Online Poker Rooms Aid Haiti Relief Effort

Aid has been pouring into the Caribbean nation of Haiti following last week's devastating 7.0 magnitude earthquake, and online poker sites have displayed their socially conscious side by chipping in as well.

The earthquake, which struck late in the afternoon on Tuesday January 12, has claimed at least 70,000 lives, and the death toll continues to climb. Aid has poured in from all corners of the globe as rescue teams and makeshift hospitals attend to the casualties, and the tiny country looks toward reconstruction.

PokerStars has launched a new Haiti fund, the world's largest online poker room, has launched a special fund for Haiti, in the same manner as it did last February during the bushfires in the Australian state of Victoria. PokerStars will match every dollar transferred to the fund, with money being sent directly to the Red Cross.

Rival poker room Full Tilt has also set up a fund in which it will match all money raised. The site has also created special "no play" tournaments in which prize money will go toward different charities aiding the relief effort in Haiti.

Bodog founder Calvin Ayre donated to £10,000 to UK charity Oxfam, and has promised to match any further donations from the poker community to a total of up to $1 million. And plenty of poker professionals have reportedly made major donations too, including Annie Duke, Howard Lederer, who both used the opportunity to blast outspoken US religious leader Pat Robertson for comments in which he said Haitians were paying for their "pact with the devil."