Update on the swedish governmental run pokersite

[BigBlind]

This spring Svenska Spel (Swedish state run gambling company) opened up their online poker room.

The room had about 1.500 players logged on during the first weeks. Then it picked up a little and got to about 4.000 players. When I logged in earlier today there where 6.500 logged on. Very few playmoney tables so the 6.500 are almost all real money players.These are really good numbers considering the room is fairly new and that only Swedes are allowed to play. There will probably be even more players coming months since the summer is basically over here in Sweden. The rake is 2.5% up to 20SEK (app. $2.75).

The head of Svenska Spel earlier this year aired his hope of making the card room a network which would include other EU-based state run gambling companies. One can only hope. That would be a huge room. It would be enough to summon the Scandinavian countries to make a major online poker room. Guess, we’ll have to wait and see.

What if USA opened up their own online card room. USA has about 30 times more citizens than Sweden. Considering the current numbers at Svenska Spel, imagine an US-run online poker room with almost 200.000 real money players. Now that would surely freak out Party, PS and others. Especially with a rake of 2.5%.