PokerStars New Jersey Merged with Its Michigan Online Casino

PokerStars New Jersey online casino merged with its Michigan online casino partner on December 13, 2022 and here’s what it means for online casino players.

• How the Pokerstars Expansion will Affect Current NJ Players
• What the MSIGA Means for Online Poker Expansion
• Why Interstate Poker May Change the Online Poker Landscape

On Friday, Dec 9, PokerStars shut down for a much-awaited move to share liquidity between their New Jersey and Michigan online presence. During this 48-hour-long downtime, all three verticals — poker, casino, and sportsbook are down. 

When PokerStars New Jersey comes back online on Wednesday, December 13, it will be joining traffic with PokerStars Michigan.

The full new network won’t go live right away, however. PokerStars’ announcement didn’t specify an exact date for the start of shared liquidity. However, it did use the phrase “in the coming weeks,” so Michigan and New Jersey likely will link up either over the holidays or sometime early in the New Year.

PokerStars New Jersey said that “[t]he upgrade is a necessary milestone to bring you more games, bigger prize pools & guarantees in poker tournaments so New Jersey and Michigan poker players can compete against one another in the near future.

While the shutdown will impact the weekly tournament schedule and the 25 Days of Poker promotion, PokerStars has assured opted-in players they will still receive all the promotional rewards they’re entitled to once the site is back online.

PokerStars Casino and Fox Bet will also be inaccessible during the server update.

Services are expected to resume on December 13 — although PokerStars NJ & MI will continue to operate separately for a few days. When the actual merger happens is not known, but it is expected that Michigan players will be able to compete against New Jersey players once the holidays are over, if not sooner

The server upgrade would mark a first step towards launching shared liquidity in the US.

PokerStars is the first operator to confirm its involvement in the Multi-State Internet Gaming Agreement (MSIGA) since Michigan joined in May, though other operators are expected to be making progress as well.

Michigan’s Recent Joiner of the MSIGA Paves the Way for PokerStars’ Expansion

An agreement signed May 23 by Michigan Gaming Control Board Executive Director Henry Williams allows internet poker players in Michigan to compete against players in Delaware, Nevada, and New Jersey. These three states belong to the Multi-State Internet Gaming Agreement, of which Michigan is now a member.

“I am happy to announce Michigan has joined the multistate poker compact, and much of the increased tax revenue from multistate poker will go to support K-12 education in Michigan,” Williams said. “By joining, Michigan will almost double the potential pool of participants in multistate poker games.”

The Michigan Legislature in December 2020 passed a bill to allow the MGCB to join a multijurisdictional poker compact, giving Michigan residents the ability to compete with poker players in other states. Sen. Curtis Hertel (D-East Lansing) sponsored the bill, which was signed by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer on Dec. 29, 2020.

Language allowing multijurisdictional play was omitted from the original internet gaming law signed in December 2019. The 2021 Michigan law limits multijurisdictional internet gaming play to poker.

“Michigan poker players will enjoy more options and will likely play for bigger money when they can compete against players from other states,” said Sen. Hertel. “I am glad we were able to make this possible for Michigan poker players.”

To obtain MGCB authorization to launch multistate poker, licensed operators and associated platform providers must complete several steps. In April, the MGCB issued guidance on participation requirements for operators.

“The operators still have work to do before Michigan residents may join multistate poker games,” Williams said at the time. “The MGCB must make sure Michigan residents are protected when they play multistate poker, and we will apply the same rigor to review of the new offering as we have other internet games.”

While the agreement currently is limited to four states, it is possible more states may join.

Currently, three licensed operators and providers offer online poker in Michigan: MGM Grand Detroit with BetMGM, the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians with World Series of Poker, and the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians and provider PokerStars.

Pokerstars’ Move May Impact the New Jersey Poker Rankings

In other states, PokerStars is far and away the market leader in poker, as measured by cash game traffic. In fact, it as large as WSOP and BetMGM Poker combined in Michigan, and twice their combined size in their Pennsylvania location.

However. in New Jersey, which legalized gambling over half a decade before either of those states, the poker rankings are significantly different.

WSOP was live from the start in 2013, while PokerStars did not arrive until 2015. Around the same time, the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement earned entry to the Multi-State Internet Gaming Agreement (MSIGA). 

Between its head start and the ability to offer multi-state poker, WSOP has been the clear traffic leader in NJ. PokerStars has generally remained in second place, only slightly ahead of the BetMGM/Partypoker network.

However, PokerStars Michigan has many more players than PokerStars NJ. Therefore, combining the two will almost triple the number of cash game tables New Jersey players have access to, and likely have a similarly dramatic impact on tournament prize pools.

In the process, it will become comparable in size to WSOP’s tristate network.

PokerStars will be only the second operator, after WSOP, to take advantage of the multi-state online poker compact in the US, and the first to involve Michigan. It also marks the first official confirmation by any operator since Michigan became part of the multi-state online poker compact back in May.

How Will a Multi-State PokerStars Stack Up Against WSOP?

Pennsylvania has also considered joining the Multi-State Internet Gaming Agreement, but that is likely still far off. PokerStars’ dominance is the greatest there, so adding the Keystone State would firmly place it in the top spot. However, until Pennsylvania decides to join the MSIGA, PokerStars’ presence in that state will remain separate from its impending NJ & MI player pool.

Even before then, PokerStars may begin to outcompete WSOP in New Jersey. The question is how much of WSOP’s current popularity stems from it being the only option for playing against opponents in other states.

No matter what happens, though, WSOP has one thing going for it, which PokerStars never will: its connection with the live World Series of Poker. For those who want to compete for a WSOP Gold Bracelet or WSOP Circuit Ring, it remains the only satellite option.  

Due to the World Series of Pokers’ popularity, those tournaments are also likely to continue producing the largest prize pools in US online poker. However, it may mean that WSOP.com becomes more of a seasonal destination for bracelet-hunters while PokerStars takes the reigns for cash game traffic the rest of the year.

BetMGM May Also Be Gearing Up for Shared Liquidity

WSOP and BetMGM have remained quiet so far on the progress of shared liquidity between MI & NJ. However, the latest development involving BetMGM indicates the operator could also be gearing up for a merger between BetMGM NJ & BetMGM MI poker clients.

BetMGM recently upgraded its New Jersey client to align with the latest version in Michigan and followed it up with the deployment of SPINS in NJ—which would match the game offerings of Michigan. Both updates would suggest BetMGM’s preparations for launching shared liquidity in the US market. However, no official acknowledgment has been made by either of the operators.