PokerStars implementing casino & sports bets - opinions?

I really hate the idea. It has been so nice with a clean pokerroom without all the casino shit. The risk I see is that they will pay more attention to casino stuff and less on develop the poker game.

Hate it, why mix degenerated gambling with poker?

It's like this, in the casino the house always wins. Even if it's only an 0,00000009% edge, the house will have all your money in the end. The people that keep on coming back to these games are degenerates, and people who can afford to spew money on this type of things.

It's bad rep for poker in the eyes of people new to poker, and people flirting with the idea of trying it. It's very easy to jump to the conclusion (which most non-players do already) that poker is just another casino game.
Naturally with the biggest player base and the best (personal opinion) software out there, pokerstars is probably the company that influences this the most.

I also hate the idea of getting spammed by pokerstars casino offers promotion team(which will probably spam much more than the current poker promo team does), banners and everything else cluttering my client (this is after all one of the reasons I preferred pokerstars to ipoker), and the easy access of gambling to people on tilt (everybody knows how bad it is to make money related decision like putting $100 on roulette under strong emotions).

On the other hand, I kinda like the idea of having more degenerates and first-time players in the micros... ♠_o:

It is often said that casino games soften the field by attracting weaker players, and that might be true for sites like 888 which are a casino first and a poker room second. In the case of Pokerstars, though, I think it might do more harm than good. They are already established as the number one online poker room, boasting the biggest player pool by far, so I think it would lure more weak players away to the roulette tables than it will attract new ones to the poker tables.
As it was pointed out before, it might also hurt the reputation of poker a bit. Pokerstars has been promoting the game through its numerous events as if it's a sport (whether poker actually qualifies as a sport is a matter of debate). Offering it right alongside slots and casino games will make it seem like just another form of gambling to outsiders.

In the end, it could be a blessing or a curse, but my guess is that it will turn out to be the latter. But let's see...

Wow...I don't really know what to say about this, I agree that more people will come to the room and will try to play poker at specially the micro stakes resulting in more fishes and a softer field...but the recreationals that play poker today may be tempted to try casino games and spend money on that.

I think fishes will go to and come from casino games/sports betting so I prefer to be a little optimistic and say that we'll have more fishes.

The negative side is people looking at poker as another casino game...like roulette

Originally posted by mikelito85
I think fishes will go to and come from casino games/sports betting so I prefer to be a little optimistic and say that we'll have more fishes.

That's what I hope as well, but I think that new players who are into this kind of stuff would prefer to go to a dedicated bookie or online casino. No one would doubt that Pokerstars is first and foremost a poker room, so I don't think that they would attract anyone who isn't primarily interested in playing poker in the first place by offering casino sidegames.

Asked to reply here, I wrote about the topic recently:

http://www.pokerstrategy.com/news/world-of-poker/82624/

With regards to Stars, it depends how much marketing goes behind their casino. They are not 'known' to sports bettors and casino gamblers the way that William Hill/Ladbrokes/Betfair are etc, so I'm not sure they (yet) will bring in a lot of new players. In the early stages I think they will just take some players away from poker. But they obviously have a lot of money behind them and long term it could come full circle.

I hope they just leave the casino games on full tilt it just makes it more simpler.

i just hope there Will be option to HIDE casino games when they implement it.....otherwise i think it Will lure Quite some people on the site to spew off their hard earned money on slots and roulettes....in my experience 888,ipoker,microgaming casino games are good for poker as i ran itno Quite some few people and chatedwith them that are on the site for the casino games and they also play poker sometimes when they bink a win on casino games, so its good and bad at the same time as they leave quickly after they win or lose a stack and go back for slutmachines and casino people Will play poker its just as the live casino when you are at the poker table and some dude comes around from roullete and wants to try to gamble here also ,he wins or loses leaves back to casino games, doubles up comes back again, leaves again, round and round.

as for sport betting bring it we want it

Originally posted by BarryCarter

With regards to Stars, it depends how much marketing goes behind their casino. They are not 'known' to sports bettors and casino gamblers the way that William Hill/Ladbrokes/Betfair are etc, so I'm not sure they (yet) will bring in a lot of new players. In the early stages I think they will just take some players away from poker. But they obviously have a lot of money behind them and long term it could come full circle.

Pretty nice sum up, I think the same way.

As long as they don't flaunt it it at the poker tables and make a massive thing about it via email spam and big lobby takeovers... Then I guess I can live with it, but I would definitely prefer not to see it at Stars.