Or is it? Because now comes a new issue, and the subject of this installment of the series - West Virginia needs online poker operators to expand their existing networks and launch in the state. That’s the day West Virginia officially joined MSIGA. Indeed, while parts one and four of this series have focused on other important issues, parts two and three made the case that the next thing US online poker could really use is for more states to join MSIGA - with West Virginia at the top of that list.Īll of this changed on November 14, 2023. That’s been the subject of several articles on pokerfuse, including this very series - now in its fifth installment. Compounding the issue is that while the regulator expressed interest in joining such a compact, it wouldn’t ask to join one unless an operator said it was interested in offering multi-state poker.

Why? Well, since West Virginia is a small state (it only ranks 40th in population with 1.8 million residents), operators are loathe to launch there - that is, unless the state were to join a multi-state gaming compact for online poker. The reason for this is simple: None of the gaming operators currently live in the state for online casino gaming and sports betting have been offering it. The frustration is rooted in the fact that while there has been legal online poker in West Virginia since 2019, it has been unavailable to players.

West Virginia has been, until just recently, a frustration for the US online poker industry and for online poker players as a whole.

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