Illinois Online Gaming Bill Gains Support Poker News
Several stakeholders and industry leaders spoke both in favor and against the bill in Wednesday’s General Law Committee public hearing, including DraftKings Government Affairs Manager David Prestwood. MSIGA currently includes Nevada, Michigan, Delaware, New Jersey and West Virginia. Based in the United Kingdom, Will started working for PokerNews as a freelance live reporter in 2015 and joined the full-time staff in 2019. Under Maine law, this allowed the bill to become law automatically after the expiration of a ten-day review period.
Will Online Poker Finally Come To New York?
- He finished runner-up to Johnny Chan in the 1988 WSOP Main Event, and he became just the fifth player ever to reach 10 career WSOP bracelets when he took down a $50,000 Super High Roller in 2023 at the first-ever World Series of Poker Paradise (WSOPP) series.
- The current framework also does not allow the state to join interstate shared-liquidity agreements, so any future market may initially be limited to players located within Maine.
- PokerStars has made an agreement with Eldorado Resorts Inc. with the intention to offer online poker in 11 other states in addition to New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
- The Senate version differs just a bit from the House bill, which would tax the industry at just 15%, but with 6% still going to the Hold Harmless Fund.
However, the recency with which legalizing sports betting became an option, and the speed with which it then swept the nation have made that impossible. J. Gary Pretlow, who has been Sen. Addabbo’s counterpart in the Assembly for New York iGaming efforts, has proposed online poker on its own as a compromise. In the states with iGaming, online poker makes up only about 2% of gross revenue. Unfortunately, there also isn’t enough money in it for anyone to be interested in a pure online poker bill in this decade. On its own, online poker probably isn’t as difficult a sell as the full iGaming package including online poker. New York’s iGaming effort, led by Sen. Joe Addabbo, represented the Holy Grail for online casino operators.
Everyone else was either teaching or taking summer school and I didn’t want to do that, but I also didn’t want to look like the laziest MA candidate, so I claimed I was furthering my ‘research’ into poker players in Vegas. While the other students in her graduate program spent the summer teaching or taking classes, Welman headed to Las Vegas under the extremely convenient premise that the trip would further her research into poker players. A VPN bypasses geo-restrictions, but it also offers enhanced security and protection of your online details when playing online poker.
There are quite a few live card rooms in the Treasure State, but what about online poker rooms? This is where we find the rules that relate to regular players in the state who choose to gamble on the internet. The FAQ page on the Mississippi Gambling Commission’s website we see that playing poker is illegal unless in a casino. Nobody has ever been charged or convicted for playing online poker in Maryland. After the state of Kentucky tried to fine PokerStars $870 million over residents’ losses back in 2015, it’s fair to say that most residents of the Bluegrass State aren’t too sure of the legality of online poker. The state laws make practically every form of real money gambling illegal besides those which are authorized and regulated by the state.
Meanwhile, the remaining licensees — Hard Rock, Bally’s, and Resorts World — may not be as gung-ho about online casinos as MGM would have been. What’s clear, however, is that none of the current scandal, panic, and legal drama is originating from regulated operators. Underground poker games of the sort involved in the NBA scandal don’t have much reason to exist in states with ready access to legal poker rooms. Coming into 2025, sweepstakes casinos and poker rooms were the hot-button topic.
New Jersey finally got in on the interstate liquidity in October 2017 when Governors Chris Christie of New Jersey, Brian Sandoval of Nevada, and John Carney of Delaware signed an agreement. States like Washington and Texas struggle with those issues and whether established cardrooms should be legal. Poker was always a big part of gambling lore but took on a lie of its own in the late 1990s and early 2000s. After that, lotteries were prevalent among early settlers, and New Orleans became the gambling center of the country in the mid-1800s.
Flutter Entertainment, which owns both companies, is planning a possible merger between FanDuel Poker and the biggest name in poker for the past 25 Xuan Liu officially signed with Ignition Casino as brand ambassador in April 2026, and the poker community noticed. The winner, Atlanta man Daniel Weinman immediately quit poker as a profession to run a poker and game themed restaurant. The past few years have provided poker fans with a range of options when it comes to watching The win launched Smith from relative obscurity into the spotlight of one of poker’s most watched events.
