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One phenomenon which has emerged with the dawn of the computer age is "online poker," by which poker enthusiasts can play poker games on the internet for fun or real money. Online poker is becoming so big that based on Christiansen Capital Advisor, worldwide online poker revenue jumped from $365 million in 2003, to more than $1 billion in 2004. In December 2003, revenues were estimated at $34 million a month. Through March 2005, approximately 100,000 people were playing for real money at the many pokers rooms at peak times.

There are many factors that contribute to this extraordinary upsurge in the online poker industry. For one, online poker rooms are much less costly than casinos since they have very little overhead cost with regards to conventional casinos, and they are more player friendly. By way of example, the introduction of freerolls (where there is absolutely no entry fee) attracts a great deal of novice players.

Many large online poker sites offer certain attractions, including admission to real life poker tournaments for safe online gambling site winners. Other features for example "collusion detection" abilities also enable sites to detect certain frauds, which are not accessible in conventional casinos. This better security attracts more players.

Another factor is the ability to easily track detailed statistics of your play in online poker, made available by ""Hand Histories"" text files, which track every action both you and your opponents made during each hand. This isn't possible in conventional casinos the place you might have to take time-consuming notes after each hand. Combined with one of these factors, many online poker software programs are user friendly and also are often automated in accordance with specific needs and actions, such as prompting when it is a player's turn.