How Tech and AI Shaped Poker in 2025

Online poker in 2025: market size and why tech matters

Online poker is now a solid mid-billion market, no longer a side tab in casino lobbies. One recent forecast puts online poker revenue at about 3.86 billion USD in 2024, with a projection near 6.9 billion USD by 2030. 

This gives us implied growth at a little above 10 percent per year.

Once a market reaches that scale, small gains from better security, sharper UX, and smarter CRM turn into real money. That is why operators treat AI and data science as core parts of the business, not extras.

A 2024 iGaming trends panel hosted by a major supplier found AI rated around 8 out of 10 in importance for 2024–2025. Operators highlighted three main uses: player personalisation, fraud detection, and responsible-gambling monitoring.

Those priorities shaped almost every tech story in poker during 2025:

• How serious players study.
• How sites fight RTA and bots.
• How lobbies, missions, and RG tools behave.
• How live events handle devices and hardware risk.

Solvers for everyone: how study tools changed

Ten years ago, only a few high-stakes players ran heavy solver work. By 2025, a solver-driven study stack is standard for any serious mid-stakes reg.

A typical review session now looks like this: you export hands from recent sessions, often filtered by spot. You upload batches into a solver or AI trainer such as GTO Wizard. You group hands into common situations, like BTN vs BB single-raised pots or SB 3-bet pots. 

The tool marks where you lose the most EV and suggests cleaner lines. Then you drill those spots in a trainer mode that mimics common pool tendencies.

The key change from before is speed and scale. For example, a poker coach once broke down a few hands per week. Now a reg can run thousands of hands through an AI layer in one evening and see clear leak patterns.

The result: preflop charts are tighter and more standard at many stakes. Post-flop mistakes shift from “folds top pair” to more subtle sizing and range errors. The gap between “knows the basics” and “plays close to theory” shrinks.

For WPT® Global style games, that means fewer obvious spots. Edges come from better table selection, deeper study, and execution, not simple preflop knowledge.

Where is the line between allowed study and banned real-time assistance?

Most serious operators treat “advice while cards are in the air” as RTA and a fast route to bans and confiscations.

The integrity arms race: RTA, bots, and hardware

Cheating tech in 2025 did not just live online. It spread across private games, live hardware, and club rooms as well.

Online RTA and site responses

The most visible online story stayed the fight against real-time assistance and bots.

GGPoker, for example, publicised the closure of dozens of accounts for fair-play violations and warned that serious cases can lead to bans from both the site and partner live events such as the WSOP.

PokerStars and GTO Wizard announced a “Fair Play Check” system that lets sites compare hand histories against solver outputs to detect possible RTA patterns. WPT® Global was listed as one of the first networks to cooperate with that initiative.

The broad message to serious players is simple: any tool that suggests actions during hands breaks site rules. RTA detection mixes AI models and human review. Bans now travel between brands in the same group or partner tours.

RFID scams and private-game risk

Live tech brought its own problems. One widely covered case from a Texas social club saw crooked players use RFID-enabled cards and a hidden reader to gain extra information during games.

The hardware involved is cheap and easy to hide. That makes private or loosely regulated games the real danger zone when RFID enters the picture.

Deck shufflers under the microscope

In 2024, a Wired feature showed how a Deckmate 2 shuffler could be modified. The tweaked device sent deck order data via Bluetooth to a nearby phone and let a conspirator know which cards were coming.

The test happened under lab-style conditions, not in a live casino. Still, it proved an important point. Any “black box” hardware that handles cards needs the same security review as software.

For a regular player, the practical takeaway is to treat unsupervised shufflers in private rooms with caution.

As always, favouring branded tours and major casinos that review and monitor their equipment is an excellent rule of thumb to follow. 

Don’t just assume a device is safe because it looks professional! 

Device rules at live series

Live tours tightened device rules as well. At the 2025 WSOP, a new Rule 64 restricted phones, charts, and most electronic devices inside tournament areas. Players faced warnings and penalties for using apps or visible charts near tables.

Expect WPT®-style festivals to follow the same direction:

• Clear bans on phones and external devices at feature tables.
• Written rules that forbid charts and any AI tools during hands.
• More visible integrity staff and messaging around RTA and coaching on the rail.

This can feel strict, but it pushes the live edge back toward reading people and playing well, not finding tech loopholes.

The AI you do not see: security, personalisation, and RG

Not all poker tech is visible. A lot of AI runs in the background of client and platform systems.

A 2024 SOFTSWISS trends report highlighted AI use across personalisation, complex decision automation, responsible gambling, cybersecurity, and analytics in the wider iGaming sector.

For poker, that breaks into three main buckets.

1. Anti-fraud and bot detection

Models watch for non-human betting patterns and timing, links between accounts through IPs, devices, and payment methods, and collusion signals such as repeated soft play in the same small groups.

Suspicious clusters go to integrity teams. They then freeze balances, request documents, or close accounts if evidence is strong.

2. Personalised lobbies and missions

CRM teams feed AI with deposit and withdrawal history, game preferences, average buy-ins, and risk markers and RG scores where allowed.