Twitch and YouTube fueled a second poker boom as people rediscovered the thrill of the game. The COVID-19 pandemic brought poker back into the spotlight. What’s missing is a cohesive federal strategy or a larger coalition of states joining interstate poker compacts. While few of these efforts make it to law, the consistency of the push reflects growing interest among constituents and political stakeholders. His efforts echo the need for a new wave of regulated platforms that are secure, accessible, and community-driven.
Pennsylvania was the latest to join the agreement in April, and online poker revenue in legalized states has grown ever since. The state’s four upstate casinos could also receive licenses along with the three planned downstate casinos, in addition to more than a dozen tribal gaming operators. Addabbo thinks lawmakers may be more open to online poker and iGaming now that sweeps are out of the way. They, and other critics, argue the platforms offer casino-style gaming with a dual-currency system meant to circumvent state gambling laws. Opponents have argued that online gaming would cannibalize the state’s three current brick-and-mortar casinos in Bristol, Danville, and Portsmouth. For poker players, the bill allows the state to join the Multi-State Internet Gaming Agreement shared liquidity compact.
Additionally, lawmakers have relaxed laws in recent years to permit home games. Lawmakers approved retail sports betting in 2019 but shot down a mobile sports betting proposal in 2022. Online poker was late to the game and was legalized in New Jersey in 2013 after poker’s Black Friday two years prior. The way this actually manifests is that hundreds of bars across the state serve as sort of hybrid entertainment locations, offering live poker, video poker, video lottery, keno, and off-track betting. Missouri law never truly addressed daily fantasy sports, leaving the state like others as a gray area with regard to DFS. On January 1, 2023, PokerStars became the first operator to link their Michigan player pool with another state.
Currently, the only legal gambling in Georgia is the… Read more » Since 2018, sports betting has taken off across the States of America. New Jersey also approved a law banning these operators in August. Sweeps companies have also noted that users aren’t required to buy anything and that their games should be treated more like traditional mobile gaming.
Nothing in state law provides precise guidance on playing poker online. There was an effort to legalize online poker by voter referendums, but nothing has moved on since 2018. While Kansas is home to a wide array of regulated gambling methods, online gambling does not seem likely to appear on that menu at any point soon. While brick-and-mortar casinos appear to support igaming, unfounded concerns of cannibalization keep the bills from progressing.
For poker players, the ban cuts down on their online poker options. Already known for a robust horse racing industry, the Bluegrass State may be considering adding live casinos and also legalizing fantasy sports. Connecticut, which has a population of 3.7 million, legalized online poker in 2021 with a bill that also legalized sports wagering and online gaming. MSIGA is the interstate compact that allows players in states like New Jersey, Michigan, and Nevada, where various legal poker sites exist, to compete against one another in a shared player pool. Maine joins Nevada, New Jersey, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Michigan, West Virginia, and Rhode Islandand Connecticut as the only states to have cleared the path for legal, regulated online poker. Those talking points included the state’s need for added tax revenue, the quick success of online sports betting in New York, the increased competition offered from several neighboring states, and, of course, the ability to block underage gambling via state-regulated sites.
Can You Play Online Poker in Oklahoma
The legislature passed a comprehensive gambling expansion package in October, including the legalization of online poker and casino games. To achieve legal status in the US, online poker sites navigate a complex landscape, with no federal regulatory system for internet gaming. After expanding land-based gambling, West Virginia lawmakers included online poker and casino games in its regulatory scheme in 2019. Lawmakers finally began to examine the possibility of casinos in recent years, along with sports betting, but online poker remains out of the question.
Under the direction of the Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection, the state permitted the Mashantucket Pequot and Mohegan tribes to run virtual poker and casino platforms. It’s unlikely that gaming will be legalized in California in the short term. As of January 2026, no laws are in effect, despite some industry stakeholders still advocating for regulation. Tribal sovereignty disputes and the conflicting interests of cardrooms and tribal casinos have repeatedly slowed progress. Currently, there are no state-regulated platforms that allow people to play for real money. Without a clear regulatory path, any progress would require a major rewrite of the state’s gaming laws.
“DraftKings would like to state its support for the provision authorizing the Governor to enter into multijurisdictional agreements for peer-to-peer casino gaming,” Prestwood said. Pennsylvania lawmakers are also currently looking at joining the poker compact. However, no poker operators have launched in Connecticut since then.
Texas is experimenting with live poker at private social clubs instead of casinos. Instead of real money, players use a virtual currency called Sweep Coins to buy into tournaments and cash games. With nearly 13 million residents, Illinois would instantly become the second-largest state with legal online poker, trailing only Pennsylvania.
