While online poker is still banned in most of the United States, there are a few states that have legalized online poker. Nevada, Delaware and New Jersey have legalized online poker and a number of websites have been operating for the past few months albeit with a number of restrictions.
One of the main restrictions imposed on the online poker industry is that players must be physically presented within the boundaries of the state in order to play online poker. This has posed a huge setback in increase the number of online poker players and the competition is relatively less due to the limited poker player field.
Delaware in particular has an extremely small online poker community and was always looking to collaborate with other states. Finally, a deal has been worked out with Nevada and both states will collaborate to offer multi-state and cross border online poker access. This will ensure that online poker players from both states will be able to play against each other at the same online poker table.
The agreement signed between Delaware and Nevada also has a provision of involving other states in the near future. This pact between Delaware and Nevada is great news for online gambling companies as it now gives them a bigger market and the option of providing a lot more variety when it comes to poker games, promotions and stakes.
In a statement, Jack Markell the Delaware Governor said
This agreement represents a crucial step in Delaware’s and Nevada’s efforts to make our online poker offerings more diverse, more competitive, and ultimately more enjoyable
While the agreement has been made, it will still take more time for these rules to come into effect. The software to run multi-state online poker needs to be developed, then tested before being implemented. It will still require players to be physically present in Delaware or Nevada but now they will be able to compete with each other.
The other part of the agreement that needs to be worked out is the formation of two bodies that will act as supervisors of the agreement. The new agreement will also ensure that both states collect their respective gambling taxes from players that come from their state.
The chairman of the Nevada State Gaming Control Board, A.G. Burnett said
It is the first ever of its kind. It contemplates the ability of other states to join, and it gives full deference to each states’ own regulatory process as long as that process follows strict standards for player protection, licensing, and technical standards.
