   Starting-up an Online poker Site
  I am looking to start up a new online poker site (ie. partypoker, bodog). What would I need to do????? I have the start-up money, but I know need stuff like a server, a programmer, and a security guy, a web guy...ect. Does anyone have any experiance in this, and/or any info about this.  Is there somesort of firm or company I could go to to build the game for me??  Any info will helpThank you   
  Just a bit of advice from a poker player and programmer - don't do it. If you really are looking to get into the business side of poker then look up information on becoming an 'affiliate' with a recognized site ( eg - Party ). If you really want to start your own site then look up information on running a 'skin'.Starting an independent room now is unfortunately destined to failure without a large financier ( such as a casino or established sportsbook ). One major problem is security. Players won't trust your site and you may will have difficulty obtaining a merchant account with any common e-wallets, such as Neteller. You didn't even mention the constant overhead you must spend on customer service representatives. And then there's also advertising. No advertising means no players. Bodog, for example, was a relative late comer to the game. They were already an extremely well established sports book and after countless millions spent in advertising ( including a tournament/reality series featured on FSN ) they're still struggling to become a major force in online poker. World Sports Exchange (WSEX ) is another established sportsbook that opened a Poker Room. They have zero rake and are a very well respected sports book - in spite of this, they have very few real money players.As far as profit and reality goes, you'd probably be better off making an MMO instead of a new poker room. [grin] In all honesty though, becoming an affiliate is easy and has almost no overhead. If you can attract a steady stream of players ( or find a few big players ) then you can really make some good money.   ;  The is currently a bill (alternate link) heading for a vote in the House of Representatives regarding a ban on online gambling apart from horse racing. I think you should follow this because it would be a shame for you to spend a lot of time and money investing in an online poker site just to have it banned. On the other hand, there were already 6 attempts at banning online gambling since 1996 and they all failed, so perhaps you can ignore this one too. Then again, the WTO wasn't breathing down the neck of the US to reform the gambling laws to either ban it or legalise it more fully to allow foreign sites in on the action (alternate link). The US was supposed to have done something by April 3 this year and did absolutely nothing about it.   ;  1.) Only host something if you're outside the U.S. in a country that allows it.2.) Take note that the U.S. may be banning online gambling very soon, which is a big source of revenue for these companies.3.) It will most likely take a lot of money to host servers and complete development.4.) Don't develop from scratch.  There is a lot of liability involved.  Existing poker rooms allow you to own "skins" for their servers, where you make profit through their code.  An example is here.   