Lorenzo Pellegrino, CEO of Skrill, Neteller and Income Access, on why operators should be optimistic about the future of online poker.
WE’RE all familiar with the first online poker boom, running approximately from the moment then-amateur Chris Moneymaker scooped the 2003 World Series of Poker Main Event up until the US Department of Justice shutting down online poker in the country in early 2011.
Moneymaker’s triumph, which was subsequently televised, engrossed an audience that wanted to emulate his achievement and an army of amateur poker players was born. By 2006, the World Series of Poker main event field had swelled to 10 times its size in 2003, with 8,773 players laying down $10,000 apiece in an effort to follow in Moneymaker’s footsteps. The $82.5m prize pool remains the largest in poker history 14 years later.
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