All signs point to yes?
No official announcement has been made, but it sounds like WSOP.com might soon be linking players Michigan with those already playing on its shared liquidity platform in Nevada and New Jersey. Though all three states, along with West Virginia and Delaware, are in the Multi-State Internet Gaming Agreement (MSIGA) and thus can have their players share virtual poker tables, WSOP.com players in Michigan are currently separated from their counterparts in Nevada and New Jersey because they use a different version of the software platform. According to a report from Pokerfuse, this may be changing within the next couple weeks, thus allowing the WSOP.com interstate network to expand from two states to three.
Pokerfuse points to the announcement of the May 11-22 WSOP Online Circuit Series as a major sign of what is to come. The Series was announced for all three states and even had the phrasing “shared liquidity with Nevada and Michigan (as permitted by law).”
It is also assumed that New Jersey is included in that shared liquidity, as well, since it most certainly intermingles its players with Nevada already.
Sign number two is that there is a Mystery Bounty event that is part of the mix and Mystery Bounty tournaments only run on Poker 8, the newest version of the 888-powered software used by WSOP.com. Poker 8 is used in Michigan, but not Nevada and New Jersey, hence why Michigan doesn’t have shared liquidity with the other two states. Thus, the implication is that Nevada and New Jersey will soon transition to Poker 8 and the three states will hold hands in poker harmony.
Other states?
What would be really nice, regardless of whether or not the above comes to pass, would be to get Pennsylvania in on the action. Pennsylvania also has a WSOP.com site, but the Keystone State is not part of MSIGA and thus all of its online poker rooms (it also has PokerStars and BetMGM) are ring-fenced from the other states. A bill to allow the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board (PGCB) to join MSIGA was introduced in March, but has made no progress. One would think the state will eventually get it figured it out, it’s just frustrating for players that it has to take so long.
Delaware used 888’s software for a decade and thus shared tables with Nevada and New Jersey, but it changed its operator to Rush Street Interactive this year is therefore cordoned off from the other states.
Online poker is legal in West Virginia, but no online poker rooms have sprouted there, likely because the market is too small.