You don't have to be in Vegas, you don't even have to be near a computer - you can now win or lose real money playing poker at any time, from anywhere.
Online gambling site PokerRoom.com has just launched a mobile version of its game that you can play from your cell phone.
“We have seven card, Omaha, high-low and hold 'em, which is our most popular game,” says Patrak Selin, the CEO of PokerRoom.com. “The minimum bet is $$1, and the maximum bet is $$100. In poker you only bet against other people, and we take out a percentage of the winnings - that's how we make our money. You can play with other people on cellular phones, or with people online.”
This is all legal because PokerRoom is based in Sweden, with computer servers that sit on a Candian Indian reservation.
One major scary aspect of phone gambling is you could have $$100 down, be holding a royal flush, and then - as happens so often - your cell service cuts out. If that happens, there's a good chance you'll just lose your money.
“If somebody is raising as you disconnect, it's the same as you're folding, so you need to have a good connection,” says Selin. “If we see that you're disconnected you will have an extra 30 seconds to get connected again.”
The other cause for concern is of course addiction. Some researchers who study gambling addiction say giving all of us the ability to gamble with real money anytime, anywhere is nothing short of dangerous for people with gambling problems, or anyone who has potential to develop a gambling problem.
Dr. Stephen Ross is Associate Director of the Substance Abuse and Alcoholism program at NYU and Bellevue Hospital.
“I think it's a potential nightmare,” he says. “It's sort of like making a drug available everywhere. Imagine if people could use cocaine or heroine everywhere like cigarettes? But even worse, you can't smoke a cigarette in a bus or a public space, but now you can gamble sort of privately right there, anywhere, so I think it's a total disaster. When you give people who could potentially become addicted that much availability and that much ease, it's going to be combustible.”
“People can restrict themselves so they don't lose more money than what they believe is within their limits,” says Selin. “We also train all of our staff at customer support to take care of problem gamblers.”
Right now cell gambling is available on just two phones, the Nokia 6660 and the Sony Ericsson 700i.
PokerRoom.com says it plans to have the service working on about 80 percent of all cell phones within the next few months.