A recent report by Poker Stars shows that Asian countries like South Korea and China, as well as Russia, are the fastest growing markets for online poker. While its popularity is growing across other markets too, such as Peru, Brazil, New Zealand, Central Europe and Western Europe, these still lag behind these three countries. The research also found that the popularity of the online game in the United States, Canada and Mexico has been dropping post UIEGA as regulations there that make it harder to access online poker sites.
In the US, online poker is not legalised at the federal level and the different laws in force in various states can cause confusion among players. Besides the three states that have already allowed online gambling – New Jersey, Nevada and Delaware – a number of other states, such as California, Michigan, Mississippi, Illinois, Florida and Connecticut, are getting closer to legalising it too.
The PokerStars report noted that while the expansion of online poker in North America has not stopped over the past few years, the rate at which it is growing has slowed down.