New York City businesses forced to deal with another morning of transit strike-stranded staffers will be thrilled to know that yesterday, most of their employees "working from home" were making the most out of their time away from the office (and Websense). According to a sweet little press release we've received:

...internet poker site DoylesRoom.com is seeing record numbers online in the New York City metro area. It appears, due to this mornings[sic] New York City transit strike, many commuters are staying home from work and playing poker online.

Well, while New York loses $400 million dollars a day, at least the Antiguan economy is thriving. After the jump, the release in full.

************************
MTA TRANSIT STRIKE RESULTS IN RECORD ONLINE POKER NUMBERS

Online Poker Site DoylesRoom.com Sees Record Amount of Players During Early Stages of MTA Transit Strike

December 20, New York It is only mid-afternoon, but already internet poker site DoylesRoom.com is seeing record numbers online in the New York City metro area. It appears, due to this mornings New York City transit strike, many commuters are staying home from work and playing poker online.

Normal peak hours for online poker are between 8pm EST and 1am EST, but today, many accounts that are active only in the evening hours went live by as early as 10:00am EST in New York City and surrounding areas affected by the strike illustrating the fact that many commuters that opted to work from home were instead playing online poker.

At first we didn t know what was going on with the flood of players we were getting from New York City, stated Marty Wallace, COO for DoylesRoom.com. Then we realized that the transit strike they ve been threatening since this past Friday finally took place.

The winter season is the peak time for online poker rooms like DoylesRoom.com because people spend more time indoors away from the cold and log online. With the addition of a transit strike in New York City, those numbers have reached record levels.