The system then decides which formats to highlight in the lobby, which missions and leaderboards to offer, and when to cool down offers for players who look at risk.

Done well, this helps you find fair games faster. Done badly, it feels like pure cross-sell.

3. Responsible gambling 2.0

Regulators now expect more than static limits and generic pop-ups. Trend reports describe “Responsible Gambling 2.0”, where AI monitors loss-chasing, session length spikes, and sharp stake jumps, then triggers targeted prompts or account reviews in near real time.

For WPT® Global type players this means KYC and affordability checks arrive earlier in your account life. You see more RG messaging as stakes and volume rise. Some bonuses shrink, but tools to control risk get stronger.

If a room explains these tools clearly, they feel like a safety net. If communication is vague, they feel like friction. The underlying goal is the same either way: keep long-term games sustainable.

VR, crypto, and high-stakes streams in 2025

Not every 2025 tech story was about security or solvers. Some reshaped how people discover and watch poker.

VR and social poker

PokerStars VR rebranded to Vegas Infinite and continued to grow as a free-to-play social casino. It runs on Meta Quest headsets, PlayStation VR2, and PC.

Players can sit at virtual poker and blackjack tables, walk through 3D casino rooms and lounges, and treat poker as one minigame, almost as if it was an open world game.

Keep note, it isn’t real-money poker. It does, however, keep poker in front of younger gaming audiences who might later move toward regulated sites.

Crypto poker and “provably fair” shuffles

Crypto-only poker rooms pitch fast deposits and withdrawals, low KYC, and “provably fair” shuffles. CoinPoker, for example, describes an RNG that uses blockchain data and verifiable hashes so players can check each shuffle.

It is important to stress what “provably fair” does and does not cover. It can show that shuffles follow the stated algorithm. It does not guarantee fund safety, licensing, or withdrawal reliability.

Many crypto rooms sit outside standard gambling regulation. That means weaker consumer protection when something goes wrong, even if the RNG looks clean.

High-stakes streams and production tech

Tech also turned poker into a bigger show.

Modern streams use RFID tables with encrypted antennas, multi-camera setups and live graphics, and delay buffers and strict device controls to reduce ghosting risk.

Hustler Casino Live, for example, promotes that its YouTube archive has more than 260 million views, with the large share of streams coming from videos with six- and seven-figure pots.

For tours like WPT®, the message is clear. Feature tables need to look and sound like premium live entertainment, not just security-camera footage with cards.

That pressure falls back on tech: better overlays, stronger RF and delay protocols, and clear rules for players and guests around phones and messaging.

Did tech make games tougher for regular players?

If you are a solid mid-stakes reg on WPT® Global or similar sites, you probably felt three clear shifts in 2025.

1. Edges got thinner

More players studied with solvers and AI trainers. Weak regs who never studied fell behind fast. Big leaks moved from simple preflop mistakes to subtle multi-street errors.

Beating rake now demands a consistent study routine. “Feeling it out” with no review is a losing plan at most meaningful stakes.

2. Game selection and trust mattered more

Fear of RTA, bots, and hardware hacks pushed many players toward large regulated operators with public fair-play policies and integrity teams, live series with strong device rules and visible security, and games where deck handling and RFID use are transparent.

Private apps and anonymous sites with no real-name brand took the hit. When in doubt, many grinders simply skipped those games.

3. Onboarding felt stricter but safer

KYC checks moved closer to first deposit. Source-of-funds questions became more common in some regions. RG prompts appeared at lower thresholds than in the past.

This adds friction in the short term. It also lowers the chance that problem behaviour goes unchecked for months.

What this means for WPT® Global players in 2026

Put these trends side by side and you get safer, tougher games with thinner edges.

If you play on WPT® Global or sites in the same tier, 2026 will likely feel like this:

Practical checklist for players

If you are a WPT® Global style reg in 2026:

• Pick regulated rooms with clear fair-play pages and public integrity actions.
• Build a simple but regular solver routine for core spots like BTN vs BB and blind-vs-blind.
• Keep all advice and charts off your screen while you play. If a tool can suggest an action during a hand, do not run it.
• Treat unlicensed crypto rooms with caution, even if they pitch “provably fair” shuffles.
• Treat viral streams as entertainment, not bankroll tutorials. The aggression you see there often assumes deep pockets and strong edges.
• Use RG tools early. Set limits that match your real bankroll, not your dream bankroll.

Practical checklist for operators and brands

For tours and sites in the WPT® orbit, the tech message from 2025 is also blunt:

• Invest in AI-driven security plus human review, and show players that work.
• Make your RTA and device rules short, clear, and easy to find.
• Align with trusted third-party tools where it helps detection and trust.
• Build mobile-first clients with honest, transparent offers.
• Use streams, clips, and VR experiments to attract new fans, then give them straight talk on bankroll, etiquette, and safe play.

Tech and AI now sit inside daily poker as a fundamental, undeniable part of the ecosystem.

The key going forward is understanding how they shape your games and your tools. With a better understanding of this, you have a better chance of thriving in 2026 instead of feeling squeezed or overwhelmed. 

More to come.