Home / Poker News February 2014 / Nevada and Delaware Set Up First Inter-State Compact
Nevada and Delaware Set Up First Inter-State Compact
Posted by: James Carter. - Wed, 2014-02-26 15:05
The state-by-state legalization of online poker in the US has always had a Damocles’ sword hanging over its head: liquidity-related issues. Shortly after legalization and regulation in Nevada, it has become obvious that not even a state as focused on gambling and gaming as the one hosting the entertainment capital of the world, could generate enough liquidity. There just haven’t been enough players to propel any of the freshly launched operations anywhere close to
PokerStars-like status, because let’s just say it: that’s what everyone is secretly hoping/vying for.
While New Jersey’s liquidity-issues didn’t turn out to be as acute as those of Nevada and Delaware, Delaware in particular has felt the need to address its problems through inter-state compacts, from day one. In order to avoid the problems the
online poker industry is currently facing in Europe, Delaware and Nevada have signed a player-pool sharing partnership the other day, effectively joining forces for internet poker.
None of the states where the games have thus far been legalized have managed to meet their immediate goals player pool/revenue-wise, not even New Jersey, which is by far the biggest market of the three. Delaware has underperformed, generating just $396k in revenues over the first three months of legal online poker. While the predictions weren’t particularly ambitious at $5 million for the first year, things are obviously way off that pace the way they currently are.
The numbers posted by Nevada – which currently has 3 online poker operators vying for the attention of the public – haven’t been particularly impressive either, despite some very attractive promotions run by some of the operators.
The actual sharing of the player-pools will be simple: players will just log into their online poker room the way they usually do. The players they will find at the tables though will be both from Nevada and Delaware.
Sign up to PokerStars, the online poker operation which has never experienced liquidity-problems.
