50% of people would gamble their partner in a game of poker

Added: (Thu Sep 01 2005)

Pressbox (Press Release) - News Release
Date: 3rd August 2005



Over 50% of people would be willing to gamble their partners in a game of poker, in a poll by drinkstuff.com, the UK’s largest supplier of poker equipment.

When asked what they would be willing to lose in a game of poker, 53% of participants said they would gamble their partner over their car or their home.

With the phenomenal rise in the numbers of people playing poker, this could see individuals in the same situation as Richard Gere and Demi Moore in the classic film, Indecent Proposal.

Influenced by online gaming, Drinkstuff.com itself has seen sales of its poker equipment go through the roof.

Scott Bowskill, the founder of Drinkstuff.com, comments,

“Our revenue from poker equipment has doubled on last years sales. We now buy our poker chips by the million to keep up with demand! This has been influenced by the popularity of online gaming, but people still obviously want to play face to face, with many of our customers holding regular poker nights instead of going out to bars.”

The ever-increasing popularity of poker has been fuelled by the floatation of a number of the key gaming companies. This started with PartyGaming in June, which floated for £4.64 billion. It is now valued at more than £6billion and looks set to enter the FTSE 100 Index of leading shares next month. Many more gambling and online gaming companies are following suit, with Coral Eurobet set to float later this autumn for £800 million.

In 2004 the annual turnover of the gambling industry rose 25pc to £78 billion
Analysts estimate that revenues from the industry globally have doubled over the past three years to $9bn (€7.35bn). Some analysts have predicted that within a decade the gambling industry could be worth $125bn

Note to Editor
For more information please contact:
Nicola Snell
Zero2one PR 0207 221 0565 Nicola.snell@zero2one.com