Is there a worldwide conspiracy to get everybody hooked on playing poker sponsored by vegas and macau?

Posted by Jean Robert

every country i visit there is more than six hours of poker on tv on multiple channels, usually between 23:00 and the morning. Is this a trick to get everybody to play poker online and in the casinos? In every major city there are poker courses and its presented as a sport instead of gambling. What sport is played sitting on a chair for unlimited time and where you can loose all you have and more?

Poker has been on TV for along time, just no body really watched it or took notice. The explosion of poker on tv can be traced back to two seperate events:

Firstly, in 2003 a regular Joe named Chris Moneymaker played a $12 satellite tourney and won a seat in the WSOP Main event. He then went on to win that, winning over $2million. This remarkable achievement let the whole world believe that they too could do it. Thus the explosion of Texas Hold’ems popularity.

Secondly, right after this huge boom in popularity, in 2004-2005 the NHL locked out the players. This left huge 1-2 hour chuncks of empty space on ESPN, which was reserved for NHL hockey games. Needing to fill the gap with something, anything, they went with poker.

Surprisingly, more people watched the poker on TV than they had originally suspected possible. This caused dramatic increase of poker shows, and tournaments getting TV coverage.

It’s basically a little bit of luck, mixed with supply and demand. The amount of poker on TV is declining though, as this year only a few WSOP tournaments will get any coverage at all.