Borgata Poker USA Review

Borgata Poker US made its debut on November 26, 2013, when it launched in New Jersey. The site has been live ever since, making it one of the longest-running regulated poker rooms in the US.

For more than seven years, New Jersey was the only state that Borgata Poker US had an online presence in. Then, in April 2021, it went live with its second room in Pennsylvania.

Borgata Poker in the US is the result of joint venture between technology company Entain and the global entertainment giant MGM Resorts International.

Borgata Poker US sites run on PartyPoker’s software and along with BetMGM Poker US and PartyPoker itself, the trio is often referred to as the BetMGM Poker US Network. BetMGM now combines its New Jersey and Michigan networks, meaning there’s even more people to play against.

Illinois will be of particular interest to the operator, due to its large population (approximately 13 million). It is also worth noting that Borgata currently has no presence in Michigan, which already has regulated gaming and is another jurisdiction with a population of over 10 million people, making the Great Lake State another likely candidate for the next Borgata poker room, especially as it’s the newest addition to the MSIGA and will be launching multi-state online poker soon, offering a great opportunity for BetMGM US sites to form an interstate network.

Borgata Poker in the USA

The Borgata brick-and-mortar resort opened in July 2003, instantly becoming the highest-grossing casino in Atlantic City. In 2013, it partnered with bwin.party to offer online poker in the state of New Jersey.

Borgata Poker US as we know it today, began to take shape in 2018 when Entain (formerly known as GVC) teamed up with MGM Resorts International. That partnership now runs Borgata, as well as BetMGM Poker and PartyPoker in the US.

The three skins all use PartyPoker software for their poker rooms. As such, Borgata Poker sites in the US have a similar design and feel to the rest of the PartyPoker network. They also offer a similar choice of tournaments and cash games, as well as many of the same promotions and bonuses.

Borgata Poker NJ

Borgata Poker New Jersey greets new players with a fairly generous welcome bonus: a 100% first deposit match, up to a maximum of $1000, released in 10% chunks as wagering requirements are met. There is also up to $75 in MTT tickets up for grabs, depending on the size of the first deposit.

Traffic on the site is decent. All three PartyPoker US network skins have a presence in New Jersey, and they pool their player base within the state, generating very similar numbers to PokerStars.

Both lag behind WSOP NJ however — which enjoys the benefit of shared liquidity with Nevada and Michigan — illustrating how valuable multi-state poker will be when it becomes available for the rest of the US.

Borgata NJ runs regular tournament series, most notably the Borgata Online Poker Open, the WPT Borgata Online Series, as well as the PartyPoker US Network Online Series.

The games spread at Borgata Poker New Jersey are heavily weighted towards No-Limit Hold’em, as you would expect. Omaha players might struggle to find cash games although there are a handful of PLO tournaments spread daily, including some Hi/lo contests.

The variety of games will now hopefully improve due to multi-state liquidity on BetMGM. The larger player pool will allow Borgata to offer more niche variants, as well as games that require more liquidity, such as fast-fold poker.

Download Borgata Poker NJ and get in on the action or head to our comprehensive Borgata Poker NJ Review for more info.

Borgata Poker PA

In keeping with the overall theme of the network, Borgata Poker Pennsylvania looks and feels similar to the New Jersey poker room. The welcome package for new sign-ups is basically the same as for NJ, including the added bonus of up to $75 in added tournament tickets.

There is an obvious reason for the extra inducement — Borgata Poker PA is one the most recent poker rooms to go live in the US, having just launched in April 2021, and the operator wants to build up a player base as quickly as possible.

Its main rival in the Keystone state is PokerStars PA, which had a de facto monopoly there for 18 months. During that time, PokerStars PA became the biggest regulated site in the US.

It is unsurprising then that Borgata Poker has had a tough start in Pennsylvania. Despite sharing liquidity with the sister site BetMGM PA, it has struggled to make much of a dent in PokerStars’ traffic.

Borgata PA is such a new site that, at the time of writing, its inaugural online series has only just begun: It kicked off on June 20, also running on BetMGM PA.

