Poker is one of the oldest and most iconic betting card games in the world. The split between offline and online poker is an impressive part of its popularity. Offline poker is prominent in media and pop culture and is present in every one of the two thousand casinos worldwide. While offline poker has more mainstream representation, online poker has outstanding player counts and is the main reason poker stayed relevant despite the pandemic. Over 100 million people play online poker worldwide, which is still rising.
Online poker revolutionized the poker industry and was a big part of the poker boom when poker rapidly became one of the most popular games in the world. The main reason many poker players prefer online is convenience. With just any internet-connected device, you can play poker from anywhere at any time. You no longer need to live near a casino and schedule a trip to it, making online poker significantly more accessible. Online poker has numerous other benefits, like multi-tabling and poker tracking software. However, there are also security issues you could run into when playing online poker. To protect yourself against digital threats, you should use a Virtual Private Network (VPN). Here are ten reasons why VPNs and online poker are great together.
VPNs let you play poker on public Wi-Fi
If you’ve ever thought of playing poker while outside, using a public network like airplane or coffee shop Wi-Fi, you should definitely consider using a VPN. Public Wi-Fi is much less secure than private networks like your home Wi-Fi, so you risk being targeted by a hacker. They could view whatever you do online and use that information against you. VPNs conceal and scramble your data even on public networks, allowing you to browse the internet and enjoy poker without getting tracked or targeted.
VPNs help you remain anonymous
VPNs are the way to go if you want to hide your internet activity. Maybe you don’t like your internet service provider (ISP) seeing how much time you spend on poker, you’re afraid of potential data leaks, or you greatly value your privacy. Regardless of your reason, VPNs are incredibly effective for concealing your internet activity, allowing you to play poker in peace. They encrypt your data, pass it through their servers, and may even delete any logs of you using them, depending on your VPN provider. That helps ensure your privacy is respected, and nobody, even your ISP, will be able to spy on you.
VPNs provide additional security on shadier sites
If you’ve ever gone down an online poker rabbit hole, you may have stumbled across some less-than-trustworthy poker sites. These sites may claim they have more bonuses than others, yet they seem riddled with pop ups and intrusive ads. They could also just seem poorly made and with little security. If you don’t trust the site, you should stick to reputable places to play poker, like GGPoker, the world’s largest poker room. If you want to play poker games on a lesser-known site, your best choice would be to use a VPN. They scramble your data and render you anonymous, so your identity would not be revealed if the website was hacked or malicious.
VPNs let you safely receive your earnings
When playing online poker for real money, you need a way to collect your earnings. Most people provide details of either their bank accounts or digital wallets like PayPal. This information is crucial to getting paid but is also sensitive. The last thing you want is your bank account details and hard-earned poker cash to fall into the wrong hands. Thankfully, VPNs let you transfer all sensitive information securely and safely. Any data passing through a VPN is encrypted, meaning even if hackers could steal your data, they would be unable to use or understand it, as they would see it as a random string of characters.
VPNs protect all your devices
One of the best things about online poker is that it’s not device-limited. Some games can only be run on consoles and powerful computers thanks to hardware limits, meaning people with only phones or mobile devices are out of luck. Thankfully, online poker is a simple game, so you can essentially play it on any device with an internet connection. VPNs complement this very well, as one VPN usually supports multiple devices, though this varies in price with every provider. That way, you can utilize the protection and safety of a VPN on every device you play poker on.
VPNs let you play on any poker site
Finally, one of the biggest reasons poker players love VPNs is their ability to spoof locations to get around regional restrictions. When you use a VPN, your data is routed through the server. That means websites will see that you’re from the location of the VPN server and not your actual location. In countries where poker is considered online gambling and prohibited, you can use VPNs to play. You can also use VPNs to play on sites specific to a particular region, like a European trying American poker. Most VPN providers have a variety of server locations, so make sure you’re familiar with what they’re offering before signing up.
The best online poker site
We hope this article taught you about the different ways VPNs help online poker players. If you want to play online poker and test your VPN, you should check out GGPoker. They have various games and stakes, including Omaha Poker and Short Deck. They also offer free poker tracking software built into the website, which is fantastic since most poker trackers are paid.
