Online poker has relatively low barriers to entry when compared to most high revenue businesses. This is both good and bad. On the good side, the low barriers to entry result in more competition in the industry, which leads to more options for poker players. On the bad side, not everyone who enters the online poker market knows how to run a quality poker room.
Whether you are looking for a new poker room or are interested in starting one yourself, there are several things that go into running a quality poker room. These five factors are the most important indicators that your new poker site is a quality operation.
1. Player Traffic
High player traffic is a must-have for a quality online poker room. The more players there are, the easier it is to find action. And when there is enough action, more players are willing to join that poker site and help it grow. Getting traffic to a new poker room is a catch-22 however, because you need to have players to attract players. This factor is a strong representation of the chicken-or-the-egg scenario.
2. Transparency
A lack of transparency is a huge pet peeve of mine in online poker. Online poker sites need to be open with their players when it comes to things like cashout requirements, bonus rules and plans for the future. Nothing irritates me more than an online poker room that acts like players don’t need to know the internal workings of the operation.
A great example of high transparency is PokerStars. The owners of PokerStars maintain a presence on major poker discussion forums and are honest about the state of the poker site at all times. PokerStars representatives fully explain major decisions and explain their reasoning behind big decisions. Other poker sites should take note of how PokerStars communicates with the public.
3. Timely Withdrawals
Quality poker sites process withdrawals quickly and get your money to you with minimal hassle. Nothing is more irritating than requesting a cashout and then waiting weeks for an update on the status of the withdrawals. Some poker sites seem to act like they are doing us a favor by letting us cash out. If you let us cash out promptly, we are more likely to deposit again in the future. It’s not rocket science.
Most poker players understand that US-facing poker sites face unique challenges in processing withdrawals. The legal environment isn’t exactly friend for USA poker rooms, so we are willing to let you slide in that regard. But at the very least, please keep us updated on withdrawals and be honest with us.
4. Customer Support
Customer support is important for a few reasons. First of all, poker players like to get quick assistance when they have a question. Secondly, quality customer support breeds trust. Poker sites that offer phone numbers and fast response times instill confidence that everything is running smoothly at those sites.
It is also important for customer support reps to be honest and open with us. It is supremely frustrating to talk to customer support reps who appear to read from a script. Attention poker site owners: let your employees talk openly to players. Canned responses and answers to the wrong questions are a plague. In the highly competitive online poker industry, it is suicide to treat your players poorly.
5. Cash on Hand
Absolute Poker, Ultimate Bet and Full Tilt Poker showed us exactly why it is so important to have cash on hand to cover all deposits. When the US government shut down four major online poker sites last April, 3 of those poker sites went belly up because they no longer had revenue coming up. Poker players today are still waiting for their cashouts.
Poker sites should cover 100% of their deposits with cash on hand. Do not use deposits to finance the day-to-day operations of a poker site. Poker sites are not in the banking business and should cover 100% of deposits at all times. If there is a sudden mass cashout, it should not be a problem for that poker room to honor all withdrawals.
