Following a two-day day test period that kicked off on November 4, the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board on Wednesday, November 6 approved PokerStars for full operations. Now the online gambling operator will be able to legally offer a range of online poker and casino games to the Pennsylvania gamblers. The debut of PokerStars in the state’s regulated gambling market was in collaboration with Mount Airy Casino which is its land-based partner. Through the partnership, PokerStars is now the state’s very first online gambling provider.
During the two-day test period, hundreds of online poker enthusiasts dived in to try out the PokerStars games. Unsurprisingly, the feedback from these players was quite good hence the approval of the venture. This soft-launch period, therefore, served as more of a showcase of PokerStars’ prowess which makes it’s a leading gaming operator both locally and in the international gambling scene.
“We look forward to welcoming players in Pennsylvania around the clock and we’re very excited by the level of engagement and support so far,” a PokerStars representative commented.
So long as you are of the legal age and have a security number as well as a US postal address you will be able to sign up on PokerStars.bet and enjoy some gaming action. Moreover, as required by state gambling laws, this is only possible if you within the Keystone State’s borders. The geolocation mode will probably be the same as the one used in New Jersey. An electronic account verification has been put in place to ensure that all these requirements are met before anyone is allowed to access the site’s games.
Massive Success Despite Setbacks
Aside from New Jersey, Pennsylvania is the only other state in the US where PokerStars has launched its online gaming services. The gaming operator, therefore, has a bit of experience when it comes to launching its products. Even so, there were a few challenges that cropped up during the test-launch. These were mainly due to a few errors that made the website inaccessible and brought confusion to customers who wished to download the PokerStars client.
All the issues were handled promptly and everything went back on track. On the first day, the website hosted up to 750 players. The game selection on that day was pretty decent wit twelve multi-table tournaments being offered on that day. By the end of the 8-hour test period, PokerStars had generated more than $12,000 in prize money.
On the second day of testing, things got even better with many more players joining various gaming tables just minutes after the site went live. This time, the prize pool increased by nearly three times to a whopping $33,664.57. There were a total of 2688 entrants.
With such a great start it is now quite obvious how highly anticipated online poker was in the state. For now, PokerStars is the reigning king of that sector but it should not be long before another contender ventures into the state’s regulated online poker market.