Scant Remaining Online Poker News Outlets Exist
The world of online poker journalism has taken a nose dive. In the last year alone, three key poker websites have been sold to crypto advertising companies, who now exploit these trusted domains to peddle unregulated offshore gaming.
The new owners adopt a cunning approach: they purchase established domains with robust search authority, subsequently re-directing that traffic to crypto gambling sites operating outside of regulatory boundaries. In a matter of moments, sites that once championed regulated online poker become shills for "no KYC crypto casinos" and "GAMSTOP avoider casinos" — intentionally luring vulnerable gamblers seeking to dodge gambling safeguards.
This dramatic change leaves a large hole in online poker journalism, as there are scarce websites left that support legal, regulated online poker.
Crypto Gambling Takes the Reins
Earlier this week, our sister publication Poker Industry PRO unveiled an in-depth investigation revealing how one company had surreptitiously acquired three esteemed poker websites to promote crypto gambling over the past year.
It had long been rumored that the marketing firm had purchased PokerScout.com over a year ago. Before the sale, it was owned by a prominent US-regulated affiliate company, Catena Media. The site, once dedicated to endorsing legal US poker sites, became a promoter of offshore crypto sites overnight - later adding pages dedicated to "no KYC crypto casinos" and alike.
However, this was merely the beginning of the iceberg. As detailed in the PRO article, this same company also acquired CardPlayer.com at the end of 2024 and PokerStrategy.com in January 2025, selling the latter for $6.1 million to Playtech.
These three websites were once pillars of poker journalism. In the past, PokerScout.com was a dynamic source of information for online poker enthusiasts seeking insights into the poker landscape. Meanwhile, CardPlayer.com was the digital embodiment of the renowned print magazine with an almost four-decade legacy, and PokerStrategy.com was once the globe's most prominent poker player community and influential poker affiliate.
Now, under new ownership, these platforms have a straightforward business model: they buy up domains, pitch cryptocurrency online casinos, and poker. They favor Coin Poker as their top choice regardless of jurisdiction, while their myriad online casino partners are bolstered by regulatory approval in Anjouan — a remote island in the Indian Ocean.
To execute this operation, they acquire domain names related to online poker, online casinos, esports, tech, bitcoin news, or even lapsed websites for schools. The game plan: add a set of landing pages pumping out terms like "no KYC casinos," "offshore casinos," "fastest paying casinos," and "GAMSTOP avoider casinos." (GAMSTOP is the UK's self-exclusion system implemented by licensed casinos.)
This strategy is known as SEO parasitism. Search engines like Google recognize a site with years of built-up authority, trust, and traffic and, naturally, ranks it highly. Unaware of the site's new ownership, it assumes the fresh pages focusing on crypto gambling are also valuable, authentic content, quickly placing them atop search results. To maintain the illusion of authenticity, these sites continue their "regular" news and content production, albeit often thin, plagiarized articles produced on the cheap.
Google attempts to crack down on this shady practice, but it's a never-ending battle of whack-a-mole: As one domain gets deindexed, another gets bought up. A search today for "GAMSTOP avoider casinos" turns up top results from sites like RochdaleOnline.co.uk, gdalabel.co.uk, eSports Insider, and Abercorn School — all owned by the same company, pushing the same crypto casinos.
The Remnants of Regulated Online Poker Journalism
This piece isn't about the business of SEO parasitism; for that, consult the original PRO article and the Recluedo.com blog (which uncovered the enterprise orchestrating the entire operation). This topic transcends the realm of gambling.
This article is also not concerned with the ethics or legality of promoting these sites. It is worth considering, however, who might be searching for terms like "no KYC casinos" or "GAMSTOP avoider casinos" and finding pages that endorse unregulated crypto sites. (CoinPoker.com, along with nearly 200 associated URLs, has been removed from Google search results in the UK, deemed illegal owing to its unlicensed operation outside of GAMSTOP.)
Here, we'll ponder the implications of this shift for the state of online poker journalism, particularly the dwindling number of sites dedicated to advocating for legal, regulated online poker. Counting on one hand the number of such sites is hardly an exaggeration.
Consider, for instance, the value of the domain PokerStrategy.com, once acquired by Playtech an astounding 12 years ago for $50 million as the busiest online poker community in the world. Its worth has been decimated to only a tenth of its original value, only to be sold to a corporation whose entire business revolves around the promotion of unregulated crypto online casinos.
