The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board (PGCB) on Thursday approved a motion that will immediately move the admission of the state into the Multi-State Internet Gaming Association (MSIGA) to the desk of Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro for signing, once the state receives the notice of admission from MSIGA.
The move would ultimately add Pennsylvania to a multi-state player pool that already includes New Jersey, Nevada, and Michigan.
The PGCB's move to expedite the process from Pennsylvania's standpoint follows a directive by Governor Shapiro, a little more than a week ago, for the PGCB to move forward with its multi-state player-pooling negotiations with MSIGA, which is domiciled in Delaware.
PGCB executive director Kevin O’Toole notified the PGCB's board members during a meeting on Thursday that the negotiations with MSIGA had resulted in an agreement, with the state inching closer to joining the MSIGA compact.
"On receipt of a notice of admission, the Board will thereafter be presented with a multistate agreement which will be provided to Governor Shapiro for his signature," declared O’Toole. "At this time, I would respectfully request the board for a motion to ratify the Board's staff requesting Pennsylvania for admission into the Multi-State Internet Gaming Association, thereby starting the process of entering that group."
Motion ratified by voice vote
The PGCB then quickly ratified a motion to automatically send the MSIGA invitation to the governor's office upon receipt of thr admission notice from MSIGA. Several "aye" votes were heard on the meeting's livestreamed coverage, and no "nays" were audible, though no specific counting of votes occurred.
The forwarding of the invitation to Shapiro's desk is another procedural step in the process to bring Pennsylvania's online poker players into the MSIGA fold. Shapiro's signature would culminate the process from the Pennsylvania side. At that point, the five other MSIGA member states -- Delaware, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, and West Virginia -- would then have to approve Pennsylvania's addition to MSIGA as a member state.
As O'Toole explained to the gathered PGCB board members, there is no definitive timeline for the ratification and the approval by the other MSIGA states. While Pennsylvania would be able to bring its players onboard quickly once all procedural matters are completed, that could still take weeks or months. Whether late in 2024 or early in 2025, however, the Keystone State appears set to become the fourth active MSIGA member state, significantly expanding the overall player pool and expected revenue for the state.
