Happy 20th birthday Online Poker!
This year, online poker celebrates 20 years of existence. Sure, we may have missed the actual birthday for a couple of days (January 1st), but it’s the thought that counts.
So, what exactly are we celebrating?
Well, 20 years ago on January 1st Planet Poker started to accept real money payments at their online poker room. Yes, 1998 was the year online poker introduced real money to the tables. Up until then, players were only able to play for fun.
A short history of Planet Poker
The Canadian poker pro, Randy Blumer, created Planet Poker. However, he was not just a guy who opened an online poker room; he was a visionary. It’s strange to think about it, but if it wasn’t for him, who knows if the online poker craze would have been as big as it is today.
During the first days of online poker, players had only one deposit option, to mail personal checks via traditional postal services. Fast-forward 20 years and poker sites are offering dozens of payment methods, from debit and credit cards to e-wallets and now even cryptocurrencies. Unfortunately, Planet Poker couldn’t cope with the modern trends and went offline in 2006. One of the earliest poker sites that still exist is PokerStars, a platform that managed to create a huge online poker community.
Of course, past 20 years were not ideal. We had a fair share of controversies, scandals, and outright frauds. However, today, we are raising glasses in the hope that the next 20 years will be nothing but prosperous for the online poker industry.
