After years of waiting, Pennsylvania regulators have finally been given the all-clear from Governor Josh Shapiro to start the process of bringing multi-state poker to the Keystone State.
How long the process will take from this point is anyone’s guess, but if history is any guide it will likely be a few months at the very least before online poker players in Pennsylvania will be able to play against players from other states in the Multi-State Internet Gaming Agreement (MSIGA).
Consider that it took the last two states to join MSIGA — Michigan and West Virginia — more than one year of negotiations (and, in West Virginia’s case, more than two years) to become an official member of the compact.
This comes after Shapiro sent a letter to the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board (PGCB) last Thursday, asking the regulator to pursue the state’s membership in the compact.
“Pennsylvania should capitalize on our status as a leader in legalized gambling, and join this compact, which would bring in additional revenue for the Commonwealth and allow players more gaming options,” he wrote in a letter dated October 10.
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It Took More Than a Year for the Last Two States to Join
I can’t see this taking too long to get done.
The excitement that Pennsylvania, the fifth-most populous state, is joining MSIGA is palpable.
Players have been longing for multi-state poker ever since November 2019, when online poker first became available in Pennsylvania. But without membership in MSIGA, Pennsylvania has functioned as the largest segregated market offering online poker in the US.
Only two states have joined MSIGA since poker came to Pennsylvania — Michigan joined the poker compact in May 2022, and West Virginia became MSIGA’s most recent member in November 2023.
In Michigan, the amount of time it took between the state joining MSIGA and the first operator offering it was about eight months — PokerStars combined its Michigan and New Jersey player pools on January 1, 2023. And it was more than a year before another operator would also offer multi-state poker from Michigan — WSOP only got around to pooling its players from Michigan and New Jersey with Nevada last May.
West Virginia is a curious case. The state legalized online poker (and casino gaming) back in March 2019 — but to date no online poker operators have launched in the Mountain State. West Virginia joined MSIGA last November}, more than two years after the West Virginia Lottery Commission first expressed interest in joining.
PGCB spokesman Doug Harbach acknowledged Monday that there were multiple “roadmaps” that other MSIGA states had provided and which the Keystone State could follow.
“Our hope is to use those and get Pennsylvania operational as soon as viable. At the same time, every jurisdiction is different, so it is not possible at this early stage to predict the expediency of the complete launch process.”operators that have already launched online poker in the state would not be subject to additional approval from the PGCB before offering multi-state poker
Rep. George Dunbar (R-Jeannette), who sponsored legislation to get Pennsylvania into MSIGA (which served as cornerstone for the #GrowPApoker campaign), said he didn’t think it would take long for Pennsylvania to become MSIGA’s sixth member state — joining Delaware, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, and West Virginia.
“It seems like West Virginia did it relatively easily,” Dunbar told pokerfuse on Monday. “There is certainly a path or a track now for how you do this, we should be able to as well. I can’t see this taking too long to get done.”
Established PA Operators Will Be Able to Launch Straight Away
If past experience is any guide, there are still several steps before multi-state poker becomes a reality in Pennsylvania.
During the Michigan negotiations, the three other MSIGA member states reviewed Michigan’s application, a process that proved to take at least two months. There was another wrinkle, too — the compact required tweaks to some of Michigan’s gaming laws, which in turn required signoff by the AG.
It’s possible that Pennsylvania AG Michelle Henry may be involved in the process at some point. Shapiro served as the state’s previous AG before being elected governor in 2022.
One thing will be easier for Pennsylvania operators — according to Harbach, operators that have already launched online poker in the state would not be subject to additional approval from the PGCB before offering multi-state poker.
That means BetMGM Poker PA, PokerStars PA, and WSOP PA would be clear to launch multi-state poker from the get-go. It’s unclear at this stage if BetRivers Poker PA, which is close to launching in the Pennsylvania, would also be allowed to proceed in that manner. (In an interesting twist, Dunbar was invited to play BetRivers Poker PA during the soft launch period).
Poker operators in Michigan needed permission from the Michigan Gaming Control Board (MGCB) before being able to offer multi-state poker from there. To date, only PokerStars and WSOP have done so.
Pennsylvania has nearly 13 million residents. Once it joins MSIGA, its combined player pool will reach 38.3 million, up from about 29.5 million currently.
What Pennsylvania’s Membership in MSIGA Means for Its Four Operators
Pennsylvania has four real money online poker networks and will soon have a fifth. Each face different situations when the Keystone State becomes a member of MSIGA.
WSOP PA is in the most enviable position. It is poised to quickly become part of WSOP Online, a three-state network that currently includes Michigan, Nevada, and New Jersey. With shared liquidity spread across four states, it will become the most connected online poker room between regulated markets in the US.
PokerStars PA also looks to be in great shape. It’s already combined its player pools in Michigan and New Jersey — the addition of Pennsylvania to the compact gives the Flutter brand access to the top three regulated markets in the US, in terms of population.
BetMGM Poker and Borgata Poker PA which share a player pool inside Pennsylvania were already considered to be behind their rivals — the operator also runs an intrastate network in New Jersey which it has yet to combine with the BetMGM Poker player pool in Michigan, despite the fact it could have done so in early 2023. With Pennsylvania also in play, the 50-50 joint venture between MGM Resorts International and Entain risks falling behind WSOP and PokerStars, although it should be noted that BetMGM and its partners have managed to be very competitive in the New Jersey online poker market.
The real wild card is BetRivers Poker PA which just completed an extended soft launch and appears set to launch in the next few months. At this stage it looks like parent company Rush Street Interactive (RSI) plans to launch BetRivers Poker in Pennsylvania — and only in that one state, at least initially.
With Pennsylvania in MSIGA, RSI could potentially deploys BetRivers Poker across all six MSIGA member states — and is currently the only operator able to do so, since RSI was selected as the Delaware Lottery’s exclusive igaming provider last year.
There is currently a de facto blackout on regulated online poker in Delaware, which was precipitated by the exit of 888poker, which held the contract previously and offered poker through custom skins for three racinos.
