Will online poker survive all of the increasing regulations and restrictions?

[Propane Goat]

There seems to be a constant parade of bad news with respect to increasing legal restrictions on online poker, with poker rooms pulling out of entire countries or countries banning online poker altogether.

Do you think online poker will still be around in 10 years, or will the restrictions become so burdensome that player traffic collapses and it's no longer even worth trying to play online? What is your prediction for the future?

 

[Sunz of Beaches]

Me personally yes i think some form of online Poker will be still around in 10 years. With crypto there is already a way to bypass lots of restrictions if you reside in a heavy regulated country and i doubt the really big sites + private clubs will disappear anytime soon.

 

[Goggelheimer]

Online poker will stick around, but regulation usually shrinks player pools because countries split the traffic into separate markets.
Many regulated regions in Europe saw their numbers drop once players were forced into local pools.
Shared‑liquidity deals can reverse that trend a bit, as seen in a few U.S. states and parts of Europe.
Overall, demand keeps the game alive, but regulated pools tend to be smaller unless borders open again.

 

[Ruslan L]

There seems to be a constant parade of bad news with respect to increasing legal restrictions on online poker, with poker rooms pulling out of entire countries or countries banning online poker altogether.

Do you think online poker will still be around in 10 years, or will the restrictions become so burdensome that player traffic collapses and it's no longer even worth trying to play online? What is your prediction for the future?

The outlook is negative. In recent years, we have seen a significant decline, and there is no reason to believe that something good awaits us overall. I don't think online poker will cease to exist altogether, but poker sites will become exclusively local platforms for players from one or several countries.

 

[Oxinthewater]

Yes, it can and would survive the increasing regulations/restrictions , but I think it's moot as I don't believe it will survive AI.

In the next few years before that kills it, I don't believe regulations have much chance of killing the game, but they may change the nature of it if some lower income countries cannot partake.

 

[rei signo]

Sim, pode e sobreviveria ao aumento das regulamentações/restrições, mas acho que é irrelevante, pois não acredito que sobreviverá à IA.

Nos próximos anos, antes que isso acabe de vez com o jogo, não acredito que as regulamentações tenham muita chance de eliminá-lo, mas podem mudar sua natureza se alguns países de baixa renda não puderem participar.

AI will want to dominate; in poker, money is involved, and AI will take over. I hope people defend it, but I don't see how it's possible, and the greatest chance is that the technological scope of AI will dominate programming logic!

 

[ankurdholakiya]

I think online poker survives, but in a more fragmented form. Regulation will keep splitting player pools, which hurts traffic, but demand isn’t going away. Where players want to play, sites will find ways—regulated, shared liquidity, or private/club models.

Regulation will keep fragmenting player pools, and that does hurt traffic and game quality, especially for mid-stakes grinders. But demand hasn’t gone away. Where there’s demand, there will be supply—whether that’s fully regulated sites, shared-liquidity agreements, gray-market rooms, or private/club models. Poker has already adapted multiple times (Black Friday, segregated markets, HUD bans), and it keeps finding a way.

Online poker probably won’t die—it’ll just keep evolving, like it always has.

 

[Baco]

I think online poker will survive, yes. Regulation may slow things down or push players to different platforms, but poker has already proven its resilience many times.

As long as there is skill involved, liquidity will find a way — whether through regulated markets, international pools, or new technologies. We’ve seen countries ban, unban, and re-regulate poker over and over, and traffic always adapts rather than disappearing.

The ecosystem may look different in 10 years, but I don’t believe online poker is going anywhere.

 

[pirateglenn]

I think any industry that creates so much money and also media attention will always survive but will have to accept that to survive, they have to adher to law and change.
Businesses have to be creative so Poker operators are no different, i feel taxation laws will always be a PITA for everyone as much as legalisation of real money play in certain provinces but the skill is to adapt to overcome or not.
It will be interesting to see where Poker is - in 20 years time, the market has already been diluted enormously and im certain PS has lost customers to other operators like GG poker...its identifying why and how to address that.

 

[userX]

I don't think poker will disappear. On the contrary, I think that after a period of decline, we are now facing a period of growth. If there is demand for online poker, there will always be those who want to make a business out of it. There are quite a few projects that operate exclusively on the basis of cryptocurrency transactions, and I think there are prospects in this direction. Perhaps in 10 years, there will be no legal licensed sites at all, but I think there will be many that will work quite well without any licences or permits.

