The poker community is once again turning its attention to the state of Nevada as a recently announcement made by the World Series of Poker suggested that it has plans to launch its real-money poker games in Nevada. If WSOP.com gets the required approvals, then it could become the second online poker website in Nevada, the first being Ultimate Poker which launched on the 30th of April.
Reports from WSOP.com suggested that the company has plans to launch its online software sometime during the 44th annual WSOP series which is scheduled to take place on the 29th of May at the Rio. If WSOP. com is able to launch as planned, then one can also expect to witness the next poker world champion emerging from a small buy-in tournament online.
In a statement, WSOP spokesman Seth Palansky said
Certainly that would be our druthers. But we don’t remain totally in control of the process and timing of it all, so it’s hard to know. We intend to be in this business 100 years from now so for us, it’s not about when we start. We just have a lot of boxes to check off to meet the requirements, which is fine and it won’t be too much longer.
The WSOP will push to get approval so that they can launch their online games at the earliest, mainly because they want the official launch date to start well before the commencement of the Main Event which is scheduled to take place on the 6th of July. This is mainly because more players can use the internet to try and win entries into the 10-day championship event by trying their hand via online satellite tournaments.
As of now, the WSOP is waiting to get approval from the Nevada Gaming Control Board. Reports from the WSOP officials also suggest that the WSOP wanted to make sure that they have a first class online product ready before launching in Nevada as they are well aware that although Ultimate Poker was the first to launch in Nevada, there are a number of improvements that need to be made to the online software.
Ty Stewart, executive director of the WSOP stressed that online poker for real money would soon be launched by the WSOP. He went on to promise “a comprehensive series of promotions and benefits” on WSOP.com for all players who take part in live events this summer.
