Internet poker games are popping up all over cyberspace, bringing the thrill of chance to one’s room any hour of the week.

One such site is www.partypoker.us.com, which allows card fans to play for free or for money, said Vikrant Bhargava, general manager for the site. Many do play for free, although there are those who hold a desire to increase their earnings, he said.

“People can use credit cards or bank transfers on our site ... or they can play (the free tables),” Bhargava said. “Tables usually have 10 people playing.”

Low-pay tables on the site start out at 25 cents and 50 cents each, with the higher tables being $15 and $30 games. However, more than half of the visitors at www.partypoker.com play free games that don’t involve money, Bhargava said.

“With poker, there is an advantage with Internet sites,” he said. “If you walk into a card room in Las Vegas, you’d have a hard time because the limits there are high enough. You can still play with $5 in your pocket on our site, but you can’t in Las Vegas. You’d spend more money in Vegas with parking and everything else than you would on an entire poker game on our site.”

On-line players, who must be 18 years old to play for money, also can get the table of their choice as fast as they can click a computer mouse, as opposed to waiting in line in a crowded room, Bhargava said.

“People can play for extended hours, but we check and we limit how much a person can lose,” he said. “If you lose $5,000 in a night, then red flags go up where we don’t allow that person to come in again. We want to make sure we don’t have a high-risk case in our database.”

If an individual begins to lose a significant amount of money, he or she is asked to supply background facts and other information to the Web site administrators, or is banned from using the site, Bhargava said. For most players, the site’s monthly deposit limit is $5,000, and its lifetime deposit limit is $50,000, he said. Player loss is typically much lower than the amount he or she deposits because players also cash out, Bhargava said.

These restrictions were designed to protect the on-line player from losing too much money, he said.

“We had 60,000 players on-line simultaneously the other night, so you can imagine accommodating a room for 60,000 people in a casino,” Bhargava said. “You’d have to have a stadium for that.”

Karen Infield, a therapist for the Western Arkansas Counseling & Guidance Center, said on-line poker, like most things, can be enjoyed in moderation. However, habits can form if the person begins to crave playing poker on the Internet, she said.

“If a person is going to develop a gambling addiction, it’s a slow process,” Infield said. “It takes some time before that develops into an addiction.”

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Disruptions in one’s personal and/or professional life are early symptoms that playing poker is becoming a problem, she said.

“If they’re having arguments with family on how much they’re spending, or if they’re selling items from the house, then there’s a problem,” Infield said.

Anyone with an addictive personality or a compulsion for spending should avoid playing on-line poker, she said. The same goes for anyone who has had any kind of alcohol or drug problem, Infield said.

“If a person gets a disability check that’s $500 each month, and they lose $200, then they’ve lost almost half of their income,” she said.

Various statistics state that two-thirds of “pathological gamblers” are men, although many men and women play on-line poker without problems, Infield said.

“If the person believes he or she is thinking about gambling a lot more than they normally would, like they’re planning their next gambling adventure, or if they use more and more money to get the same amount of excitement, then it can be a problem,” she said.

“And if they’ve tried to stop and cut back, and they aren’t successful, then it also can be a problem,” Infield added.

Being aware of symptoms is the first step in keeping the enjoyment of poker in check, she said.

“It may be more dangerous on the Internet because of the availability of it and the duration that it’s available,” Infield said. “With the Internet, it’s available all the time.”

Bhargava said he encourages everyone to play in a responsible manner, and that his Web site’s cash limits should help decrease the chances of a player becoming addicted to poker.

“Those who like poker want to be where the action is, and the action is online,” he said.

Source: Scott Smith, TIMES RECORD