"Basically, if the online (poker) sites were able to send the players like they did last year, we would have been well over 10,000 players & women poker players this year," Phil Gordon told USA Today.

Gordon served as the color analyst on ESPN's live pay-per-view telecast of this year's main event. Play route 66 poker.

"This isn't a down year when you take into account the regulatory climate. Every single sign I see says the game is growing in popularity. There are more people than ever that have played this game this year at the World Series of Poker. Play $500 match poker bonus.

The government action addressed by Gordon was the passage of the federal Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, which prohibits banks and credit card companies from making U.S. customer payments to online poker sites for any type of gambling that is illegal under U.S. law including online poker.

Though this was the first decline in over a decade for the World Series of Poker, 2007 also marked the second biggest turnout. Gordon's comments imply that the new law has done little to stymie poker's growing popularity outside of cutting down in the numbers entering the WSOP. Download poker wallpapers.

This year's Main Event champion, 39-year-old Jerry Yang, walked off with over $8 million. The social worker from Temecula, Calif., said he took up poker only two years ago.

Poker News Source: Gambling 911