levels. A poker site charges, on average, 5% rake per hand. With the largest sites having on average 10-15k players at a time (some are way higher), that means that they are dealing an average of 100k hands per hour. If you say the average pot is $1 (again, very low as it is probably much higher), these sites are making $5k/hr. There is no way that the server costs/overhead/employee costs total more than $1k/hr.
After a quick internet search, it appears I am correct, last year Poker Stars made 280 million.
So what are they doing for the customer?
Not a whole lot. Other than providing a very basic service, when was the last time that a poker site did something for you?
Sure they may give you a rakeback deal, through an affiliate. Or they'll offer a 'reload' bonus. But really only high volume players get good deals. What ever happened to the little guy? Without low stakes players, these poker sites would be broke.
Its time that the online poker industry became more like the rest of the casino industry, and start doing a little bit more to provide good customer service.
Let me put it to you this way.
You walk into a casino with $50. Then they tell you that you can't come in unless you have $100 in your pocket. Does that seem fair?
Then you start playing, maybe for about three hours or so. They take away 5% of your winnings. In this situation it may be fair, because they have a lot of expenses, but running a server is not that expensive!
Then you want to leave, but the pit manager tells you that you can't go until you've played 100 hands, at the high limits. So wanting to get your money back, you go ahead and do this. Then you get lucky perhaps you break even (after more rake of course). Then he tells you that you need at least $200 to be able to cash out.
Tell me a time that you have ever seen a brick and mortar casino do this! Its time that the online poker industry realize that they need to be a little more focused on providing customers what they want, a fair service for price paid.
[/RANT]
Flame away now & thanks for reading.
-Brian
And this has nothing to to with playing poker, its the polices regarding deposits and withdrawals.
