According to a report filed by Associated Press, online gaming behemoths 888 Holdings and World Series of Poker have plans to debut online player pools between New Jersey and Nevada. Nevada and Delaware have had a poker liquidity sharing arrangement for years now which means that Delaware is definitely in the mix.
Nevada and New Jersey inked and announce the poker liquidity sharing plans last year with the arrangement being considered to be a historic one especially because the two states possess the most regulated and popular online gambling markets. It is indeed an exciting time for online poker in the United States.
As it stands, the Caesars Entertainment-owned World Series of Poker (WSOP) is the only online gaming operator approved to offer their products in Delaware, Nevada and New Jersey and therefore it will be the biggest beneficiary of the arrangement for now. Players from Delaware and Nevada will, however, be required to download new software and create new accounts as well in order to play against players from New Jersey.
“This has been a huge collaborative effort from all involved and it is important to thank the elected leadership and regulatory authorities in Delaware, Nevada, and New Jersey for their dedication and diligence to help move online poker forward,” said WSOP.com’s head of online poker Bill Rini. “Everyone has had the end user in mind throughout this process, and as a result, we believe the United States, for the first time in a regulated environment, will have a large-scale multi-state offering that will propel the industry forward as soon as next month.”
There is also hope for other states to join in on the lucrative arrangement. Pennsylvania, for instance, passed a legislation in October 2017 that made it the fourth state to allow regulated online gambling operations. The Keystone state has already begun accepting online gaming applications and this means that online casino offerings could be a reality in the state by the end of the year. Hopefully, once this happens, Pennsylvania will eventually team up with the other three states in order to give the much-needed boost to US online poker.
Also, other states like Connecticut, New York, and Michigan that are now considering online poker are expected to eventually follow the same route. Multi-state player pools have received an immense amount of support from gambling regulators in all the three states that are currently involved. Case in point, Attorney Sarah Koch of Washington-based law firm explained the appeal of such arrangements in a post published on the firm’s website.
“No matter how sophisticated the platform or how well-designed the user experience, the game will only be successful if there is a critical mass of players online at any given time,” Attorney Koch’s explanation read. “And poker rooms need a range of skill levels and buy-in levels. The best way to ensure 24/7 liquidity is to offer the game to a large number of players across time zones.”