The Countries with the Most Online Poker Players

Just over 20 years ago, the poker boom propelled poker from a regular gambling game to one that captured the imaginations of millions. While the boom itself is marked as beginning in 2003, many cite the release of the well-received movie Rounders in 1998 as a proponent of the surge of online poker play, but the rise much more closely aligned with the Travel Channel making a sporting spectacle of the World Poker Tour and the big win.

Chris Moneymaker, an amateur player who predominantly played online, went all the way and won the 2003 World Series of Poker Main Event, taking him from an $86 satellite tournament online to pocketing $2.5 million. It poured petrol all over what was already a burning trend of people joining online poker rooms. Now, the scene is incredibly competitive and much more widespread, leading to huge player bases around the world.

Propelling online poker further over the decades

There are said to be over 100 million people playing poker around the world, which speaks to the enduring legacy of the poker boom and how far the industry has come over just a couple of decades. Naturally, internet accessibility, increased speeds, and better software have certainly helped to make online poker more appealing. Now, the games are swift and deposits and withdrawals can be done with trusted payment services.

What also helps this is how incredibly competitive the online poker scene has become for platform operators. Platforms are always vying for a bigger piece of the market, which has led to several player-friendly innovations and efforts, as showcased by the Global Poker sign up bonus. New players get 65 per cent off on the virtual currency (Gold Coins) to get 150,000 of them for $10, giving all newcomers a fat stack to play with from day one.

Along with these promotions to help get more players playing online, there are also more localised efforts to enhance the presence of poker. According to the India Times report, the MPL launched a Poker Academy in India to help improve the skills and strategies of players across India. At that time, there was already a hefty count of three million active poker players.

Where online poker is played the most

As you could have probably guessed, the United States boasts the largest online poker population, bringing some 60 million of the total 100 million active online poker players to the table. Adding to this is the long and storied fascination with poker in the country. Hollywood movies have long been made about poker players, and the World Series of Poker Main Event is famously only ever held in Paradise, Nevada.

Next in line is a poker-loving South American county. Boasting an increasingly online population and an overall population of over 215 million people, Brazil ranks second to the US for its poker player base. It’s estimated that there are as many as ten million active online poker players in Brazil now. Next, you’d find India to be a very active poker-playing country, with a growing count of three million players.

The UK, Germany, France, Canada, Spain, Russia, the Netherlands, and Austria often rank quite highly for their online poker player bases, as well as for winnings online. Singapore, while having quite a small population of 5.7 million, tends to see its best players rank highly in online competitions.

Online poker continues to evolve and be appealing to players around the world, despite the official poker boom ending in 2007. The US boasts, by far, the most online poker players, and it’d take a lot of time for another country to overtake the current leader.