Working in the online poker industry for the past few years I have often written about the origins of poker and whilst people regard card games such as Whist and Trumps as perfectly suitable games for polite society, poker is most associated with the wild west in the US and hence is tarnished as a game played by outlaws and bandits.

The explosion of online poker in the US and the new found glamour of Las Vegas have served to perpetuate the concept that poker is an American game. Perhaps it is the widespread popularity of the Texas Holdem variation which is responsible for this or maybe it is that poker is often used in Hollywood films to flush out the motives of the central characters.

With the shutdown of the largest online poker rooms in the US market still fresh in many players' minds it is no co incidence that the industry focus is now turned to Europe and Asia. History is not without a sense of irony or serendipity it seems as we have come to the end of a round trip spanning 20 centuries, before the gun slinging cowboy image of poker being played in saloons in the wild west poker has had weaved a rich tapestry throughout history including ancient China, war time France and 17th Century Europe!

Indeed historians have traced back early references to a game variety of poker right back to around 969AD when the Emperor Mu-tsung is reported to have played "domino cards" with his wife. So whilst companies are now seeing the activities in Macu as indications of a potential market in fact it was one of the first!

This post continues later this week in the mean time why not read some of our other interesting blog posts.

We are always looking for new article writers so if you have a topic you would like to talk about please let us know via our contact page.