Yahoo Real Money Online Poker Site?

A new Yahoo free-to-play online poker site could become a serious contender in the realm of real money online poker in the foreseeable future.

Seemingly out of nowhere Yahoo released a Texas Hold’em portal over this past weekend, as observed by Forbes.com.

Special Contributor to Forbes.com Marc Edelman suggests that Yahoo may be positioning itself to capitalize on a legal Web poker market in the U.S.

It is not surprising that Yahoo would launch a Texas Hold’em portal based on the growing interest in online poker, especially among the young-adult male demographic.  Nevertheless, for now, Yahoo’s Texas Hold’em contest does not pay any prizes to the winners beyond free chips to use for gaming.

By not assigning any value to its chips beyond the opportunity to continue playing inits online casino, the  Yahoo’s Texas Hold’em game most likely avoids the legal element of “reward.” By doing so, the Texas Hold’em portal seems to comply with most state and federal laws, even presuming Texas Hold’em is declared to be a game of chance. At the same time, the new Yahoo Texas Hold’em portal could be easily monetized if the legal environment were to become more favorable.

Yahoo is already well established in the fantasy sports market, which in recent months has witnessed explosive growth thanks to the newfound popularity in one-day contests, though Yahoo itself does not offer daily fantasy events for real money.

- Patrick Flanagan, Gambling911.com