 

[Tero]

Nobody knows... My country is moving towards licensing model in two years or so and what are the true effects of that remains unclear.
If poker industry has enough lobbying power then it might survive just fine.

And don't forget that global population just keeps growing and growing. Furthermore, in the next ten years well over billion people will reach the legal age and become adults (prospective customers).

 

[Cooking]

I don’t see online poker having much of a future. My country still allows online poker without restrictions, and I don’t think they will impose restrictions anytime soon. But many countries are banning it, especially wealthy countries.

 

[najisami]

Though poker sites have been dropped out of some countries one after another, I think they will still be here in 10 years, certainly not everywhere, but they'll find ways to survive.

 

[perrywh]

Yes it will! Sites will just change the software to keep players happy!

 

[michelaltair]

i think it still will but its gonna be hard

 

[Sherlock77]

Yes, it will survive.
But some rooms need to understand that it's 2026: people are traveling all over the world constantly like never before, and many countries and/or hotels etc have restrictions on gambling...
so...

 

[CDNMAN 42]

There seems to be a constant parade of bad news with respect to increasing legal restrictions on online poker, with poker rooms pulling out of entire countries or countries banning online poker altogether.

Do you think online poker will still be around in 10 years, or will the restrictions become so burdensome that player traffic collapses and it's no longer even worth trying to play online? What is your prediction for the future?

There is no doubt (in my opinion) that online poker will definitely survive, I mean really it has been around for more than 20 years and has survived numerous State and Federal changes but it is still here and thriving..It is just too much fun to be dealt out.

 

[antonis32123]

I hate all these restrictions , they are meaningless imo most of the times or always . Especially for very low stakes players . It's very bad , they give the licences to tbri= buddies or they demand a lot of money from the poker sites . It's an extortion . I lost her| in Greece 888poker and partypoker , and done other sites . I believe the future of online poker is not bright .

 

[KrazyKoo]

I think crypto gambling is sadly the future and I think in this new world poker will be much more gambling than it is about skill

 

[sibkaz]

There will be workarounds...

 

[fuzzycatdaddy]

I think one of the bigger threats to online gambling is platforms like Stake and DraftKings which have little regard for consumer protection which turns people against the idea altogether. But if there is money to be made, the corporations are going to find a way to make it and with the trend is towards decentralization, which means that money becomes less traceable and regulations are harder to enforce. Previously, if you got blacklisted by visa or mastercard, it become nearly impossible to operate.

In the end, it might depends on whether we end up in a 1984/Black Mirror type world or if there is a backlash and a backlash towards just letting people do what they want. Either way, I like live poker better so find me in the Poker Sewer Speakeasy's if the puritans win

 

[MishkaZL]

I think there will be countries and regions where online games such as poker will develop and flourish. At the same time, I admit that a large number of countries will restrict their citizens' access to such entertainment by blocking websites or creating obstacles to doing business. I believe that difficult times lie ahead for most of us.

 

[iwont20]

After the poker boom, we had crypto, AI, NFTs, gaming booms. I honestly don’t really understand how people even end up in online poker now. And I don’t think they come there because it sounds fun. Most of them probably show up thinking they can make some money. Poker just isn’t something people associate with fun anymore when they think about online entertainment.

Without a constant flow of new players willing to invest money, online poker turns into a high-variance game played mostly between stables. Everyone knows how to play — it’s just a question of which stable’s player gets lucky today.

 

[csabika94]

Úgy tűnik, folyamatosan érkeznek rossz hírek az online pókerrel kapcsolatos jogi korlátozások szigorodásáról, a pókertermek egész országokból vonulnak ki, vagy olyan országokból, amelyek teljesen betiltják az online pókert.

Szerinted 10 év múlva még létezni fog az online póker, vagy a korlátozások annyira megterhelővé válnak, hogy a játékosok száma összeomlik, és már meg sem éri megpróbálni online játszani? Mi a jóslatod a jövőre nézve?

Humanity is very resourceful and always finds a way to do what it wants ☺️ I think there will always be a solution.

 

[Mario7]

Yes, we have restrictions in many countries. We have more and more control in general: gambling control, Internet control, crypto-control, limiting cash transactions etc. But still I beleive online poker will survive. Perhaps we will have some limits, licenses etc, but at some level I believe the business will find a way to cooperate with governments.