Referring to a celebrity poker player, it is not always easy to differentiate between poker players who are famous for their abilities at playing poker or celebrities who play poker and are famous simply for being celebrities.  Making the distinction is not always simple, as poker players who win in major tournaments and events can garner fame from all walks of life and all over the world from their winnings and increase their exposure and gain opportunities to enter into new marketplaces where earnings are plentiful for the celebrity player.  One instance of poker players making the cross over into celebrity stardom was the appearance of Johnny Chan in the movie Rounders, featuring Matt Damon and Edward Norton.  This is a good example of celebrities and poker players getting confused.  Johnny Chan was a famous poker player and then he appeared in a movie.  Matt Damon was a celebrity, who then played poker on a casual level, although for somewhat higher stakes than most average players.

In the hosting and programming of television series that claim celebrity poker status by featuring some celebrities playing against professional poker players and playing in tournaments largely to generate publicity for the tournament hall or poker league that the celebrity poker program represents, networks perform the duty of providing additional exposure for the game of poker to the world at large through their broadcast affiliates.  By supplying this exposure, more and more new players flock to the game of poker around the world and create more competition and more action at poker game tables.  By performing this essential function of supplying new action and new players to the poker playing lifestyle, these celebrity poker events, whether based on professional players or celebrities who play poker, are extremely effective marketing and advertising tools and serve the purpose of bringing much-needed attention to the playing of poker in locations such as Las Vegas and tournaments such as the World Series of poker.

Catering to high rollers and big-time celebrities is part of what makes Las Vegas such a big draw on professional poker players and celebrities alike.  Knowing that most of the services available in the Las Vegas hotel and casino of your choice will be complementary is a big draw on these big spenders who bring in big crowds and make a big splash whatever they go.