We will conclude the year of 2019 with some of the best stories that marked the year and are related to poker. One of the most important things that happened to US citizens who enjoy this type of entertainment is that another state made online poker available — Pennsylvania.
The legislators of Pennsylvania voted on a bill that aimed to expand gambling operations in the state back in 2017. In 2019, it was time that they started implementing the suggested changes by the bill, and one of the changes included the addition of online poker.
Apart from poker, the bill also suggested the opening of new satellite casinos (also known as mini-casinos), terminals for video gaming, online casinos, DFS, and more.
Poker fans were thrilled by the fact that the bill also paid attention to online poker, making The Keystone State only the fourth state to make such kind of entertainment available for poker players on the web. The only three states to have legally recognized and allowed poker were Delaware, Nevada, and New Jersey.
Nevertheless, several other states are currently working hard on providing a legal background for online gaming, including online poker.
The process of regulating online poker was a lengthy one for the state of Pennsylvania. For more than a year, regulators had been working hard on providing the necessary background regulations.
This resulted in online poker becoming available in late November of 2019, and it was one of the main things that marked the poker year, making many residents of Pennsylvania happy. Needless to say, they were very eager to test the new product, as well as their poker skills.
In other words, the early response from poker fans was rather positive. However, the regulation process is far from over, as there’s still a lot to do to give poker lovers the best possible online poker experience.
PokerStars PA The First to Hit the Market
One of the first companies to offer online poker in The Keystone State was PokerStars. It immediately went viral, as the traffic monitor managed to record a total of 784 players playing at the 24-hour peak.
That happened during the first week, so it was safe to conclude that poker players were rather happy with the offer.
Just for the sake of comparison, the number of recorded players was four times higher than the number of players on PokerStars NJ and twice as many compared to the number of poker players who enjoy this game on WSOP.com.
The great start means that PokerStars is going to focus on Pennsylvania for some time. They already started an online tournament called Pennsylvania Championship of Online Poker (PACOOP), which includes a total of 50 events and guaranteed combined prizes that reach $1.225 million.
In other words, Pennsylvania is going to be big when it comes to poker, and we can hope that other states would follow the same path in the future.
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