Pennsylvania Lawmaker Pushes for Online Poker Liquidity
Pennsylvania may have legalized online poker in 2017, years before Michigan, but it has yet to join the multi-state liquidity agreement. One lawmaker in Pennsylvania wants to change that.
Long Road to Liquidity
When Pennsylvania legalized online poker and casino games in late 2017, it was the fourth state in America to do so, years after Nevada, New Jersey, and Delaware. But Pennsylvania lawmakers wanted to build on the growing gambling industry in their state, one that had become second in the nation in gambling revenue behind Nevada, only vying with New Jersey for that second-place position. When lawmakers in PA realized that states with legalized igaming were complementing their land-based casino revenue and growing their gaming brands, they wanted to get on the bandwagon.
They did just that by legalizing igaming through the legislature. Then-Governor Tom Wolf signed the bill into law in October 2017. It took a while to get the overall regulatory framework in place, but companies then applied for their igaming licenses. Several of them launched online casinos in the summer of 2019, but only one company – PokerStars – launched its online poker site that year. And it remained the only state-regulated online poker provider until BetMGM launched its poker product in April 2021.
To date, however, Pennsylvania has not signed the Multi-State Internet Gaming Agreement (MSIGA).
Michigan Surpasses Pennsylvania
The lack of action by Pennsylvania was confusing. MSIGA would allow its poker sites to combine with other states’ player pools and increase their profiles, player bases, and revenue. But Pennsylvania gave no indication that it was doing it.
Meanwhile, Michigan passed its Lawful Gaming Act in 2019. Governor Gretchen Whitmer signed it into law in December 2019, but it did not allow for interstate gaming agreements. Lawmakers then introduced an amendment to do just that, allowing for online poker liquidity, in 2020. Whitmer signed that one in December 2020. PokerStars jumped on it and launched its online poker site in Michigan in January 2021, with BetMGM following two months later and WSOP one year after that.
The Michigan Gaming Control Board took the initiative to gather the governors of participating MSIGA states – New Jersey, Nevada, and Delaware – to give indicate their support of Michigan signing the agreement. With the coordination of the governors and gaming regulators, Michigan’s gaming board approved MSIGA in April 2023, and the signed agreement became public in May 2023.
PokerStars, again on the front lines, launched its combined Michigan-New Jersey poker site on the first day of January 2023. BetMGM signified its intention to join its sites in 2024, and most analysts assume that WSOP will do the same and combine the two with its Nevada site.
Pennsylvania remained on the sidelines.
PA Online Poker Suffers
Without interstate poker liquidity, US online poker in any particular state will hit a ceiling and then stay stagnant or perhaps falter. Pennsylvania was proof positive of that when it revealed its full-year 2023 gambling industry results.
While the entirety of Pennsylvania’s igaming sector grew more than 27% in 2023, that was attributable to online casino games. The online poker portion of igaming showed a revenue decrease of 9% in 2023.
The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board had little to say about the issue. Some analysts believed that Governor Josh Shapiro was focused on election year politics in 2023 and 2024, and online poker simply wasn’t a priority for him. Regardless, the inaction did no favors for PA online poker.
State Representative George Dunbar had enough. The Republican lawmaker told Pokerfuse that he loved to play poker online prior to Black Friday and knew the importance of liquidity, especially for a growing state-by-state market. He knew that his state needed to sign MSIGA to get the process of liquidity going.
Legislation Might Do It
The inaction of the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board (PGCB) and Governor Shapiro to push for MSIGA led Representative Dunbar to take action. On March 5, he introduced House Bill 2078 alongside several likeminded lawmakers.
HB.2078’s purpose is to amend Title 4 of the Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes. It would amend the current law to provide for interactive gaming.
The bill specifically gives the PGCB the power to enter into “interactive gaming reciprocal agreements on behalf of the Commonwealth to govern the conduct of interactive gaming” between states and jurisdictions. And it gives the governor the right to “enter into interactive gaming reciprocal agreements.
More than that, the bill gives a mandate:
“Within 30 days of the effective date of this subparagraph, request membership in the Multi-State Internet Gaming Association with New Jersey, Delaware, Nevada, and any other states that join or have joined the Multi-State Internet Gaming Association. The board shall enter into the interactive agreement on behalf of the Commonwealth.”
That effective date will be the date that the amendment officially becomes a part of the Pennsylvania gaming law.
HB.2078 was immediately referred to the Gaming Oversight Committee for further action.
Dunbar Remains Hopeful
In a conversation with Pokerfuse, Dunbar noted that the bill has bipartisan support, as is typical for a gambling-related measure. Lawmakers also understand that this online poker liquidity works similarly to lotteries like Powerball working across state lines.
Dunbar appears to see this as an extra step in the process of moving closer to shared liquidity but a necessary one. Governor Shapiro is busy with election year politics, but this could be a way to interject this issue. “This is not high on his list of priorities,” he told Pokerfuse, “so I figured I would just poke him a little bit and introduce it. That way, it puts it on his radar.”
This is also one of the last things that Dunbar hopes to accomplish before he leaves office. He announced in December that he would not seek reelection this year for an eighth term.
