Pennsylvania Online Poker Joins Multi-State Liquidity Pool On MondayRegulators Announced Gov. Josh Shapiro Signed The Agreement And Platforms Can Join The Pool Starting April 28 |
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Pennsylvania officially joined the country’s online poker shared liquidity pool on Wednesday after Gov. Josh Shapiro officially signed on to become the sixth member of the Multi-State Internet Gaming Agreement.
Poker players in the Keystone State can start competing against players from other states on Monday.
The move allows the state’s estimated 150,000 online players to compete with others in Nevada, New Jersey, and Michigan, and potentially Delaware and West Virginia when operators enter those markets. Pennsylvania gaming regulators estimated that the addition expands the player pool by more than 50%.
“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,” Shapiro said. “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.
Pennsylvania becomes the largest state in the MSIGA, which now covers more than 38 million Americans. With added player and prize pools, state gaming regulators hope opening up the market will reduce unregulated play.
The official launch date of multi-state play is April 28, with BetMGM and the brand’s Borgata online skin going live. According to the regulators’ announcement, “Others are expected to join soon.”
If WSOP.com can complete its merger with the company’s Michigan, New Jersey, and Nevada pools in the coming months, it would end the fractured online bracelet events. Instead, all players with access to the platform will compete for bracelets.
Additionally, it would be the only platform allowing players in all four states to compete against one another.
PokerStars also operates a shared platform in New Jersey and Michigan, and BetRivers launched a Pennsylvania online poker product in November with plans for expansion.
Governor Talks Poker
After the news of the launch, Shapiro joined PokerGO’s Mori Eskandani to discuss joining the MSIGA and what may be ahead. He even agreed to a possible game featuring him and other governors.
“What made me want to do it is I think it’s common sense,” he said. “There’s a bunch of folks like you out there, including 150,000 people right here in my state in the commonwealth of Pennsylvania, who love to play poker online and I think they should be able to play poker online, not just with people from Pennsylvania but they should be able to reach out and (play) with people from other states. Not have to wait as long for a game and have games that are more vibrant, more competitive, and where they get to compete against more people kind of at their level. It’s good for the commonwealth taxpayers as well so I think it’s a win-win all around.”
Shapiro said online poker came down to an issue of personal choice. He was hopeful that seeing Pennsylvania join the MSIGA might bring about even more expansion.
“The way I look at this, folks are playing poker all the time,” he said. “Whether you’re doing it at a table or whether you’re doing it at a casino, you’re doing it with some buddies, or you’re doing it online, I just think you should have the freedom to do that. And by the way, if you don’t want to play poker, if you don’t want to gamble, you don’t have to do that either. It’s totally fine. No one’s forcing you.
“I am hopeful that as Pennsylvania, we’re now the biggest state as part of this compact, as Pennsylvania does it, maybe more states will join in. More Americans will get the opportunity to participate with one another in this great game that has been around thousands of years. I think it’s a great opportunity.”
With 17 retail casinos and 22 sites associated with online casino gaming, the gaming sector employs over 15,000 people in Pennsylvania. Legalized gambling produces almost $2.7 billion in annual tax revenue to fund school property tax reductions, purchases of goods and services from the agricultural community, and grants available for projects in all 67 counties.
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