Gambling is, and has always been, a temptation for those who fancy making a bit of money without having to work too hard for it. Whether this is actually accurate or not is open for discussion, and without doubt being a talented gambler involves a skill that requires careful honing, but for the average punter it’s often a case of blind faith and luck.

If there was ever a demographic keen on making money quickly, it would undoubtedly be the student population, and this has given rise to large number of students wagering varying quantities of their student loan on games of chance.

At any University, most halls of residence will contain at least five poker sets, probably more, and it’s generally a good way to spend an evening, less expensive (hopefully) than a night out. It’s not just the real, whisky and smoke version that students spend whiling away their evenings on, but online gambling -in particular poker - is on the rise as well.

The problem with online gambling, though, is the authenticity of the websites. It would be foolish to think that all of them are legitimate, and at least when you’re in the same room as your opponent you can see that the cards are being dealt fairly; the same cannot be said of all internet sites. In general though, with larger and more reputable companies, like Riverbelle, offering poker and other online betting games on their websites, playing online is safer than ever.

The attraction with poker is difficult to pinpoint, but it’s definitely there. Films like Casino Royale that base almost their entire plot around a poker game are evidence of the popularity of the card game, as is the increasing amount of television coverage. It is, however, notoriously difficult to get good at, and so much of being a good poker player rests in your ability to hide your own emotions whilst reading everyone else’s.

Online poker takes this out of the equation, you can obviously still try and predict whether people are bluffing or not by the bets that they make but it’s not quite the same as being able to look them in the eye. For most beginners, though, this is part of appeal, you can learn to play and read hands, practise betting, and get an idea of when to raise, when to check, and when to drop, without having the person opposite you being able to see your agonies as you decide what to do. The playing field is much leveller online, no one can see what anyone else is doing, and that plays a large part in taking the human variable out of the game.

The poker craze doesn’t look like it’s going to go away, particularly not with students. Online gaming has raised the profile and the availability of games at any level of skill or stake, and it remains as engaging a game as ever it has done.