Why Casinos Charge an Online Poker Rake

An online poker rake is a fee that is taken from each online poker game offered by an internet casino. A rake goes toward casino revenues and is one way in which an online poker room makes its profits. Usually a casino will charge a rake of around ten percent on the total pot of each online poker game. If a game offers lower poker stakes however, the rake is often lower.

An online poker rake should not be confused with the fees an online poker player must pay to participate in a poker tournament. Known as a buy-in, a percentage of this fee goes toward the online poker site. Because of this, there is no rake charged on games in poker tournaments.

Every online poker site has its own rake schedule, which stipulates the rake charged on each poker game. This schedule should be available for players to inspect if they wish to. However, in some cases a site will forgo charging an online poker rake. This may occur when just two or three players compete in a game or when all the players involved in a game decide to fold before the first three community cards are dealt in the flop. PARAGRAPH=3> The type of online poker rake charged by a casino is unique to each game, however bear in mind that hundreds of online poker games take place at poker sites each day. When you do a few quick calculations you can see how rakes generate the better part of a site's daily revenues.