U.S. Online Poker Moved Forward in 2013
The week in between the Christmas and New Years holidays have traditionally been a time for reflection, and so we just couldn’t resist ruminating on what a positive year 2013 turned out to be for the game of online poker in the United States.
Below, we will take a brief look back at some of the defining online poker news stories of the year 2013, and give a little glimpse of what the future might hold as it relates to Internet-based poker in the U.S.
Three states launch online gambling markets
Of course the biggest thing to happen during this year was the launch of real money online gambling web sites in three U.S. states: Delaware, Nevada, and New Jersey.
Nevada became the first state in the nation to offer legalized online poker when it saw the opening of its first real money poker room, Ultimate Poker, back in April of this year.
It took about six months before Ultimate Poker got a competitor; in September Caesars flipped the go switch on its World Series of Poker-branded online poker room, WSOP.com.
Unlike in Nevada, where only the game of online poker is on offer to residents, in Delaware, the state to become the second regulated betting market in the country when its industry got going in late October, a wide variety of Internet-based betting options are available to residents and visitors.
Though the online gambling market – and the population – of Delaware are quite small, it nevertheless made online poker history when it grabbed the number two spot and began allowing wagers to be placed over the Internet.
Including New Jersey, the biggest market to start to date
And while the commencement of regulated real money online poker was big news when it happened in Nevada – though not quite as much when Delaware got its own industry off the ground – the attention received in the first two states paled in comparison to the attention that was devoted to New Jersey.
The Garden State has a population of some nine million people, which makes it by far the biggest state, inhabitants-wise, to regulate some form of online wagering. By contrast, Delaware and Nevada have populations of less than one million and three million residents, respectively.
A big story surrounding the onset of online gaming in New Jersey, however, is not just the fact that the state has a large number of people expected to participate in the market, but has to do with the predictions bandied about all year that the state’s new iGaming business has the potential to turn around New Jersey’s long-struggling gambling center, Atlantic City.
Whether or not the market will, with time, prove to be as robust as recently re-elected Republican Governor Chris Christie, the state’s land-based casino industry, financial analysts, and others have anticipated remains to be seen.
Just a month in, though, more than 100,000 people have signed up to play at the Garden States’s online gambling sites. Like Delaware, New Jersey offers online poker in addition to real money online casino games.
Will more states come online in 2014?
As 2013 wanes, many supporters of regulated online gambling – not to mention the media – are making their predictions for the future of online poker and other forms of Internet betting in America.
While most pundits agree that we are likely to see more states pass laws to regulate online betting in the year, and years, to come, it is unlikely that another market will launch before 2015 just given the amount of time it takes not only to see legislation enacted, but also to establish rules and to license operators.
Some states that are expected to at least look into allowing online gambling in the near future are Pennsylvania, Illinois, and California, amongst others.
