Pennsylvania has formally accepted an invitation to join the Multi-State Internet Gaming Agreement (MSIGA) and is on track to begin player pooling with other US MSIGA member states at some point in early 2025.
Speaking to multiple outlets, the Communications Director of the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board (PGCB), Doug Harbach, has confirmed that Pennsylvania gaming officials, at the direction of Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, have accepted the invitation issued collectively by all existing MSIGA member states.
Harbach also stated that the PGCB is awaiting the formal paperwork, to be signed and returned to MSIGA’s corporate office in Delaware. Though perfunctory, it’s the latest small step for Pennsylvania to become the sixth official MSIGA state, joining Delaware, New Jersey, Nevada, Michigan, and West Virginia, though neither Delaware nor West Virginia currently have any sites offering online poker.
April offered as likeliest debut for Pennsylvania player pooling
According to Harbach, there is still uncertainty within the expected timeline for the Keystone State’s online players to join the larger MSIGA player pool. “Should this phase progress swiftly, we are currently working toward an early second-quarter 2025 launch,” he told PlayPennsylvania.
The open question is how quickly operators serving both Pennsylvania and other MSIGA states will complete testing of the player-pooling configurations and receive regulatory approvals. WSOP.com, PokerStars US, and BetMGM Poker already operate platforms in other MSIGA states, and BetRivers Poker and Borgata Poker are likely to do so in the near future.
Perhaps the operator most critically impacted by any delays would be WSOP.com. In 2024, a similar situation existed with Michigan joining the MSIGA fold. Unexpected delays in the final approval to go live forced the WSOP to delay its release of the WSOP Online portion of the WSOP’s 2024 schedule, ultimately resulting in Michigan, along with Pennsylvania, moving into single-state bracelet-event series.Â
Michigan has since fully joined MSIGA, though the possibility of one last firewalled WSOP Online for Pennsylvania remains as the fallback option should those unexpected delays occur.