PokerStars Continues to Dominate Online Poker Market

PokerStars has the reputation as being one of the most popular poker rooms on the internet today and it has the goal to be even more popular. PokerStars has become the biggest firm in the worldwide online poker market and has an estimated annual revenue of $1.4 billion and some $500 million in profits. This financial success is in part due to the revenue generated from the rake that PokerStars is able to charge players for hosting poker games or tournaments.

In Richmond Hill, just north of Toronto, Ontario, Canada in a non descript office on the third floor of a suburban building there resides PYR Software, which considers itself the software development company that helps “customers worldwide to retain industry leadership.”

PYR Software has one very important client in it's portfolio, PokerStars. The prime directive for PYR Software is to develop and maintain the software used to operate the huge PokerStars network. Isai Scheinberg a former IBM programmer started the firm in 2000 and in turn helped his son Mark, create PokerStars, which is now headquartered in the Isle of Man jurisdiction legally hosting online poker games for people around the globe. PokerStars at one time dominated the US online poker market but was brought down by the prohibition on online gambling in the States. PokerStars still looks to the US as a source of revenue and has maintained it USA connections all along. PokerStars says it has legal opinions from several U.S. law firms that are confirming it is not violating U.S. law. “PokerStars believes that the passage of UIGEA in 2006 did nothing to change the legality of real money online poker in the U.S.,” The PokerStars official statement says, “It is PokerStars’ position that both the plain language and the legislative intent of the Wire Act strictly limits its application to sports wagering.”