Online Poker Just Got Bigger — Pennsylvania Joins Multi-State Agreement

Not too long ago people thought online poker was dying.

Yeah, right!

Now everything has changed.

Since 2020, online poker has once again caught fire.

And the fire is only going to keep growing now that Pennsylvania has decided to put pen-to-paper on a multi-state online poker agreement.

This new agreement is going to shake up poker in a major way — so let's unpack it right here.

What Pennsylvania’s Multi-State Online Poker Agreement Means

It’s official: Pennsylvania is upping its poker game by becoming the 6th member to join the Multi-State Internet Gaming Agreement (MSIGA) for online poker.

Other state members include Delaware, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey and West Virginia, so this will provide the 150,000 existing online poker players in Pennsylvania with way more people to play with.

All of this has been driven by Governor Josh Shapiro, who signed the agreement on April 23 (2025) with two purposes in-mind:

✔ Generate more revenue for the state
✔ Provide casino players in Pennsylvania with a better overall experience

Really, from the state’s perspective, it’s a no-brainer, which Shapiro himself has commented on:

“This is a commonsense step to support hundreds of thousands of Pennsylvanians, grow our economy, and bring in more revenue to support our schools, our seniors, our small businesses, and more.”

Let’s not forget that the online gambling industry is now worth close to $80 billion.

Yes, billion.

Pennsylvania is being smart here by getting ahead of the curve. Online poker is going to be a huge part of the booming gambling industry moving forward, so the state can look forward to gaining plenty of revenue from it.

And in terms of what the deal actually means for players, it couldn’t get much better.

Poker sites will now have increased player numbers, bigger prizes, and plenty of new tournaments will be introduced, too.

It’s exactly the type of news that online poker players have been waiting for.

🫂 Bigger Player Numbers

Before this deal arrived on the table, online poker players were only able to play against other players from the same state as them. For instance, if you were playing on PokerStars PA in Pennsylvania last year, you could only play against fellow Pennsylvanians. Now, though, what this new deal means is that all the participating states will now join one giant player pool together. Effectively, the combined poker player pool across all participating states will be close to 1 million, so it’s a win-win for everyone.

💰 Huge Prizes

Over the coming months, more players are going to be playing online poker. As a result, we’ll see huge prizes being made available across tournaments and championships due to more people buying-in. Not to mention, the poker sites themselves will be generating greater revenue, too, allowing them to boost future prize pools. Now that's something to be excited about.

♥️ More Sweepstakes Poker

Because online poker has been quite restricted until recently, we’ve seen the rise of a new type of online poker: sweepstakes poker. In a nutshell, sweepstakes poker is poker you play without real money. Instead, you use virtual coins called ‘Gold Coins’ and ‘Sweeps Coins’. Really, it’s like the gambling-free version of poker, which is why people love it so much. And even though this new deal that Pennsylvania has signed doesn’t directly affect sweepstakes poker — as it was already legal in 48 out of 50 US states, anyway — SweepsKings believe it will still influence thousands of new people to start playing sweepstakes poker across Pennsylvania and other states.

🤝 Networking Opportunities

Pennsylvania’s multi-state poker agreement is also going to open up networking opportunities for players who currently live there. They’ll be able to connect, link-up, and play with other people from completely different states, opening up all kinds of opportunities for them. Whenever players enter poker lobbies from now on, they could be seconds away from forming friendships with cross-state players that they previously wouldn’t have been able to, making online poker more social than it’s ever been.

📱 A Better Gaming Experience

Lastly, it seems obvious to us that the MSIGA deal will lead to a better overall gaming experience for all online poker players. Sites like BetMGM and PokerStars PA will now be able to offer bigger and better prizes, while (at the same time) funneling more money into improving the actual gameplay and interactivity side of things. We could soon be looking at extremely advanced and modernized online poker gameplay, which people have been demanding for years.

Is Online Poker Legal in Pennsylvania?

Yep, online poker has been legal in Pennsylvania ever since 2017. However, it’s one of only 6 states that currently allows it. This is why Governor Josh Shapiro has opted to join MSIGA, as it will allow Pennsylvania to start generating more money while providing existing players with a greater network to play in. What’s interesting about this is that it could lead to the second-coming of online poker — much like the first online poker “boom” we saw back in 2006 — therefore leading to other states opting to legalize online poker and join in the action.

Summary

Multi-state poker is now officially permitted across Pennsylvania, Delaware, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey and West Virginia. The huge benefit of this is that more players will be able to compete against each other than ever before and we’re going to see some crazy prize pools, too. As a fan of online poker, it’s some of the most exciting news we’ve had for a long time — so make sure to scrub up on your poker strategies and get involved if you currently live in one of these states.