#GrowPApoker

Online poker in Pennsylvania is legal, but currently the state does not allow its licensed online poker providers to combine their player pools in PA with those from other states where online poker is legal. Given the peer-to-peer nature of poker, shared liquidity (the combining of player pools) is an essential component that helps create bigger prize pools and ultimately makes playing online poker safer for consumers.

To be able to share liquidity with the other big online poker states (Michigan, Nevada and New Jersey), Pennsylvania needs to join the Multi-State Internet Gaming Agreement (MSIGA). On March 5, Rep. George Dunbar (R-Jeannette) introduced HB 2078, a bill that would authorize the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board (PGCB) to join MISGA.

Pokerfuse is asking for your help in contacting lawmakers in Pennsylvania and voicing your support for HB 2078.

What You Can Do to Help

In order to successfully bring multi-state poker to Pennsylvania, we need your help. We have identified two people whose attention needs to be drawn to HB 2078: Governor Josh Shapiro and Rep. Matthew Bradford (D-Cedars), who serves as majority leader in the state House of Representatives.

In addition to these two members of state leadership, Pennsylvania residents can also contact the representatives for their district in the State House and State Senate. A little further down we list the contact information for Governor Shapiro and Rep. Bradford, and the Finding Your Legislators’ Contact Information section will help you determine who your state representatives are and how to get in touch.

We recommend the following ways to reach out to Pennsylvania lawmakers in a respectful and professional manner:

• Posting to social media
• Sending an email
• Writing and mailing a letter
• Calling your lawmakers and voice your support

Posting to Social Media

It should be noted that politicians pay attention to social media posts more than you may realize. With that in mind, we ae asking that you post on X, formerly Twitter, asking Governor Josh Shapiro and Rep. Matthew Bradford (D-Cedars) to support HB 2078.

To make it easy, we’ve crafted the post below so you can just copy, paste and post:

Please help bring shared liquidity to PA #poker by supporting HB 2078. It will increase tax revenue, responsible gaming efforts, consumer protections & prize pools for players! @GovernorShapiro @RepBradford @RepDunbar @pokerfuse #GrowPApoker https://pokerfuse.com/online-poker/advocacy/grow-pa-poker/

You can also click this button to pre-fill in a Tweet with this text:

Tweet your support for #GrowPApoker »

• @GovernorShapiro
• @RepBradford
• @RepDunbar
• @pokerfuse

And make sure to include the #GrowPApoker hashtag to help spread the word.

Write your own Tweet to support #GrowPApoker »

Sending a Letter via Email or Snail Mail

Letter writing campaigns are a tried and true way to support grassroots advocacy efforts and a great way to support #GrowPApoker. Whether you use the prewritten letters included below or write you own, here is how to make sure your voice is heard.

Unfortunately, sending a letter electronically to Governor Josh Shapiro and Rep. Matthew Bradford is not as simple as it could be, but it’s still an easy and effective way to join the effort. Though neither the Governor nor Rep. Bradford have a public facing email address, they do have an online form in which you can paste one of the letters below or compose your own if you prefer.

Governor Shapiro

You can send an email to Governor Shapiro via his website.

• Simply copy the pre-written letter below, paste it into the online form
• Add your contact information
• Select Gaming from the Message Topic dropdown menu
• Click Submit

Alternatively, you can print out the letter and send a hardcopy to:

Governor Josh Shapiro
508 Main Capitol Building
Harrisburg, PA 17120

Rep. Bradford

You can send an email to Rep. Bradford via his website.

• Simply copy the pre-written letter below, paste it into the online form
• Add your contact information
• Click Submit

Alternatively, you can print out the letter and send a hardcopy to:

Rep. Matthew Bradford
2000 Bustard Road, Suite 6
P.O. Box 118
Cedars, PA 19423-0118

Phone Calls

Calling your representatives in state government is a great way to voice your support HB 2078.

The phone numbers for Governor Shapiro and Rep. Bradford are below and you can follow the instructions in the Finding Your Legislators’ Contact Information section to find the phone numbers for the representatives in your district.

When you call, please ask the lawmaker to support HB 2078 and multi-state online poker in Pennsylvania. For a list of talking points, see our Why Shared Liquidity is Important section.

Governor Josh Shapiro: (717) 787-2500
Rep. Matthew Bradford: (610) 222-3490

And while you are at it, consider giving Rep. Dunbar a call to thank him for his support at (724) 744-0305

Why Shared Liquidity is Important

Membership in MSIGA is important for several reasons. Shared liquidity would benefit players by:

• Creating bigger prize pools for tournaments
• Resulting in more poker games running when players want to play, not just during peak times
• Leading to a greater selection of different types of poker games available

In turn, shared liquidity would help channel more players to regulated sites by making them more appealing and removing incentives for players to gamble on illegal, offshore poker sites. In short, joining MISGA would also make regulations more effective by:

• Increasing consumer protections against fraud for online poker players in Pennsylvania
• Providing responsible gaming (RG) protections unavailable on illegal offshore sites
• Generating additional tax revenue for all citizens of Pennsylvania

Finding Your Legislators’ Contact Information

The state of Pennsylvania makes it easy for its citizens to find out who their representatives are in the State House and in the State Senate.

Simply visit the General Assembly website. From there you can enter your address or choose your county and you will be provided a list of your representatives. You can then click on their name and obtain their contact information.

How pokerfuse is Helping

The pokerfuse team is doing its part to support multi-state online poker in Pennsylvania by educating the public and lawmakers on the benefits of joining MISGA and by encouraging our readers to support HB 2078 by contacting Governor Shapiro and members of the General Assembly.

We will continue to use our platform and channels to advocate on behalf of poker players in PA.

#GrowPApoker Social Media Advocacy Campaign: Tuesday, May 7

As part of our #GrowPApoker campaign, we sponsored a social media blitz on X (formerly Twitter) that took place on Tuesday May 7. The campaign was a great success with participation for poker players in Pennsylvania (and beyond), the poker media, and PokerStars PA.

According to Rep Dunbar, the social media blitz caught the attention of the leaders of the House Gaming Oversight Committee and in doing so, increased the visibility of support for HB 2078. Dunbar added, “I would say keep up the push. You guys are doing great! You really are. Some people are noticing. We’ll get there!”

We asked people and organizations to show their support for bringing shared liquidity to Pennsylvania online poker by asking PA government officials to back HB 2078 — a bill that would empower and require the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board (PGCB) to enter a shared liquidity compact with other states.

We asked people to help by:

• Posting on X and tagging key lawmakers along with Governor Josh Shapiro and the PGCB (see the list of officials we asked for support along.
• Recruiting others to join the campaign by publicly (for max exposure) asking them to help.

Here is the list we targeted:

Sample post:

For more information on the May 7th campaign, check out our Save the Date #GrowPApoker page.

PokerStars PA Freeroll

To help support the #GrowPApoker initiative, PokerStars PA is hosted a freeroll with a 2,078 prize pool, symbolic of HB 2078, the proposed legislation introduced by Rep. George Dunbar that would give the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board (PGCB) the authority to join MISGA and bring shared liquidity to PA.

The freeroll was open to anyone with a PokerStars PA account, and there was no cost to enter.

The tournament kicked off on May 7 at 19:00 ET, with a total of 352 players participating, including Rep Dunbar himself. In the end, the the final four players struck a deal and the freeroll was eventually won by PittsburghPoker.