“Commonsense” step
Pennsylvania is finally becoming part of the United States’ small interstate online poker network. On Wednesday, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro signed the Multi-State Internet Gaming Agreement (MSIGA), joining Nevada, Michigan, New Jersey, West Virginia, and Delaware.
“This is a commonsense step to support hundreds of thousands of Pennsylvanians, grow our economy, and bring in more revenue to support our schools, our seniors, our small businesses, and more,” said Governor Shapiro in a press release. “Three of our neighbors are already part of this agreement – and with this action today, we’re making sure Pennsylvania remains competitive in a rapidly growing online market.”
The state’s online poker rooms can launch their multi-state liquidity as soon as Monday, April 28. BetMGM has confirmed that it will; other poker rooms have yet to announce if they will be ready to go immediately or will roll out their shared tables at a later date.
Welcome addition
Pennsylvania has five online poker franchises: PokerStars, WSOP Online, BetRivers, DraftKings, and BetMGM (and the latter’s related skins). PokerStars and BetMGM have networks that already link Michigan and New Jersey. WSOP Online’s network connects Nevada, Michigan, and New Jersey.
The Keystone State has about 150,000 online poker players and would be a huge – the largest, in fact – addition to the interstate poker networks.
Where, then, are West Virginia and Delaware, the other two members of the Multi-State Internet Gaming Agreement? Simply put, they don’t have online poker rooms.
Delaware did have three online poker sites for about a decade, each co-branded with the state’s racinos, but in early 2024, the Delaware Lottery switched gaming providers from 888 to Rush Street Interactive (RSI). RSI did not have a poker platform, so the three poker rooms, which were on the WSOP network with New Jersey and Nevada, were taken down.
BetRivers Poker did launch in Pennsylvania last year, so it is possible that it could get the Delaware rooms back up and running.
West Virginia simply hasn’t been an attractive state to operators because of its population (the same reason why Delaware still might not get online poker again). BetMGM has online casino sites in the state, though, so an optimist would say online poker isn’t out of the question, especially with Pennsylvania now available as a shared liquidity partner.
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