In 2017, PokerScout.com was sold to Catena Media for a mere $350,000. Catena couldn't make it work, so it sold it on to a company that could. If you search for "top online poker sites in Nevada," PokerScout will rank highly, naming Coin Poker as its choice. That's its value now.
Once a site openly promotes offshore sites, there's no returning. In the US market, affiliates must obtain a license to operate, and they cannot work with offshore sites simultaneously. Even outside the US, most legitimate operators are reluctant to collaborate with sites that promote unregulated sites. This forces sites to pick a side: uphold the rules, or join the black market. Over the last couple of years, an increasing number of sites have decided the latter is more feasible.
Catena Media has almost entirely abandoned online poker as a product to promote. It acquired OnlinePokerReport at its peak, the leading site for online poker news regulation, then shut it down. USPoker.com is now dormant; PokerScout sold. The reality is that the regulated online poker market is so tough that it's more lucrative either to promote an offshore site or sell it to someone who can.
It has reached the point where there is almost no one left to support the expansion of legal, regulated online poker.
Radio Silence for Our #GrowPAPoker Campaign
The impact of this can be observed in our recent efforts to encourage Pennsylvania to join the multi-state internet gaming agreement and facilitate shared liquidity. We launched the campaign #GrowPAPoker just over a year ago, with the goal of a media blitz in partnership with other organizations, encouraging the governor to sign a bill supporting the growth of the regulated poker game.
Our campaign received support from PokerStars on social media, running a special freeroll, and PokerNews aided with write-ups and social media endorsement. Our ambassador, Rep. George Dunbar, MSIGA bill sponsor, and champion of #GrowPAPoker, even played. We received a tweet from GGPoker, and a few mentions in newsletters.
And that was it. No other write-ups by other publications. Surprisingly, amid widespread plagiarism of our content, our campaign received absolutely no positive mentions in any other forum. Ironically, for the few remaining sites promoting regulated online poker, mentioning other platforms or campaigns may be seen as taboo — seemingly blacklisted. For the rest, the expansion of multi-state online poker was counterproductive to their goals: a growing multi-state US regulated poker market diminishes the appeal of offshore crypto poker sites.
Fortunately, further support wasn't necessary, thanks to the incredible backing from the US online poker community. People tweeted, emailed, and wrote letters in large numbers. The campaign was a success. Half a year after its launch, the governor sent a letter to the regulator seeking entry into MSIGA and soon received an invitation to join. We anticipate the governor's signature imminently, and shared liquidity in Pennsylvania to debut in weeks.
That's the power of a grassroots movement. And unfortunately, that spirit is unfortunately diminishing.
Action Must be Taken Now
The simple truth is that there is almost no one left to champion these causes. Sites are shutting down. Domains are being sold to parasitic media companies, exploiting 20-year-old domain history to divert gambling addicts towards "no KYC" crypto sites.
What can be done? Two immediate steps are needed:
- Support each other: The few sites left supporting regulated online poker must link to each other, credit original content, and contribute to the growth of the regulated game.
- Real money poker companies must support these remaining media: Cryptocurrency behemoths acquire vintage poker domains to shovel unregulated alternatives up the search results. If you want a site promoting you at the top of search results for queries like "top online poker sites in Pennsylvania," that takes effort, skill, and investment.
To be crystal clear, this isn't an article blaming anyone for selling their platforms. This is not an argument about the morals of licensed vs unlicensed online poker, or cryptocurrency sites vs traditional ones. Sites are businesses. They have staff to pay, and they need to survive — or cash out.
However, this piece serves as a clarion call to shine a light on the state of online poker journalism and the direction it's headed in. In a few years, there's a strong possibility that a dozen states in the US will be connected via a large multi-state online poker ecosystem. By year's end, we could see five or six states collaborating. New operators like DraftKings and BetRivers are rejuvenating the space. If we secure a few more states — Illinois and New York being perpetual hopefuls — we could see a US regulated market rivaling the biggest and most valuable worldwide.
But with the current trajectory, there might be no sites left to promote it.
- As a result of the acquisition of poker websites by crypto advertising companies, the sites that once championed regulated online poker have morphed into shills for unregulated "no KYC crypto casinos" and "GAMSTOP avoider casinos."
- In 2025, PokerStrategy.com, once the busiest online poker community and a influential poker affiliate, was sold to a corporation whose entire business revolves around the promotion of unregulated crypto online casinos.
- To grow the regulated online poker market, it's crucial for remaining sites to link to each other, credit original content, and for real money poker companies to support these sites in order to maintain a strong online poker journalism presence before the shift to unregulated crypto gambling becomes irreversible.
