How popular online poker really is ? This question, among others, has been one of the most interesting issues that the market analyst company Mintel has checked up lately. Apparently, it is even more popular than predicted, at least in the United Kingdom, where nearly a quarter of the Internet users have played some variation of the game during the past 12 months. Although not all of them feel secure enough in order to play for real money at the different poker rooms, the numbers still remain impressive.
More than 3,800 UK Internet users were interviewed for a recent survey, that among others, revealed that online poker is considered one of the "coolest" and most popular games. "The popularity of casino poker has soared in recent years as the game undoubtedly has an element of cool lacking from many other forms of gambling" says Matt King, Mintel's senior leisure analyst, while adding that the significant TV coverage that poker recently got has also helped. In fact, the survey showed that the amount of poker shown on television has risen during the last years from 13 hours in 2001 to nearly 540 hours last year.
While nothing can really assure it, we can expect this trend to continue and the worldwide internet poker community to keep growing during the coming years. As more and more people are starting to discover the benefits of playing online, there's no reason for them to keep playing the game somewhere else.
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