Yes but the euro issues were there last year.


The wsop really needs to start marketing in East Asia, Latin America etc (if possible/legal) and other emerging markets.

European attendance might down this year because last year everybody realized how much it sucks to be so long without playing online poker. There is Euro 2012 in Poland/Ukraine, and in general Vegas is just such a miserable place to be during the summer time compared to other places. A lot of people are playing the main event only I would think. The Eurozone crisis is really a non-factor I think.

Looks like final tables or "in the money" are getting tougher due to fewer dead money.And don't get mislead by total prize money at the end of the event as " BIG ONE for ONE DROP" million $$ buy in will help total cash awarded.

Interesting trends:

A) The Omaha events are up. The game's interest continues to improve, even for casuals.

B) The NLHE numbers for all tournaments it seems are down around an aggregate of 15-20%, and more in the higher buyins, $2000 and up (the Rio $240 DS is standing pat). Could be due to:

- Crappy economy with increased debt for consumers, and decreasing income/vacation time for workers. Deflation occured for flights/hotels and Vegas traffic STILL isn't rising. This also could lead to situation where the guy(s) who used to take 2-3 Vegas trips a year, now only do one, and mostly likely for sporting events like Super Bowl/March Madness.

- First round of "poker stimlus" that PokerStars provided the Community (stakers and runners) before last year's WSOP really helped boost the numbers, along with the "screw you, DOJ" factor of people wanting to go play. Once FTP gets bailed out, this will again happen, and THEN we can really gauge how poker MTTs signups are effected for the long term.

C) I think Europeans aren't coming as much b/c:

- EURO2012 (remember, unlike in America, they can bet whenever they want)

- It is such a pain in the ass to get in and our of our country now; not b/c their economy is about to crash (a factor, not huge, tho).

Basically entries are down around 30% everywhere and I mean Rio/Venetian/Caesars/etc. In some places it's down even more. Cash action is down as well. I put this down to the following reasons:

- a lot of people have quit poker not just due to Black Friday, but also the bad publicity surrounding almost every highstakes player being a scammer and every site being filled with bots etc etc
- no new players coming into the game due to lack of poker on TV and advertising in general
- bad economies in both U.S. and Europe
- young kids who were breakeven, losing players, or marginal winners choosing to go back to school/college instead of grinding live poker

the money stuck on Full Tilt isn't even comparable to those 4 factors, since last year people already had money stuck online.

so you think 350mil of the poker economy has nothing to do with it?

learn to read before you post.

I am too of the opinion that numbers are down as a result of a smaller player pool because of Black Friday

Of course the FT money has something to do with it. It would have a decent effect on the amount of people that gave up poker because theyre money is lockedup/gone

I am surprised that other people are shocked. I felt last year numbers would be decent because of the last 'hurrah' factor, and this year if US online poker wasnt resolved then numbers would be really hit hard because of less players and less overwall WSOP online satty packages for people that would only come if they could win their way in from home

If FT funds were released at the same time as stars, I still feel we would see a drop in numbers of this size because people just arent playing the game in that country anymore

ah the internet.

Yep and it's not just fewer Americans in Vegas this summer, it's fewer young guys wearing caps and headphones, fewer Euros, fewer Scandinavians, fewer older guys from the midwest, fewer everyone basically.

Poker is in decline and online poker needs to come back in the U.S., player pools need to stop being segregated for so many european countries, governments worldwide need to start supporting online gambling instead of attacking it, highstakes poker players need to stop being cheating scamming scumbags and instead promote this game(imagine Nadal/Djokovic/Federer all being drug cheats, what would that do to the game of tennis worldwide.. that's what we're getting from top poker pros), and economies in Europe need to pick up. Until then poker is going back to 2005 WSOP numbers and staying there IMHO.

.

Ya, I guess it doesn't matter that the Spanish unemployment rate for 30 and under has risen to 50% in 2012, who needs money to travel across the Atlantic and play pokerz...

Those unemployed people probably aren't the ones travelling over seas to play a poker tournament even if they were employed ducy?

I disagree; those are the exact kind of people that will take all of their disposable income to Vegas with a bunch of friends on a two week vacation. And the statistic is indicative of the overall state of affairs over there, if the 30 and under unemployment rate is 50%, its guaranteed that those that are employed earn far less than they did 5 years ago, same for their bosses and same for the owners of the company they work for.

During the European spending craze after the creation of the Eurozone, everyone (Greece, Spain, Italy, Portugal etc.) was making money hand over fist on borrowed money, whether it was privaet citizens borrowing from the bank or whether the government borrowed it from overseas investors in the form of bonds to finance ridiculously frivolous capital projects that spewed money to contractors and employed tens of housands of people. Then, when the fun stopped, the money vanished and no one will lend the countries or the people in them a wooden nickel as they are about to default on the obligations they already have. Everyone is broke over there and its part of the reason they aren't coming to spew money in the U.S. The crazy part is no one would have lent them money (governments or citizens) in the first place if not for the Eurozone, whoes members have the full faith and backing of the conglomerate.

Basically it was the irrepsonsible nephew having his uncle (Germany/France) cosign a cash loan and then spending it all on hookers and blow, now little nephew is broke, can't pay the original loan back or get a new one and therefore will not be coming to the WSOP.

Cliffs: The whole world is busto