This construct has long powered the largest sweeps poker market in the country. The model grants free Sweeps Coins tied to purchases of a fun currency, which can be used for poker and redeemed for cash. Those moves foreshadow broader poker exits now that the signature is in place.
Lawmakers Passed the Bill in June, With Operators Already Fleeing
The bill would bar any federally-recognized tribal nations in New York from offering competing online-gaming platforms without being licensed by the state, but they would be welcomed into the bidding process. S8185 calls for the state to issue three interactive gaming licenses, to be awarded through a competitive bidding process open to currently approved gambling licensees in the state. The bill declares a \”conservative estimate\” that approving online gaming would net New York a much needed billion dollars in tax revenue in it its first year. S8185 notes that neighboring states Pennsylvania and New Jersey generated roughly $3.5 billion in online-gaming in revenue, collecting about a billion www.pokernewsdaily.com dollars in combined revenue for the two states.
Thirty-one people were indicted in October, accused of a conspiracy to rig sports bets and underground poker games. BetMGM Poker ambassador and four-time World Poker Tour (WPT) champion Darren Elias said that adding a large market like Pennsylvania “is a huge milestone in continued expansion and provides the opportunity to compete against more players and for larger prize pools.” After signing off on the agreement, Shapiro sat down with Poker Hall of Famer and PokerGO President Mori Eskandani for a conference call interview about the development to the online poker landscape. Pennsylvania officially became the sixth state to join the Multi-State Internet Gaming Agreement (MSIGA) on Wednesday as Governor Josh Shapiro gave his final approval on the online poker agreement. However, Nevada players have been joined in a mutual pool by those from New Jersey, Michigan and Pennsylvania on WSOP.com. Buoyed by the 2011 DoJ opinion, Nevada arranged with Delaware and New Jersey to combine player pools.
We offer daily poker and casino news, poker professionals’ blogs and tweets, exclusive gambling videos, thousands of free gambling articles, as well as coverage from all major poker tournaments in the world. The legislature has also seen four bills introduced to ban sweepstakes operators and give gaming regulators the ability to target illegal unlicensed gaming operators. At the time, senators expressed concern over cannibalization of the state’s live casino industry. Legislators will hold a hearing on Watson’s online casino and poker bills on March 11.
More work will need to be done in addition to the passing of this legislation before Maine players can join forces with other states. Maine has officially joined the ranks of U.S. states offering legal online poker, becoming the ninth state in the nation to authorize online poker. The state’s four upstate casinos could also receive licenses along with three planned downstate casinos, in addition to more than a dozen tribal gaming operators. Legalizing online poker alone would produce much smaller numbers than iGaming has produced in other legalized states, however, with 20 million people, adding the Empire State would be a major addition to U.S. legalized online poker.
Michigan had the chance to launch state-regulated online poker already in 2018. The West Virginia Lottery Interactive Wagering Act allows casino-style online gambling as well. West Virginia was the fifth state to pass the law on regulating online poker. Currently, there’s no confirmed information if more operators will start running online poker in Pennsylvania anytime soon. New Jersey is the largest online gambling market that’s being regulated in the US.
The aim of UIGEA is to make it a criminal offense for banks and financial firms in the US to process deposits or withdrawals to or from non-regulated online gambling sites. Outside of these legal sports books, it’s not legal to play real money games online. Both West Virginia and Michigan passed the gambling legislation for regulated real money internet poker in 2019. Unfortunately, these poker platforms don’t grant access to WSOP Online events for players in Delaware. From the US states with regulated online poker, Delaware is the smallest one.
This appears to be positive news, and hopefully the dreaded Wire Act will no longer represent a stumbling block for interstate online poker. Congress to the World Trade Organization, a new chink of hope for online poker appeared in the form of an opinion from the US Department of Justice (DoJ). At first sight, one might assume this was the clause that would allow online poker to slip out from under the UIGEA jackboot.
It creates a categorical ban on operating, conducting, promoting, or supporting online sweepstakes casinos in New York. How does any mixed-game-loving poker player choose how to spend his time and money? While it took 38 hands to go from eight players to seven, it took only 16 more to reach heads-up play, setting up a memorable battle and a fitting conclusion. Molenaar peeked down at kh,kd in the big blind, covering both players. Virginia does not permit online poker, although discussions have taken place in the past.