Not sure how my comments before read, but guess I didn't say expressly before that yeah I don't think that a new boom is likely possible without a revival of legal poker in the US either. Guess I meant to say that maybe it'd be possible to prevent the market from contracting though, by bringing rake rates in line with the income levels of their current customer base?
Like if the rake was 6bi/100 in 2011 when there was all that US money flowing around, and the market was already in decline at that point, then maybe reducing it to 5bi/100 at the time might have helped reduce the decline? And then when the US market was lost altogether ... maybe now rake needs should ideally only be around 3bi/100? A reduction in rake of that size would be enough for there to be winning players again at most stakes, wouldn't it?
Guess sites don't want to lower rake because they think their profits will just instead flow into the pockets of players - but maybe players being allowed to profit needs to be viewed as another necessary 'cost', just like taxes, and marketing, and promo costs? Otherwise no one's going to recommend poker as a hobby to their friends, if it's more likely people'll wind up losing money to the site, rather than making any money at the tables - and then how is poker supposed to grow if it's seen as a money pit? If people just want to play poker for fun, there's Zynga.
Anyways, just thought that maybe Amaya's stock wasn't rising because poker's not doing well (because rake's too high) - but nothing ever changes really ...
Last edited by TrustySam; 04-01-2015 at 11:39 PM.