[benfranklin]

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Anyone care to try to put a number on this? For every $1.00 deposited on Party, $.x goes to winning players and $.y goes to the rake. No one can be sure, of course, but what are x and y?

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This doesn't mean anything without further parameters, like what time frame are you talking about, how many more hands the winnning players play, etc.

For example, say a group of $1 slot machines pays back an average of 90% of the money put into them. If 100 people each put $1 into the machines, on average, $90 will be paid out to some of those people. If everyone who won immediately plays that money again, the machines will pay back $81. Repeat, and the machines now have about $27 and the people have $73. Some people win nothing and a rare few hit a big jackpot in the short run, but in the long run, this is what happens. It's like negative compound interest.

At a poker website, you are talking about a lot more people and a lot smaller percentage house rake, but without a constant infusion of new money, the house soon has it all.