How much money are we talking about here?

The State of California stands to gain amounts ranging from a very conservative estimate of $40 million yearly to as much as $500 million a year.

You may be asking where did these numbers come from?

Here are some snippets that were gathered up while researching the facts to justify this initiative.

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A modest sized poker site, 888.com, reported poker revenues of $36 million for the 4^th quarter 2006.

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Note that Party Gaming is primarily a poker site.

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 Excerpts from PartyGaming FY2006 Preliminary results:

Note: PartyGaming is the second largest online poker site. Prior to UIGEA it was the largest.

After a start up period, and with some agreements in place, California should be able to match or exceed these numbers.

 

“In the 4 weeks ended 28 January 2007, average gross daily revenue reached $1,172,000, a 19% increase from that achieved in the four weeks to 11 December 2006, as disclosed in the last trading update given by the Company. In poker, new player sign-ups averaged over 2,300 per day and there were on average 58,000 active players per day, generating average gross daily revenue of $789,000…………”

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Svenska Spel is a Swedish government owned casino. They have only recently added poker. Poker seems to have taken off very strongly though.

  Poker on the Internet
Svenska Spel received the permission from the Swedish Government in November 2005 to launch Internet Poker in its own jurisdiction. The goal is to transfer existing Internet poker players from the unregulated market to the regulated market.  

This is precisely the idea for this initiative.

Svenska Spel’s launch of Internet Poker has exceeded all expectations and the company has managed to transfer a significant number of poker players to the regulated market. The software is stable and the players are positive to the site as well as the software and content. After four weeks of operation, more than 100.000 poker clients have been downloaded and the peak of simultaneous players reaching 5.700. We will offer a wide range of tournaments and events. We will also let our players be able to compete and play with famous poker stars and athletes. Svenska Spel’s task is to offer Swedish citizens’ entertaining games in a responsible way.

To minimize the risks for gaming addiction each poker player at svenskaspel.se has to set individual limits per session, per day, per week, per month as well as maximum duration of the day, week or month. Furthermore the player may exclude himself.

There is more.

Swedish Government Deals Itself In 04/27/2006 02:54 PM

In the U.S., lawmakers are currently wrangling over how to deal with the issue of online Gambling, but Sweden has taken an entirely different approach by opening the first government owned and licensed online POKER room. The cardroom, operated by SVENSKA SPEL, had a strong opening, with 1,000 real money players signing up in the first 2 hours. It is estimated there are over 200,000 Swedish citizens playing online, and with a 2.5% rake, the expected first year take would add over $32 million dollars to the government’s bottom line. A report commissioned by the government came to the conclusion that because there was not a realistic chance of stopping online play, it would be best to run it themselves.

California should double this performance even if solely relying on California residents.

Sweden has 9 million residents, California has 39 million residents!

More

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Onlinecasino.org News | 27.03.2007 | 00:14:44 | Views: 291 | Casino News

Successful Online Gaming Model Should Be Emulated Worldwide
Svenska Spel AB, a Swedish government-owned and -licensed online gaming company, has posted record profits of $685 million for 2006, thanks to its online poker division.

 

According to cardplayer.com news it has been over one year since the Swedish governments decision to enter the online poker market. The decision has proven to be a great call for all involved.

"It has really fulfilled its purpose of bringing home a big part of Sweden's unregulated poker playing to a responsible environment within the country's borders," stated Jesper Karrbrink, the CEO of Svenska Spel AB.

 

Svenska Spel received permission from the Swedish Government to launch Internet Poker. The goal was to transfer existing Internet poker players from an unregulated market to a regulated one.

Svenska Spel's launch of Internet poker has exceeded all expectations. The company has managed to attract a significant number of players from Sweden's large poker community. The players feel secure in that their government (not an offshore corporation) backs the product.

Sweden's success will provide an example for governments around the world.