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Yahoo offers play-for-fun poker games that attract thousands of players at peak times as part
of its Yahoo! Games channel, but the interface for those games is woefully inferior to that offered by the leading
online poker rooms linked on this page -- which in addition
to their real money games all offer free-to-play regular games and tournaments.
Yahoo's interest in poker and other gambling extends further. In January 2005, on the same day
Party Gaming announced
its active exploration of an IPO, Yahoo disclosed its intention to partner with UK exchange betting leader
Betfair to create Yahoo Betting, to offer peer-to-peer sports wagering to UK and European residents.
Less than two weeks later, eGaming Review Magazine published a story that Yahoo further intended to take the next step
in the e-gaming world by opening its own online poker card room.
Subsequent to the initial eGaming Review story however, they printed a denial from Yahoo that they had no serious interest
in a online poker cardroom. Two years later though, Yahoo reversed course, and did begin offering real money games. Given
its history, it certainly is no surprise Yahoo is the first major Internet company to open an online poker room.
Yahoo Poker and Yahoo Betting do not take bets from American citizens, but the entry of one of the leading Internet companies,
with profits of hundreds of millions of dollars is a development that should alter the online gambling landscape forever. |
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