PokerStars’ reportedly launching poker on November4Mount Airy Casino will be the first tolaunch, analysts suggestWSOP, 888, Partypoker and Parx are alllooking forward to releasing their products in Pennsylvania
Reports have suggested that PokerStars will be rollingout its card room in conjunction with their Pennsylvania partner, Mount AiryCasino, on Monday, November 4.
PokerStars Expected to Launch in PA on Nov 4
The Stars Group flagship online poker platform, PokerStars,will reportedly launch in Pennsylvania on November 4. The rollout of legal poker has been long coming – and even longer anticipated – by anxiousplayers eager to cash out from offshore sites and put their money closer tohome.
The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board (PGCB) held ameeting on Wednesday, October 30, and took a question from PlayPennsylvania.comabout the status of online poker in PA. Responding, PGCB spokesperson DouglasHarbach said the following:
“We have staff prepared to initiate and oversee a test launch this Monday of another online casino gaming site, this one licensed under Mount Airy Casino and their suite of casino-type games. At this juncture, it would include the testing of a poker game.”
PokerStars is hopefully preparing to go live with MountAiry Casino, the in-state land-based casino partner for the card room. Theactual realization of online poker in Pennsylvania will be huge. Onlinegambling has been around since October 2017, but casinos and sportsbetting have been the first to bene phl63 fit.
Poker hasn’t excited sufficient interest, mostly because offears that there wouldn’t be enough players and the somewhat smaller revenue thatthe segment can generate.
New Jersey and Pennsylvania: Are They the Same Poker Markets?
Concernsabout the sustainability of online poker abound. While thousands gather everyyear to join the World Series of Poker in Nevada, the network oflegal poker websites in the U.S. remains fairly unexciting and offshorecardrooms such as Americas Cardroom (ACR) and Ignition continueto offer better prize pools and a far bigger field of competitors.
Many have expressed hope that once Pennsylvania goes live, they would be able to finally withdraw their deposits from these websites and focus on playing on licensed poker sites instead. Yet, the situation in New Jersey has been lukewarm, where players have complained that the PokerStars network is close to zero in terms of available players.
Similarly,people have called for merging the pools of players so that a nation-widenetwork can finally compete with the more populous offshore options.
What Games Will PA PokerStars Offer?
PokerStarsseems to be committed to Pennsylvania. However, the client the team will be releasingwill be more focused and it won’t come with the full functionality of thedot-com domain available worldwide.
Playerswill have access to a package that is similar to what’s on offer in New Jersey,with the offer focusing on Texas Hold’em and Omaha games, and specifically:
Cashtable games $0.01/$0.02 – $100/$2006-maxformat for NLHE cash gamesPossibleRun It Once format
Similarly, Pokerfusereported that they expect a number of Sit & Go’s to be heavily featured onthe platform, as they offer a quick play-through and an easy way to accessviable winnings. According to the report published by the poker industrywebsite at the beginning of October, both Hold’em and Omaha will beavailable as Sit & Go’s.
Conversely, Spin & Go’s will probably not be featured immediately, but PA players will most likely enjoy bigger tournaments than New Jersey. Other than PokerStars, Harrah’s will work with WSOP and 888 and Partypoker will most likely team up with WSOP and 888.
Parx’s will go it alone, bringing abrand-new platform to the fore, which will most likely arrive after all othershave been rolled out.
