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By nature, online poker already uses tech to make one of history’s most beloved card games even more fun and accessible. All you need is an internet connection to play with people from around the globe. Countless apps and websites have even come up with new, innovative game formats to keep online poker fresh and exciting. That said, it’s no surprise that over 40 million people worldwide play it on a regular basis.
As new technologies emerge, online poker continues to get even better. For example, many players now use the generative AI bot ChatGPT to hone their skills and improve their performance at the digital table. They can even use virtual reality headsets to make their games even more immersive, enhancing what’s usually considered a remote activity.
Yet although these emerging technologies have greatly benefited the online poker experience, they’ve also introduced some new risks. When a data breach hit the popular operator PokerStars, for example, it risked the sensitive data of more than 110,000 players—including those who frequented its poker VR app Vegas Infinite. AI integration has also seen the rise of bots that masquerade as regular online players but can play mathematically perfect poker, creating what Bloomberg reporter Kit Chellel calls a “hopeless” environment that removes fun and fairness from the game.
To tackle these issues, the internet’s most popular poker websites have turned to yet another emerging technology for solutions: the blockchain. Now, players can rely on blockchain-savvy websites to up the ante and enhance their online poker experiences in the following ways:
More seamless, secure payments
Traditionally, players can use regular currencies like the US dollar to deposit their buy-ins and withdraw their winnings. All they need to do is link a debit card, credit card, or e-wallet to their account. However, the time it takes for financial institutions to review and approve online poker transactions can significantly delay how long players wait to send and receive money. More crucially, since they need to provide their personal information when linking cards and wallets to their accounts, they can also become vulnerable to data breaches. Both of these things can significantly take away from the online poker experience. As such, it’s no surprise that you can now use cryptocurrencies to play on your favorite poker app or website. A quick look at Americas Cardroom, the biggest online poker site in the US and one of the first in the industry to accept cryptocurrencies, shows how that can make a player’s experience more seamless, secure, and enjoyable.
Best known for its wide range of online tournaments, including its popular Venom series, this leading operator began facilitating crypto transactions way back in 2014. That experience allows it to accept over 60 different tokens today—including Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Tether—on its website, desktop client, and mobile app. Its players can now enjoy a number of benefits as a result, including a larger welcome bonus for first-time deposits made with crypto and faster transactions that take less than an hour to complete. Since cryptocurrencies are also hosted on the blockchain, each deposit and withdrawal is also encrypted and can be made anonymously to safeguard sensitive information. That’s helped the site more securely provide larger tournament guarantees online without compromising player safety. In fact, its Venom tournament nabbed a Guinness World Record in 2019 for offering the largest cryptocurrency jackpot in online poker. The prize money of over $1.05 million was won by the Brazilian user “TheBigKid.”
Fairer, more transparent gameplay
Fair gameplay can be challenging to achieve in online poker. If an operator shuffles cards using repeating patterns, for example, game outcomes can become more predictable and less enjoyable, as some players may recognize those patterns and use them to their advantage. To combat that, the majority of poker sites now use random number generators or RNGs to shuffle their cards. However, ensuring fairness becomes even more difficult when taking poker bots into account. That’s especially true now that they’re becoming more sophisticated and harder for online poker operators to detect. According to Chellel, the average poker bot today is coded with “the world’s most advanced poker-playing software… [and] wins just enough and looks like a human.” To better ensure fair game outcomes in terms of both shuffling and bot detection, a number of poker sites now leverage the blockchain. CoinPoker, one of the world’s largest crypto poker rooms, likely pioneered this strategy.
CoinPoker is hosted on the Ethereum blockchain, which we’ve noted boasts some unique features that can’t be found in other crypto projects. Thanks to its virtual machine, it can facilitate a number of blockchain-based applications, including creating more complex smart contracts that support cryptographic hash functions. CoinPoker exclusively uses these smart contracts to make gameplay on its site fairer and more transparent. It starts by leveraging the Ethereum blockchain’s KECCAK-256 cryptographic hash function to secure the results of its certified RNG, ensuring game outcomes can’t be tampered with. However, players can view the smart contract at any point in a game to verify randomness. CoinPoker’s smart contracts can also track a player’s actions, deposits, and withdrawals in real time to detect suspicious behavior, allowing it to immediately ban bot accounts from its site. The contracts also help the site regularly release Proof of Reserves reports, allowing it to provide players with even more transparency regarding how their buy-ins and withdrawals are stored.
More engaging, rewarding gameplay
When it comes to online gaming, the metaverse is the newest and hottest place to be. In this virtual 3D space, players can make their own avatars, customize them to their hearts’ content, and live through them as they play a wide range of exciting and immersive games. Unlike Vegas Infinite and similar titles, however, metaverses are decentralized—making them more secure but just as immersive. Because they’re hosted on the blockchain, they’re also capable of offering players more engaging reward systems using digital assets like non-fungible tokens (NFTs). These benefits significantly contribute to the overwhelming success of ICE Poker, which can be played in Decentral Games’ metaverse.
In “Decentraland,” players can do more than just enjoy a regular game of online poker. Once they obtain an ICE Wearable NFT—which, as its name implies, can be worn by their avatars—they can actually start earning cryptocurrency after completing daily poker challenges. Even players without wearable tech can win rewards in this way. They can simply borrow one of these NFTs from another player and split their earnings 70:30. The accessibility of these rewards, combined with the immersive experiences the metaverse has to offer, shows how effectively the blockchain can be used to innovate online poker and make it even more exciting to play. In fact, it’s likely why there are at least 1,000 players enjoying ICE Poker at any given time—and they make up over 30% of Decentraland’s overall user base.
By adding seamless, secure features, improving transparency, and innovating how games themselves are played, the blockchain and its related technologies can up the ante for online poker players in meaningful and effective ways.
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