If you ever wondered how popular the game of poker is in Britain then wonder no more.

An international market research company has discovered in a recent survey of Internet users in the UK, that over 23% have played poker in some form in the last twelve months.

The company attributes a lot of the game’s popularity to television, with half of the 23% saying they watched poker regularly, whilst a fifth of them said televised poker was what encouraged them to play in the first place.

The astonishing figures reveal more.

The survey discovered that of those who had played, 35% had never wagered real money instead preferring to play for online play money. According to the report, too many players are unsure of the rules to commit their cash to the game.

Matt King of market research group Mintel said “‘for the industry, it is clearly not ideal that so many players do not play for real money. But it does highlight that people do still feel intimidated by the game and that potential gamers are reluctant to dive straight in without having a chance to figure out the basics first. But once they have got a grasp on the game, they are then more likely to put their money where their mouth is.'

The figures are expected to continue increasing in the next few years after the 2005 Gambling Act allowed both television advertising and poker being played in pubs.

So it seems poker is here to stay in the UK be it online or on land. And with drastically increased freedom for companies to advertise their wares you can expect to see more and more Britons trying their hand at poker in the coming months.