[Dennisa]

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Expenses:
1. Players would pay whatever fees for deposits. It is done in other businesses. The MC charges are about 2%.


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When I was playing at Gamesgrid as a prop player we payed 6% for each neteller deposit. This was at a tier two site with an endorsement and track record with Backgammon. Your site will be lucky to be considered a tier 3 site.

MC charges 1.6% + a small transaction fee for swiped transactions. It is standard to add 1% for mail order. Another 1% for international transaction or corporate cards. The porn industry typically pays another 1-2% premium above mail order. Gambling transactions run higher than porn. 2% will never happen. I would expect 7-10% if you could get accepted at all. I do not know what epassport charges, I would guess around the 8.9% neteller charged for instapurchases. At another 1-2% since your site will have no track record.

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2. Cost of hosting a sever. About $1,000/month. Set up multiple servers for backup, total $5,000/month or $60k/year.


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Probably correct, but you would need a company that asks no questions. No budget for multiple T1 or T3 connections. Major providers will not be happy hosting gambling transactions. Its the lawyers.
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3. Customer service is scalable based upon the number of players. I don't know how to price that.
4. Security team to uncover collusion. Again, that may be tough to budget. One thought is that you publish all hand histories and let the players police it.

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You need to budget more than just collusion. Who is going to investigate the deposit fraud?
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Revenue:
1. Donations. If there are 1,000 players with 1,000 hands per month, that is 1 million hands. If donations are $1 per hand, that is $1 million per month. For comparison, PokerStars runs about 100 million hands per month.


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1M hands per month will be an average of 35 tables operating 16 hours a day 30 days per month. That seems very optimistic for the start.
Putting a donations button on the table will take this quasi legal enterprise into an illegal enterprise in a sufficient number of states.

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Remember, the cost is scalable depending on the number of players. The setup costs are low because you can get software that is in the public domain (ie., pokerspot)

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No offense, but someone better read the code with a fine tooth comb to make sure Dutch and company did not leave back doors for themselves.