Firstly let us reassure you that we are not suggesting that online bingo is as intellectually challenging as is online poker; we confer that in terms of skill levels poker is by far the most demanding of the two, though in both poker and bingo a little bit of luck can go a long way. When we suggest that online bingo might be the next online poker, we are talking about its popularity amongst online gamers along with the revenue it generates for online bingo operators.

It is interesting to note that although the growth of online poker has over recent years has been sensational, its growth has not been a smooth one and on occasion it has changed direction and has gone into a decline. This was never clearer than during the Football World Cup in 2010. During the period immediately before, during and for some time afterwards that number of online poker players dropped so dramatically that some online poker operators got into cash flow problems. Presumably this was due to many poker players being keen football fans and also could have had something to do with a temporary change in gambling patters.

The situation would have been much worse had it not been for a rapid growth in online bingo revenues, which were almost matched by increasing online casino betting. Again the reasons for this rapid growth are a little unclear, but as the online bingo demographic is somewhat different from the poker demographic, there could be a relationship between the two phenomena. Possibly people who were not very interested in the football, for instance partners of those who were, turned their attention to online bingo in order to escape the football deluge and to find satisfying entertainment elsewhere.

Now that the World Cup is well and truly over, poker revenues are again on the increase, but so too are bingo revenues and it seems that the new customers generated during that period, far from deserting the game, and playing it even more fervently than before. In terms of popularity, online bingo seems to have become the new poker.