A recent article posted on Poker News Daily about PartyPoker capping play chip account balances for non-real money players has caused quite a stir. Poker News Daily sought the opinion of a longtime industry insider on the site’s decision.
Readers of Poker News Daily have been quite vocal about the sudden shift in PartyPoker’s play money stance. The standard on the world’s third largest online poker site is now a maximum of 250,000 play money chips for customers without real money accounts and an unlimited number for those with cash balances. Our original article on the topic has garnered 70 comments from readers of our site and is one of the most talked-about topics of all-time. In fact, some of the comments have a higher word count than the articles themselves.
While a high percentage of the comments lambaste PartyPoker for its decision, our industry insider disagreed with the mob. Our source explained, “This is a business enterprise and they’re not paying customers. These guys are talking about class action lawsuits and boycotting the site. It’s a while different scenario if you’re a paying customer and the business changes its policy, but these are free accounts.”
Affected by PartyPoker’s decision, in part, is the large aftermarket that has popped up for the site’s play chips, with up to one billion being sold for as much as $400 on sites like Chip Empire. Why have a play money site in the first place, you ask? Part of the answer lies in the ability to advertise to certain markets. Our insider noted, “It gives you a way of advertising in the U.S. You can say that it’s not a gambling site and you hope that a decent percentage of those who sign up will decide to deposit real money.” However, the conversion rate is typically between 5% and 10%.
In addition, play money sites allow customers to whet their whistles and fine-tune their poker know-how before venturing to real money games. Our source explained, “A lot of people try out play money tables to get their feet wet. Within a week or a month or however long it takes, they understand the concept of online poker and deposit.” However, operating play money tables, according to our expert, requires policing of avatars and chat, awareness of the aftermarket effects of chip sales, and customer inquiries. All of these efforts take away from the monetary focus of a multi-million dollar online poker room.
In our expert’s experience, when play money bidding popped up on places like eBay, the room would ask the popular auction site to remove it. eBay typically obliged, but new opportunities to bid would continually crop up. Our expert noted, “When [PartyPoker had to contend with] chip dumping and sales going on, that becomes a time-spender that they have to manage. They don’t want to have to invest real money in customers who are in theory customers, but don’t provide you with revenue.”
As you can tell by milling through the comments on our previous PartyPoker play money articles, play chip fans are extremely passionate. Our interviewee reiterated this fact for us: “Some people are rabidly passionate about their play money games. Sometimes it was about selling the chips and sometimes it was about having a contest with their friends. For some people, it was a big deal and so they’re extremely vocal.”
In a poll posted on Thursday on Poker News Daily, we asked, “What do you think about PartyPoker’s new play chip policy capping non-real money players at 250,000 chips?” At the time of writing, an overwhelming 73% of respondents said, “Who cares? It’s just play money,” while only 24% disagreed with PartyPoker’s move.
Stay tuned for the latest reaction to the PartyPoker play money paradigm shift.