poker site costs

[ReyBiz]

Hello 2+2,

This is my first post on these boards so hello all!
I've got some questions about some technicalities behind online poker. I hope this is the right forum for this question, if not please tell me where i should go.

1. I've been wondering how heavy a server is needed to run a site that has say, 10000 people online and playing.
2. Also, is the software behind it very complicated or could someone who studied programming for some years probably make it? Maybe it's the random shuffler that's expensive to create? Bottom line, what do you think did any online site pay for their software?

I understand these companies pump alot of money into legal stuff and promotion, but the technical aspect, is it expensive? Tell me your thoughts about this.

Thanks for your response!

[john kane]

You would be far better joining a network. From what I understand you then pay the network a fee for the use of it's software etc.

Then all you need to do is have a payment system set up and website and promote.

[carol-ann]

The software is not hard to make to support the functionality of a poker site, what is hard is to make it well enough to support 10k concurrent users.

Most current poker software suck in some way, be it scalability, usability or something else.

Party crashes and hogs memory, I find Stars poorly usable, OnGame is a complete mess, and many of the smaller sites just crash randomly. FTP seems alright though I haven't played it much.