It remains to be seen how successful it will be, but the $270,000 set aside in guaranteed prizes suggests a good degree of optimism for this first venture.

Understandably, with low traffic on the site, the variety of games on offer is not huge but is it very early days for the site. Borgata will be hoping to expand its player base and range of games as time goes on. The prospect of inter-state shared liquidity is looming — which would help enormously in this regard.

Download Borgata Poker PA and get in on the action or head to our comprehensive Borgata Poker PA Review for more info.

Online Casinos & Sportsbooks Powered by Borgata USA

Borgata online offers other gaming products aside from online poker. The New Jersey site features an online casino and sportsbook.

Borgata Casino NJ provides table games such as blackjack and roulette, including live dealer varieties. It also offers a large selection of slots, with several games that feature progressive jackpots.

The sportsbook covers all major US sports, as well as some of the more obscure ones such as table tennis, NASCAR, MMA, and lacrosse.

Pennsylvanians currently only have access to casino games at Borgata Casino PA but as BetMGM PA runs a sportsbook, it is probable that Borgata PA will also add one in the future.

Online Poker Regulations in the US

April 15, 2011, has gone down in poker history as Black Friday, the day the Department of Justice (DOJ) closed down online poker rooms across the US. Since then, there has been a long and slow process to legalize and regulate poker on a state-by-state basis.

It took two years for the first regulated poker room, Ultimate Poker, to go live, launching in Nevada in April 2013. Delaware was the next state to launch online poker, seven months later. Less than three weeks after that came Borgata Poker NJ.

The Early Days of Borgata Poker USA

In the early days, real money online poker in New Jersey was dominated by Borgata and WSOP, which both went live in November 2013. At this point, New Jersey was by far the biggest state to offer regulated online poker, and it would remain so for a long time.

For a while, there was hope that regulated poker would open up quickly. But that optimism was short-lived, and it would be six years before Pennsylvania became the next state to offer the game online.

Borgata Poker USA, 2016-2020

While New Jersey remained Borgata’s only live poker room in the US, a lot of work was going on behind the scenes to make the legal and logistical changes that would allow Borgata USA to expand in the future.

In February 2016, GVC acquired Bwin.Party Digital Entertainment beginning the process that would lead to the BetMGM US Network of today.

Partypoker, who had been struggling for several years, immediately saw an upturn in its fortunes, growing 10% in the first year after its acquisition.

The following month, Borgata and WSOP were joined in New Jersey by PokerStars and the three remain the big operators in the Garden State.

Borgata Poker NJ is at a disadvantage here, as WSOP enjoys the only interstate shared liquidity currently operating in the US. It pools its NJ players with those in Nevada and Delaware and therefore generates more traffic than Borgata NJ, highlighting just how valuable shared liquidity will be when it becomes available throughout the rest of the US.

In 2017, GVC — who was already providing Borgata’s poker and casino software — signed a deal with MGM Resorts International, forming what was to become BetMGM and Borgata Poker USA.

GVC changed its name to Entain in December 2020 and committed to operating solely in regulated markets. This laid the foundations for further Borgata Poker sites in the US.

Borgata Poker US: Present and Future.

In April 2021, Borgata Poker US finally launched its second regulated poker room. Borgata Poker PA went live in the Keystone State, with sister site BetMGM Poker PA launching at the same time.

The inception of a new Borgata US site after six years is a sure sign that Entain and MGM have confidence in the brand and intend to expand it as the US markets open up. Now that BetMGM has merged player pools in New Jersey and Michigan it means there will be more people to play against on Borgata.

