It’s been 20 years since Chris Moneymaker stunned the poker world with his improbable World Series of Poker Main Event win in 2003. Significant changes followed Moneymaker’s victory, both with WSOP and in Las Vegas.
Suddenly, countless casual poker players found themselves aspiring to be the next Moneymaker, and many of them flocked to the Mecca of poker, Las Vegas. Poker tournaments became must-watch TV, featuring staggering payouts and previously unknown individuals becoming poker stars.
Las Vegas and the game of poker are not the same as they were two decades ago, as both continue to evolve after an ordinary regular guy became a hero to millions.
Moneymaker’s succeed ushered within a new time for online poker
WSOP.com Nevada is the largest regulated online poker room in the state. Players can wager with real money at any time of the day or night. Players do not have to be US or Nevada residents. They just need to be physically located within the state to use the software powered by Caesars Entertainment.
The “Moneymaker Era,” as the years following Moneymaker’s big win have been called, was a time of great change for the World Series of Poker. His victory set the poker world on a new course that has led to it now being a part of millions of people’s lives.
Caesars, known as Harrah’s back in 2005 when it acquired WSOP, has seen a tremendous increase in interest in the event.
ESPN was the first to respond after Moneymaker won, as it began regularly televising action from the final table. By 2011, it was broadcasting the final table from start to finish. In addition, ESPN also had the entire 55-event schedule shown across three separate mediums: ESPN, WSOP.com, and ESPN3.com.
Soon, poker tournaments sprung up all over the TV dial and online. It was hard not to find a poker tournament on TV at any time of the day.
In 2017, WSOP started offering online bracelets for winners of online events. Casino gambling became a way for poker players to make a fortune.
Poker continued to grow, and in 2019, the attendance record was broken for most entries, with 28,371 players participating in the multi-flight competition.
UIGEA measures in to stop the growth regarding online poker
Online poker’s trajectory, however, was foiled just three years after Moneymaker’s success. The Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 (UIGEA) was not intended to stop online poker, but it effectively did so when it was enacted. Designed as part of port security, the legislation prohibited gambling across state lines.
A thriving real-money online poker market was suddenly shut down. Several states have since enacted their own online poker laws, but playing across state lines is limited at best. However, that may be changing.
Nevada, Delaware, and New Jersey have a sharing agreement, allowing players in the three states to play for money against each other. Pennsylvania and West Virginia may join in the near future. Michigan, meanwhile, has also joined that compact, but currently only PokerStars has opened the door for players to compete against those from other states.
Las Vegas alone has changed drastically in the last 20 years
Poker is not the only thing that has changed since Moneymaker shocked the world.
The landscape of gambling in the US has undergone significant transformations in the last 20 years.
For instance, The Sahara was closed in 2011, but it reopened as SLS Las Vegas three years later. Then, one hotel tower was rebranded as W Las Vegas. It soon became SLS again before the entire complex was rebranded as Sahara Las Vegas in 2019.
The Imperial Palace changed its name to The Quad in 2012 before being rebranded once again in 2014 as The Linq. The Westgate was formerly known as the Las Vegas Hilton, which was the home of Elvis Presley in the 1970s. In 2003, the Cosmopolitan was still just an idea. It took another seven years until it was built and opened.
In the last 20 years, new casinos like The Wynn, Encore, and Circa have emerged, while others, like the Riviera and the Hard Rock, have met their demise. It’s not just the hotels and casinos that have changed either. In 2003, there were approximately 50 different buffets in Las Vegas. Now, there are less than four.
Casinos added poker rooms continuously after 2003, only to see many of them close when the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020. They are now just beginning to reopen across the city.
McBride is a Denver-based writer and reporter with extensive experience in the NBA and the Denver Nuggets. T.L. is a native of El Monte who also publishes reports and research on the legal gambling sector for several local Catena Media websites in the United States.
