Against the tide of cost-cutting measures and reduced travel due to rising gasoline costs, many online poker players are bucking the money saving trend. Proving still that the poker players economy is a strong one, traffic at the top online poker sites increased last month according to data from Market Pulse.

Still the leader and still growing, Poker Stars topped the list with an average of 17,451 players per day. This represents a 34 percent increase in their average traffic from the month before. Full Tilt was strong as well with a 28 percent increase in their traffic and an average of almost 8,000 players at any given time during the day.

The rest of the top 5 sites all saw increases, which makes for an interesting argument. Is the poker economy stronger than the US economy as a whole? Based on this data one would have to say yes. Opponents of online poker would likely argue that this is a slice of information and not valid over the long term. Their argument would also probably center on the assumption that most online poker players are "problem gamblers" and are going into debt to fund their lifestyle.

Regardless of where you stand on the issue, it's clear that online poker continues to grow. Worst case? It's a great diversion from the stream of bad news that many US residents deal with on a daily basis.

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Source: www.aintluck.com