Borgata Poker USA Highlights

• November 2013: Borgata Poker New Jersey goes live.
• April 2014: Borgata NJ deals its 30 millionth hand. To celebrate it gives away $10,000 to the winner of the landmark hand.
• September 2014: Borgata Poker NJ hosts the Garden State Super Series (GSSS). Guaranteeing $1 million in prize money, it is the largest tournament series in US regulated online poker history.
• February 2016: GVC takes over Bwin.party, thereby becoming the owner of Borgata and PartyPoker. At the time, it is the biggest poker network in the US in terms of revenue.
• July 2018: MGM Resorts International and GVC partner together to target the markets opening up in the US.
• September 2018: After scaling back the Garden State Super Series, Borgata sees the GSSS grow for four editions in a row. This time around, it generates $450,000 in guarantees, with $100,000 for the Main Event.
• June 2020: The inaugural WPT Online Poker Open is hosted by Borgata and its fellow BetMGM US Network sites in NJ, with $300,000 in prize money.
• September 2020: New Jersey’s WPT Borgata Online Series culminates in a $1060 Main Event. The $432,700 prize pool is the biggest in the BetMGM US Network’s history.
• December 2020: September’s record is short-lived, as New Jersey’s WPT Online Poker Open Main Event generates $1,264,000.
• April 2021: Six years after launching in NJ, Borgata goes live with its second poker room, in Pennsylvania.
• June 2021 Borgata Poker PA co-hosts the debut PartyPoker US network Online Series in PA, with $270,000 in guarantees.
• Nov 2024: Parent company BetMGM Poker combined networks in Michigan and New Jersey.

The Future of Borgata Poker USA

Real money online poker in the US is opening up at the fastest rate since regulation began. Seven states have now legalized internet gaming, and many more are in the process of doing so.

The main driving force behind this is the prospect of shared liquidity between state jurisdictions. In January, after years of legal ambiguity, the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit ruled that the 1961 Wire Act did not apply to online poker.

Shared liquidity now seems inevitable, and the taxes that come with it will be too good a prospect for most states to turn down. It appears that the US is approaching the tipping point, where traffic and revenue could begin to resemble those that were enjoyed before the events of Black Friday.

In April 2022, Michigan became the fourth state to join the only existing online poker multi-state agreement (MSIGA), announcing things to come. While Borgata currently does not have an active platform in Michigan, it could still likely benefit from the player pool on the sister site, BetMGM Poker MI.

Michigan, of course, has had online poker since January 2021, and with sister site BetMGM MI already live in the state, all the infrastructure is in place for Borgata to launch there if it wishes to do so. Michigan also recently signed onto the Multi-State Internet Gaming Agreement (aka MSIGA), joining Nevada, Delaware, and New Jersey in interstate poker. As PartyPoker, Borgata, and BetMGM already share a network in NJ and BetMGM Is already present in MI, it would make a whole lot of sense for Borgata to launch in Michigan so the network could connect the three brands in NJ with two brands in MI, truly taking advantage of the shared liquidity opportunity.

Once shared liquidity is available, the BetMGM Poker US network will really come into its own. Borgata US may only have two poker rooms up and running, but it will be able to pool its customers with all other sites in the network.

Borgata Poker Frequently Asked Questions

Is it legal to play on Borgata Poker sites in the US?

Yes! Borgata Poker US is legal and fully regulated. To be eligible to play at Borgata, you must be a US resident, at least 21 years of age, and physically located in a state that Borgata is operating in.

What states does Borgata Poker US operate in?

Borgata currently has online poker rooms live in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

Do I need to be a resident in the States to play on Borgata Poker USA?

Yes. You must be a US resident, and you must be physically present in the same state as the operator to play. Borgata uses geolocation technology to establish players’ whereabouts. It is extremely accurate and players trying to log in from outside the jurisdiction in question will not be able to play.

What US states can I access Borgata Poker from?

At the present time, Borgata is only available in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

Does Borgata Poker in the US share liquidity between different states?

Shared liquidity is not currently permitted between states, though that is highly likely to change in the near future.

Can I legally play on Borgata Poker US sites when visiting the States as a tourist?

No, unfortunately, that is not possible. Nor can a US resident play when they are out of the country.

Can I register for one of the Borgata Poker US sites if I live in the US but not in a state where the operator is licensed?

Yes, you can register with Borgata Poker US, wherever you live in the country — but you will not be permitted to play unless you are within the respective jurisdiction.