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Once upon a time, when poker was a game you played with friends in a house or a casino; all transactions took place with cash. Then, credit and debit cards got introduced. Now, we are witnessing the rise of crypto in online poker. But while the means of paying for a game of poker and the other things that come along with the game have changed, it remains the same: all games have in-game transactions taking place. This new online world has created this new virtual economy that traditional governments and governments are trying to understand better and incorporate into.

Below, we will take a look at this virtual economy. Learn more about in-game transactions, digital assets, and their broader implications for the poker economy.

Virtual economy: In-game transactions.

When you think about online poker, you immediately think about simply playing poker. So when you enter a game or poker and pay for entry or the virtual chips, you believe this is the only thing required to pay for. For someone who is simply there to play poker, this may be the only thing your money goes toward, but increasingly, online poker is becoming a place for other transactions as well. Players can now seamlessly pay for items within the game of poker, with the addition of things like online wallets, UPI payments, and crypto. Sponsors have found their way into the platforms, and players are constantly flooded with ads or new things to help them inside and outside the game. In-game transactions are a growing means for these online platforms to make additional money.

Virtual Economy: Digital assets

Bitcoin mainly, but other cryptocurrencies have found their way into the online poker market, and they are making a huge splash. The rise of these digital assets is having benefits for both the platforms and the players as well. With digital assets, transactions are now quicker and with less hassle. Whether buying something within the game or retrieving your earnings from the site, this wait time gets sharply reduced. Sometimes, retrieving your payments from an online platform could take days, but with digital assets, it could take hours or minutes. This new addition helps with customer relations and helps players feel more comfortable using the site in the future.

NFTs have also emerged in some online poker platforms but in a limited fashion. Now, you can play and win NFTs from other players or the platforms themselves.

Real money will always have its place in online poker, but people like the convenience of digital assets and the difficulty of tracking them.

What effects does this have on the poker economy?

The online poker market is growing tremendously, taking up more of the broader poker economy. More people are gaining access to the internet every year with the intent of playing, and that allows them to find the best online poker sites on ctpost.com and get going almost immediately. This new access allows people to transition away from the casino poker style and toward the online world.

Of course, this growing online poker market has good and bad sides for the more traditional economies a country’s government tracks. Take, for example, South Africa; this transition could hinder the economy because, as mentioned in the previous section, many users are beginning to use crypto as a form of payment, which does not always contribute to the economy. It’s hard for governments to track crypto, so it’s hard for them to calculate it in the broader economy. However, when real money gets used, it positively affects the South African economy which is growing, but not as fast as it could be. The internet and internet business did not exist before, but now they do. So, it means more businesses are opening, representing a new tax revenue source. Plus, it’s a new means for people to make money. Players can make money, and the platform teams make money, and the more extra money they have at their disposal, the more they can spend on items that feed the South African economy. So, the online poker market has positive and negative effects on economies such as South Africa.

Conclusion

Poker has been around for centuries, but now it is evolving. People are now finding new ways to play the game, more things are being presented to them to buy on the sites, and different forms of currency are sprouting about. Online poker is here to stay, and for the bigger poker economy, it has exposed and attracted a growing number of players to the game of poker. For governments, it provides a new stream of revenue. But like anything, it has occasional downsides, but governments and people will adjust over time to the new realities and bring online poker into the broader economy. People will learn to adapt to the new realities of online options instead of traditional casino options.