This
review of VideoPoker.com is the 1st in a series of reviews we
have planned for various important
video poker
websites on the Internet. Since Action Gaming's Video Poker.com
is *the* vanity name for a video poker site, it seemed appropriate that
we begin our series of reviews by taking a look at it.
The 1st thing I see when I visit Video Poker.com today is an amusing picture of Bob Dancer being gazed upon lovingly by a couple of scantily clad cocktail waitresses as he sits in front of a video poker machine. This is actually a really big ad for his new video poker training software for only $49.95. The site offers a 3 day free trial of the software, or you can purchase the software straightaway.
The VideoPoker.com menu is similar to the type of site menu you might find on almost any video poker portal. It includes items like:
- Improve Your Skills
- Pay Tables
- Superstitions
- Do's and Don'ts
- Poker Statistics
- Resources and Links
- Test Your Skills
Below the menu is a counter which indicates, at the time of this writing, that VideoPoker.com has 77,406 current members, and directly beneath that is a link to the Video Poker.com forum.
The colors of the site are pleasing enough, and the advertising, while central (especially the Bob Dancer software ad) isn't obtrusive or obnoxious. Navigation is pretty straightforward, which is always a plus, because I hate websites where you can't find your way around.
I thought it was unfortunate that to be able to access most of the content on VideoPoker.com requires signing up for a free membership. Stuff like free video poker tips and statistics should be free content that attracts people to your site, and by only making this content available to people who are willing to sign up for a menu, I think that Video Poker.com is doing their visitors a disservice.
The copyright notice at the bottom of the page makes it clear that the site belongs to Action Gaming, if you care about such things. (I do.)
One of the main attractions to VideoPoker.com is the wide assortment of free video poker games which are available to play there. Only 6 of the several video poker games at Video Poker.com are available to play for free without a membership; a free membership is required to play the other video poker games. All of the video poker games at VideoPoker.com are available in a java or flash, no download required, format.
These games are about as authentic a video poker game experience as you could possibly find online too, since Action Gaming, who own the site, are the inventors of most (if not all) of these video poker games.
On the top navbar at Video Poker.com is an option for finding video poker games near your location. This list of video poker games is organized by state and has a number of casinos and number of video poker machines listed for each state offering video poker. Clicking on the state takes you to a page which lists those casinos, with options for getting a list of games available at each casino. Where applicable, you can also click on a link to each casino's website.
This section of VideoPoker.com is useful but could be more user-friendly and more search engine friendly. The entire functionality is enclosed inside of a frame with a scrollbar, which makes the pages smaller than they need to be. This type of design also makes it harder for search engines to index and rank those pages. And if people can't find those pages, the pages aren't as useful as they could be. Video Poker.com would do well to translate these pages into real static pages with a menu of some kind, so they could get indexed and found.
I only know of 3 decent video poker forums, and one of those is a Yahoo group. (Not really a forum, even though the discussion there is entertaining, detailed, and passionate. I'll be reviewing that Yahoo group, VPfree, in a separate article soon.) The other video poker forum isn't as active as it could be.
But if you're looking for a robust message board about video poker, the Video Poker.com forums fit the bill. And really, with 77,000+ members, you would expect those forums to be pretty active and full of content. The "video poker" section of the forum is divided into 3 topics:
- Video Poker Games
- Video Poker Strategy
- Video Poker Stories
- Favorite Casinos
- Best Casinos for Video Poker
- Other Casino Games
The forum also features a section about casinos, which is also divided into 3 categories:
The crew hanging out in the forums at VideoPoker.com clearly love the game of video poker and know what they're talking about when they discuss the game. If you're an aficionado of the game, or hope to become one, you'd do well to join and participate in the forum there.
Quantcast looks at the traffic and demographics of various websites. I present some of their analysis of the traffic at VideoPoker.com in this review for entertainment and educational purposes.
According to Quantcast, the audience for VideoPoker.com is largely female and often over 55 years old. Website visitors who enjoy VideoPoker.com also enjoy magazine, travel, and television websites, especially Prevention magazine and the Money pages on CNN.com. The forums at Las Vegas Advisor and the website freevideopoker.com are also strongly aligned with the kind of traffic who visits VideoPoker.com.
Quantcast estimates that VideoPoker.com receives 20,000 unique visitors a month, which averages out to about 667 unique visitors a day. That's a significant amount of traffic on a daily basis for a gambling-related website. (Although one thing is made very clear from the 1st moment you reach Video Poker.com. You cannot gamble for real money there at all, period, end of story.
Video Poker.com is operated by Action Gaming in Las Vegas. Action Gaming designs and invents video poker and slot machine games which are distributed by their partner, IGT.
You can visit Video Poker.com by clicking here. (But if you want to play video poker online for real money, try clicking on one of the casino ads on this site. That's going to help us stay in business, providing free information to users without requiring a subscription.)
See also:
