Setting up a poker site?

KeyzDT

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Word has gotten around to family and friends about what I do in a basic sense: "make money from websites".

Now I got 2 friends of my parents hitting me up to build and promote a poker site for them for $XXXX. So it looks like I'm running an all-in-one SEO shop for people now (hahaah funny how business just starts out of the blue like that)

Normally I would rather spend time on my OWN projects as they make me some nice coin but because of the money being offered I guess I could grind hard this month. however I dont know shit about gaming sites.

I looked into turnkey options ranging from a few hundred to several thousands of dollars and relayed this message to my "clients" that it will cost $XXXX for the necessary software +$XXXX for my original compensation. Now their on hold because they see how expensive this can get.

Original gaming software for a complete "do it yourself" package is 50K+ from what I seen. They arent interested in that.

I don't care if they give me the green light but now I'm thinking about the law... HOw do you even run a gaming site? Do I have to host it in costa rica something like that? What kind of loophole do people exploit to do this?

I'm guessing the turnkey option would eliminate all the hassel but now your turning over a chunk of the profits.....

Personally I think this is a ridiculous project but I have to at least look into available options....

anyone with experience on this?
 
No offence but if you're asking these questions, you don't want to start an online gaming site.

It's a serious undertaking, very expensive, and you're a target for both hardcore fraud and hardcore legal action - just look at how Pokerstars and a bunch of the other big poker sites just got dismantled this last week. This past week, online gaming has been demonstrated to currently be very illegal in the US, and that's where your main customers will come from.

I'd tell your friends to forget about it, and spend their $$$ on one of the many other opportunities for money online that aren't so fraught with peril.
 
100% accurate.

A poker platform needs millions to start.
The first year is nothing but losing money. And we are talking money that only investors can afford.

I was a part of a Gaming launch a few years back and I vouch and guarantee that every day is hard even when you make thousands (which we eventually did).

Moreover - You seem to know nothing about the gaming industry.
Online gambling is so complicated in terms of regulations and payment processing (Not to mention that 80% of world's population are LEGALLY closed to online gambling) that if you don't have years of experience in this business - Failure is almost a given.

Dealing with fraud is the hardest issue; you can't imagine what thousands of people will do for pocket change.

If you take part in it - I say forget it.
If you only build the web stuff - Why not. You don't have any responsibilities you apparently can't handle.

Best wishes.

No offence but if you're asking these questions, you don't want to start an online gaming site.

It's a serious undertaking, very expensive, and you're a target for both hardcore fraud and hardcore legal action - just look at how Pokerstars and a bunch of the other big poker sites just got dismantled this last week. This past week, online gaming has been demonstrated to currently be very illegal in the US, and that's where your main customers will come from.

I'd tell your friends to forget about it, and spend their $$$ on one of the many other opportunities for money online that aren't so fraught with peril.
 
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Thanks for the advice. I relayed the message to my clients and they will sit on it. In other words, I let them know this is not a project I can help them with.
 
You need a budget of $x,xxx,xxx to properly setup a gaming site.

- Gaming License fees are $25k - $50k/year+ (Kahnawake, Isle of Man, Antigua)
- The requirements you need to meet to even obtain a gaming license are very complex
- There is only a few places on earth which will host your platform, and hosting/rackspace/bandwidth in these facilities can easily run you $xx,xxx - $xxx,xxx/PER MONTH
- You will need to spend high $xxx,xxx - $x,xxx,xxx to build a player base
- and a ton more of expenses

White label solutions like you were looking at for $50k are a joke for the most part, you might as well be an affiliate and take your 30% cut, because you don't make much more as a white label partner.

It sounds like your friends parents are complete idiots if they think this can be done for low $x,xxx. My advice is to quit wasting your time with them as they clearly have pie in the sky expectations on a shoestring budget, they will waste your time and nothing will pan out for you.
 
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get more into niche products - better then spending millions in a gaming site without knowing, whether you get anything back in the long term.
 
hey i can sell you poker software, i paid 15k for it few years ago

i can show you demo and stuff hit me up private msg me

our biz is selling software, so ican help you, according to your budget too, not high cost
 
Forget poker too many big boys in the game go for a smaller targeted niche like
Gin rummy or kaluki.
Don't worry about gaming licenses and stuff like that there's no such thing as a world gaming license and just host your shit in China, Mongolia,
Iran or somewhere safe and bank in a secure offshore environment.

Don't listen to people who tell you you're out of your league, Nothing ventured
nothing gained. Start with a small community and grow.
 
if they had a good plan to market the poker website, then execute on the plan and earn a decent CPA with someone else site, if they didn't have a good plan to market the poker website, then get them to prepay you for development :D because it won't matter how good the site works.
 
i was recently on a plane to eastern canada (where the indian reserves are) and sat next to an indian chief. Like one of those guys that wear those hugh feather hats. We had a chat and he was saying how young guys like me are always approaching him with money for JV mainly to do with some type of online gambling. seems like the place to go for that type of thing
 
i was recently on a plane to eastern canada (where the indian reserves are) and sat next to an indian chief. Like one of those guys that wear those hugh feather hats. We had a chat and he was saying how young guys like me are always approaching him with money for JV mainly to do with some type of online gambling. seems like the place to go for that type of thing

Can you post a pic of the feather hat? that is awesome....
 
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