By Kory Travers | June 20, 2009

While the action by the United States Department of Justice in seizing nearly $30 million - which is believed to be from American online poker players - from online payment processors shouldn’t have an effect on the company, Party Poker has seen a sizeable increase in action over the past couple of weeks.

According to the online poker tracking website PokerScout, Party Poker has seen a sizeable increase in players over the last two weeks. The action on the site rose 12% this last week, keeping up with a 15% increase that it showed the previous week. While Party Poker doesn’t accept American action, the raise in players is thought to be due to the Million Dollar Hand promotion that is currently running on the site. Stocks for PartyGaming also rose significantly after the $30 million seizure in the United States.

For those sites that accept American action, PokerStars has seen the effects of the seizure the most and other American facing sites such as Full Tilt Poker and the Cake Poker Network have actually seen increases in their action since the DoJ seizure. According to PokerScout, PokerStars’s traffic was down 5% this week and has reached its lowest level so far in 2009. It doesn’t seem to be affecting the tournament action on the site, however; last week’s Sunday Million tournament was temporarily replaced by a satellite for the WSOP Main Event with 200 seats guaranteed. That tournament exceeded the guarantee when it generated a prize pool of $2.8 million and offered 233 Main Event seats.

For the year, online poker is still growing despite the continued worldwide economic situation. PokerScout’s research indicates that online poker is growing at an annual rate of more than 30% percent. Leading the pack in growth are PokerStars (54% growth), Full Tilt Poker (59%), the Entraction Network (an astounding 88%) and the Cake Poker Network (56%). Those online sites that have been under performing for this year include Bodog Poker (down 19%), Everest Poker (15%) and Betfair (11%).

PokerScout is the industry leader in poker statistics, generating 24 hour a day reports on the action for every online poker game in the industry. As such, its reports on any action regarding online poker are critical to understanding the industry now and in the future. To view some of the statistics that they present or to see an up to the minute report on your favorite poker room, visit PokerScout to learn more.

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