updated 9:19 p.m. ET July 8, 2008

LAS VEGAS - An influx of international players has helped the World Series of Poker increase its numbers this year even as general visitation and gambling numbers have declined in Las Vegas.

Tournament spokesman Seth Palansky said Wednesday that the series attracted more players from other countries than ever before, giving it a boost despite a weak U.S. economy.

Players from 118 countries the series’ 55 events, up from 55 last year. Scattered throughout the 6,844 total participants in the $10,000 buy-in main event were players from 72 different countries besides all 50 U.S. states.

A record number of people have played in the 55-event, 47-day poker series, despite a general decline in gambling revenues. Clark County, which encompasses the Las Vegas Strip casinos, was down 3.7 percent from last year through April, according to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority.

Tournament officials said registration for the series was up 8 percent from last year and the total prize pool for all the events was up 13 percent, to $180.7 million from $159.8 million last year. The top prize to be awarded Nov. 11 for the no-limit Texas Hold ’em main event tournament also increased to $9.12 million.

“It is clear that a lot of the growth is coming from outside the U.S. Six continents, 118 different locations, countries, territories,” Palansky said. “Really, any more people playing poker is going to benefit the World Series of Poker.”

“Poker had been growing in America for so long that the rest of the world is starting to catch up,” said Joe Hachem, the 2005 champion from Melbourne, Australia. “With ESPN and the world series getting to more countries now than ever before, they’re watching guys like me win and getting excited.”

Jerry Yang, the defending champion who won $8.25 million last year but was knocked out Wednesday and finished out of the money, said more people, especially young players, are interested in the social part of the game.

“That’s why a lot of people like it,” said Yang, an ethnic Hmong who was born in Laos and later immigrated to California.

Yang was among 2,378 players who began their second session of play Wednesday. There were 1,701 left after four hours of play. On Thursday, the remaining players from Tuesday and Wednesday were scheduled to play at the same time for the first time since the tournament started.

On Thursday, the 466 players who survived on Tuesday will join those left after Wednesday, bringing all the entrants together for the first time this tournament, likely 1,200 to 1,400 players, all aiming to make the final table.

Last year’s final table participants hailed from five nations: the U.S., Canada, Russia, England and South Africa. By birthplace, players also were from Laos, Vietnam and Denmark.

Jeffrey Haas, president of the PokerStars.net Asia Pacific Poker Tour, said more players in Asia and elsewhere wanted to play poker after seeing the game in popular culture.

One example, Hass said, was the 2006 film “Casino Royale,” in which actor Daniel Craig portrays James Bond playing in a high-stakes no-limit Texas Hold ’em tournament to help the British government. In Ian Fleming’s original novel, Bond played baccarat.

Haas said before there weren’t very many brick-and-mortar casinos that offered Hold ’em but demand changed that.

Isabelle “No Mercy” Mercier, a poker professional who started playing in Paris and lives in Monaco, said she’s surprised that it’s taken so long for poker to spread to the rest of the world, because the game is easy to learn.

“Poker calls to human qualities — it’s not something like more Asian, Westerner, or whatever — it’s just human qualities like psychology, reading your opponent, manipulation, bluffing,” she said. “This appeals to everybody, I think.”

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