Online poker is finally making its long-awaited comeback to the United States. Even though there is still plenty more to be done before the industry regains its former glory, the May 1 development made the situation way better than it was a couple of years ago. Last Tuesday, WSOP.com became the first online poker operator stateside to offer a combined platform for poker players in the states of New Jersey, Delaware, and Nevada – regulated online poker is already up and running in all three states, a number is likely to grow significantly in the near future.
“It’s a monumental day for online poker in the United States,” said WSOP.com’s Head of Online Poker Bill Rini of the May 1 launch. “This is truly a game-changer for players and we hope is the model blueprint for additional states to join the fray.”
Now that the framework for online poker has been established across the country, it can also be seen as an open invitation for all other states to go online and join the new interstate online poker network. The perks of the new interstate online poker arrangement are also very appealing and this should give other states even more incentive to join in. To put this into perspective, online poker players in all the three states will have access to more cash games as well as tournaments with bigger prize pools.
In fact, WSOP has already begun rolling out such initiatives through its new Coast to Coast Classic tournament series that will run from May 11 to May 20 and will feature more than $1 million in guaranteed prize pools. The poker operator has even guaranteed a $200,001 prize pool for the series’ Main Event – this is by far the largest for legal and regulated online poker in the United States
When Pennsylvania’s online poker industry finally goes live and it joins the interstate online poker network, we are likely to witness the doubling of the size of the network. This should be enough to convince states that are still skeptical about the potential of regulated online poker.
