Online poker players have made history, whether they realize it or not. In about the past 30 days, seven online poker portals have hosted ten tournament series around the world in some of the largest online poker markets. The result is a record-setting $170 million in guarantees being offered. But, it gets even better. The total guarantees were blown away, with prize pools increasing to a total of $217,803,107.

The figure greater surpasses the previous high of $140 million that was offered by the sites this past spring. There were a total of 1,590 tournaments by the major online operators, all of which contributed to expanding the wallets of a tens of thousands of players. $177.5 million was distributed through the dot-com market, while an additional €34.7 million ($40.3 million) was shelled out through segregated European markets.

This is more than likely just the beginning, too. As more jurisdictions warm up to online poker and sports gambling, there will be greater competition for customers, leading to even more tournaments with bigger prizes. The sky’s the limit when it comes to online gambling.

The activity has increased in spite of a number of high-profile dedicated denial of service (DDOS) attacks on the portals. Over the past two months, eight of the top ten poker sites – including PokerStars, Winamax, 888poker, Americas Cardroom and partypoker – have all been targets and have suffered attacks that have led to the cancellation of tournaments and cash games.