Online poker craze makes rich both passionate gambling gurus and devoted poker entrepreneurs

Media unveils stories of inventors who created major poker websites

Online poker has become a profitable activity not only for punters who turned millionaires. Some entrepreneurs who stand behind the UK online poker business played themselves a winning hand as well.

According to Belfast Telegraph, Ruth Parasol, a Californian lawyer, made a fortune from online pornography before moving into internet poker and setting up Party Poker, which is now the world's biggest poker site. To fulfil her poker plans Ruth co-operated with Indian computer expert Anurag Dikshit.

Russ de Leon, another American, and Vikrant Bhargava, an Indian marketing executive, joined the Party Poker project lately. The company is now considering whether to float on the London Stock Exchange. Experts estimate the poker giant may be worth as much as £3bn (USD 3,9bn), the same size as British Airways.

The media has no information about the founders of Paradise Poker. However, journalists disclosed the cost of their poker creature. When Sportingbet decided to buy the company last year it had to pay £163m (USD 215,5m) for the website. The founder of Sportingbet, Mark Blandford, who is a well-known figure in British bookmaking, now boasts his stake that grew to £50m over the past six years.

One of the top five sites in the world Poker Room was organized by two Swed    ish students - Oskar Hörnell and Claes Lidell. The lads were studying at university in the same class when they decided to investigate playing poker on the internet.

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