With only 1.8 million residents, West Virginia is limited in its ability to create a bustling online poker scene featuring tournaments with handsome prize pools if the games are ring-fenced within the state.

Those obvious limitations were lifted Tuesday, when West Virginia joined the Multi-State Internet Gaming Agreement (MSIGA), an accord that allows players to compete on the virtual felt across state lines.

“I am pleased that our West Virginia iGaming providers will now have the opportunity to offer multi-state poker to our players,” West Virginia Lottery Director John Myers said in a press release. “This will greatly increase the potential pool of participants and thus allow our players to play for bigger winnings.”

It would also appear to greatly increase the potential for regulated online poker sites to finally bring their product to the state. Online poker has been legal in West Virginia since March 2019, but it remains unavailable to players some 4½ years later, as operators such as PokerStars, WSOP, BetMGM Poker, and 888poker have seemingly not seen value in entering such a small state if ring-fenced.

Despite West Virginia entering the agreement, nothing will change immediately for poker players in the state itching for online action. The press release explains that “West Virginia iGaming Service Providers interested in offering multi-state poker will have to submit a letter of intent to the Lottery and gain necessary approvals from West Virginia and other relevant member states before going live.”

Pool getting more crowded

West Virginia is the fifth state to enter the MSIGA. Nevada and Delaware did so in 2014, followed by New Jersey in 2017 and Michigan in 2022. The latter began player pooling with New Jersey on Jan. 1, 2023, and saw an immediate impact.

Pennsylvania is the only state with operational online poker that hasn’t entered the compact. With a state population some seven times the size of West Virginia’s, Pennsylvania regulators have proven — in the four years since the first poker site launched in the state — to be in no particular rush to allow their players to compete with interstate opponents.

Interstate player pooling increases field sizes and, in turn, prize pools in multi-table tournaments and makes it more likely that a cash-game player can find the game they want at the stakes they want at any given time.

West Virginia online casino has been legal since 2019 and active since 2020.

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