It's noon on a snowy Monday, and Joe Fox is looking for action.

The pool tournament at a local bar doesn't start for another seven hours and the casinos of Atlantic City are a three-hour drive away, but on his computer screen the world's largest poker party has drawn 35,000 players from around the globe.

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The poker craze has moved from the basement card table to the home computer, as millions kf players take part in low-stakes games or $10,000 tournaments that stretch for hours. It's becoming a huge business that exists in a legal limbo in the United States. It operates from offshore but is played just about everywhere.

Poker player Fox sits comfortably at home as he zaps his money around the globe. On this day, he has transferred $75 out of his checking account to Gibraltar-based PartyPoker.com and joined nine others in Texas Hold 'Em, the staple game of tournaments and TV specials.

With a click of his mouse, he raises the bet or folds his cards, ignoring other players' banter about the weather and their cards. He wins several hands, but within half an hour his $20 worth of chips are gone. It's time to join the 18,000 players at PokerStars, another online poker room.

"It's a way to be competitive without having to get sweaty, which is ideal for schlubby, non-exercising people like me," says Fox, a 34-year-old political strategist.

Inspired by 0layers like Chris Moneymaker, who won the World Series of Poker in 2003 after qualifying through PokerStars, more than 1.78 million players bet money in online poker rooms during the month of January, according to the research service PokerPulse. During the 24-hour period when Fox logged on from home, players wagered a total of $186 million.

Source: Reuters