Poker in the United States has certainly been popular or why would the World Series of Poker, the world’s largest and most prestigious poker event, be held in the country in the first place?
Yet, online poker has been somewhat slow to catch on. In the absence of sufficient prize pools and enough cash games, many players have turned offshore – but no more, as PokerStars, one of the biggest card rooms in the US and beyond, has vowed to merge its operations in New Jersey and Michigan and create new opportunities to play poker in competitive and rewarding settings.
Pennsylvania could be coming next as a logical continuation of the latest announcement.
Merge Player Bases for Even More Opportunities
Announced earlier in December, the merger between PokerStars’ operations in the Great Lakes and Garden State will now happen on January 1, allowing the company to unite its player bases and let them play against each other. This will have immediate results on the overall liquidity and help boost prize pools, offer busier tournament schedules, and certainly, reduce waiting times when looking for cash games.
PokerStars US managing director Severin Rasset was thrilled with the opportunity and said that he was looking forward to offering a better experience and adding even more value to player bases in both states, which will now merge into one super community. He added:
Our community will experience more breadth and depth of games, more tournaments with bigger prizes to win, amped-up promotions, and more choice.
PokerStars US managing director Severin Rasset
Charting a Path for Other States to Follow Suite
PokerStars has not gone it alone having collaborated very closely with regulators in both states but also setting an example of what other states that move forward with such a move may expect. New Jersey presently participates in an interstate gambling compact with Nevada and Delaware, but it’s individual brands that also have to agree to merge their player bases.
The good news is that online poker is slowly picking up steam. Part of this is the newfound interest and legislative momentum in legalizing iGaming and launching online casinos, which in turn is emboldening operators to also pursue an expansion in the online poker space.
There have been quite a few prominent names to do so already, including BetMGM, Caesars Interactive Entertainment, and not least, PokerStars.