As if using your computer to gamble online weren’t enough, now anyone with a decent cellphone can play cellphone poker. Once upon a time, if you wanted to gamble you had to drive out to Las Vegas or Atlantic City and play at the card tables and slot machines on the casino premises. Casinos eventually spread out to different Indian reservations across the nation, making gambling slightly more accessible. With the advent of Internet gambling, however, pandemonium has broken loose and cellphone technology only promises to bring that pandemonium to a new level. Now, even during your commute to work, during your lunch break, or just about anytime, you can whip out your cellphone, and connect to a service that allows you to play peer-to-peer for real money. Patrick Selin, CEO of PokerRoom.com, the Stockholm-based company offering that service, is betting that cellphone poker will be the next big trend in online gambling. “We are the first site in the world where you can actually play peer-to-peer for real money”, said Selin. He also pointed out that if you get bored with cellphone poker you can simply switch over to wireless slot machines or bet on sporting events.

It’s poker, however, that attracts most of the players and, in particular, the Texas Hold Em version of poker. Ever since cable television started televising poker tournaments a few years back, the popularity of poker has ballooned at a phenomenal rate. Fueling that rising popularity is the growing accessibility of Internet casino sites, which only require a computer and a modem.

Pokerpulse.com, a company that tracks trends in poker, reports that 1.7 million people played Internet poker for real money last month alone. That’s a lot of money passing hands. It is estimated that $190 million changes hands in these online games everyday.

With PokerRoom.com’s new software, though, you no longer need the computer and the modem, and since most cellphones have enough computing power to host online casino games, just about anyone can play at just about anytime. Battery and screen limitations, not to mention “minutes” limitations do detract somewhat from the convenience and the fun of playing, but die hard poker fans don’t seem to mind.

Salin’s position as first in the cellphone poker market won’t last long, though, as soon as other companies become aware of the market for software that allows players to gamble online using their cellphones. In fact, one such company, Zone4Play, has already developed the same type of software and it’s going to be deployed by European online gambling services like Coral Eurobet, Britain’s third-largest operator of online gambling parlors.

While Internet gambling companies and Internet gamblers are understandably very enthusiastic about the popularity of online gambling and the new technology that is fostering the growth of this popularity, online gambling is not without its critics. Many fear that online gambling and, now, cellphone gambling, has opened up a Pandora’s box. “Anytime you are expanding gambling on an electronic platform, I think there are concerns about gambling addiction,” said Carey Theil, a Brighton resident who sits on the board of the National Coalition Against Gambling Expansion. “Studies have shown that the faster the forms of gambling are, the more addictive they are”, she added.