Ultimate Poker Closes Doors in Nevada

After pulling out of the New Jersey online poker market in September, Ultimate Poker has announced that it will also be withdrawing from the Nevada market too. Ultimate Poker were in fact the first to market in the state and is part of the Station Casinos group, and maybe the fact that it was first out of the traps is what led to its downfall. Many observers have pointed to the fact that the software was nowhere near as good as it should have been, and it's failure to hold onto those players that it got through its virtual doors was down to the poor playing experience.

Tom Breitling, Chairman of Ultimate Gaming, does not of course believe that to be the case, stating that, "As has been the case in other jurisdictions, online poker revenues in Nevada have fallen far short of original projections. Moreover, the state-by-state approach to online gaming has created an extremely cost-prohibitive and challenging operating environment. These factors have combined to make the path to profitability very difficult and uncertain. Consequently, we have decided to cease operations." Ultimate Poker is still up and running at present, and although has made notification to close, that cannot actually happen until certain regulatory procedures have been followed.

Is it poor software or just the plain simple fact that Breitling is referring to...the fact that state by state regulation simply does not provide the amount of players that are required for online poker to run with any success? We'd have to go with Mr Breitling on this one and argue that in a state such as Nevada with a small population, then any room would find it difficult to survive in a market with more than one choice, no matter what the software. Online poker comes down to liquidity, and that can only be provided by players at tables, and small amounts of players can only sustain a room for so long. Offshore rooms such as Bovada Poker that welcome players from across the US have no issue with player numbers, and while Nevada, Delaware and New Jersey rooms are so limited with the amount of people they can actually market to, then the math is quite simple.