Pennsylvania Becomes 6th State to Join MSIGA Compact

A long-awaited development in regulated U.S.A. poker has come to fruition as the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board (PGCB) announced on Wednesday, April 23, 2025 that it had been formally accepted into the Multi-State Internet Gaming Agreement (MSIGA). It is the sixth state to join the Agreement. This means that licensed PA online poker sites will now be able to combine their player pools with their counterparts in other regulated markets, leading to higher traffic and bigger prize pools.

MGM Brands First Out of Gate

Though Governor Josh Shapiro (D) only signed the MSIGA a few days ago, the state has set an ambitious timeline for internet poker shared liquidity. It expects that BetMGM and Borgata will be the first to combine their player pools on April 28 at 9:00 a.m. with other operators to follow shortly.

BetMGM and Borgata are already on the same network and share traffic in those states in which they both operate along with their partner brand partypoker. Very shortly, they will be able to add their players from Pennsylvania to their traffic from Michigan and New Jersey. To celebrate, they're hosting a $35,000 freeroll on April 28 at 7:05 p.m. with the victor taking home a $5,000 prize package to the upcoming BetMGM Poker Championship at the Aria Casino in Las Vegas. Moreover, BetMGM Poker will be hosting a $1 million guaranteed series with 18 tournaments over the weekend of May 8 – 11.

BetMGM VP of Gaming Angus Nisbet commented:

Pennsylvania represents the largest state to join the shared player pool and turbocharges our poker platform. This expanded player pool will allow us to deliver more games and bigger tournaments to our players. BetMGM Poker is ready to celebrate the growth of our shared liquidity network throughout the spring and summer in a variety of ways.

Other Likely Beneficiaries

Another online poker organization that's likely to take advantage of Pennsylvania's accession to the MSIGA is PokerStars. It already has a combined player pool across its New Jersey and Michigan cardrooms, and in order to not fall behind BetMGM, it will probably look to add its Pennsylvania poker site to its existing shared liquidity pool.

WSOP Online is another interesting case. It's the only one of the existing PA internet poker providers that does business in Nevada, and it also has a presence in Michigan and New Jersey. It has the distinction of being the only U.S. online poker room that offers official World Series of Poker bracelet events. In 2024, the Nevada, Michigan, and New Jersey WSOP Online sites let their players compete for 30 bracelets whereas Pennsylvanians had access to only seven online bracelets.

Should Pennsylvania's WSOP poker site be able to successfully share player traffic with the other states before this year's WSOP festival starts, then its players would probably have access to the full online bracelet schedule. At the same time, this schedule would likely expand both in number of events and in the guaranteed prize pools offered.

BetRivers Sitting on Sidelines

The newest Pennsylvania-licensed online poker room, BetRivers Poker, launched in November 2024. It had been in development for a couple of years by Rush Street Interactive, which built it upon the old software from Phil Galfond's now-shuttered poker site, RunItOnce, which RSI acquired in March 2022.

Pennsylvania was the first – and to date, only – state in which BetRivers Poker has opened for business although it is active in casino and sports betting markets in several states. Thus, it has no sister sites in other states, so BetRivers Poker will not be in a position to benefit from the MSIGA at least in the short term. BetRivers is expected to expand its poker site in the future especially in Delaware where BetRivers holds the contract to provide online poker services and already offers internet casino and sports wagering products. Only after this occurs will BetRivers stand to derive any advantage from the MSIGA.

About the MSIGA

The MSIGA dates from February 2014 when state leaders in Nevada and Delaware realized that their nascent real money online poker economies would stand to benefit from combined traffic. They foresaw that allowing individuals from different states to play together on combined platforms would make their online poker products more appealing because they would be able to boast higher traffic, larger tournament prize pools, and enhanced game selection that would not be possible with the tiny, ring-fenced sites then in existence.

The agreement was put into effect in March 2015 when the three Delaware-regulated internet poker rooms joined with WSOP.com in Nevada to form a single pool of traffic. The single-digit nature of DE player counts, however, meant that the actual boost to player population numbers was miniscule.

The next big MSIGA news came in October 2017 when New Jersey agreed to join, and the implementation of tri-state online poker shared liquidity came to life in May 2018. This time, the impact was noticeable as New Jersey had a considerably higher population than the two existing members of the MSIGA.

Michigan entered the Agreement in April 2022, and its first shared poker player pools were achieved in January 2023. West Virginia was next to sign up in November 2023, but as it has yet to launch any online poker sites, its actual participation is irrelevant at this time.

Pennsylvania's Contribution: a Look at the Numbers

Pennsylvania brings a lot to the table when it comes to the MSIGA. As we have already alluded to, the importance of any particular state in the cross-jurisdictional player pool depends upon the number of people who reside in that state. With a population of 13 million, Pennsylvania is now the largest component of the MSIGA, ahead of Michigan's 10 million and New Jersey's 9.5 million people.

According to a press release from the PGCB, there are an estimated 150,000 online poker players in Pennsylvania. The gaming industry in Pennsylvania, which includes 17 brick-and-mortar casinos along with 22 online sites, employs 15,000.

Governor Josh Shapiro remarked:

This is a commonsense step to support hundreds of thousands of Pennsylvanians, grow our economy, and bring in more revenue to support our schools, our seniors, our small businesses, and more. Three of our neighbors are already part of this agreement – and with this action today, we’re making sure Pennsylvania remains competitive in a rapidly growing online market.

Shared Poker Traffic Already Available

Of course, there are already online poker solutions that don't depend on the doings of politicians in Harrisburg. We're referring to offshore sites that are headquartered in other countries but that accept customers from Pennsylvania. It's perfectly legal for you to partake in these sites although the PGCB probably doesn't like it very much.

Perhaps the best of them for poker players is Ignition Casino. It has the highest traffic among any entities serving the U.S. online poker market, and it also lets you play casino games too. When you make your initial deposit via crypto-currency, you'll qualify for a 150% up to $1,500 poker bonus and a similar bonus for the casino. Press the button below to go to Ignition:

For additional details about the Ignition poker offering, check out this detailed Ignition Poker review. For a rundown of the best sites available to Pennsylvanians, head on over to this PA online poker guide. If you reside elsewhere in the country, then you might instead wish to consult this page dedicated to online poker U.S.A.

April 25, 2025 – by Max Golden, Editor-in-Chief