A lot of sports books are close to poker rooms and many poker players bet the NBA so I guess this news has a connection to poker. Is the NFL next? This is just another example of the barriers to gaming coming down which might lead to internet poker legalization down the road.

http://www.espn.com/chalk/story/_/id...onsor-deal-mgm

Any comments on the barriers coming down.

This has nothing to do with poker, sorry.,,,, unless there is a provision for a poker/sports hotel in there somewhere.

The barriers coming down are to sports betting. Unfortunately no necessary collateral effect on poker.

https://www.onlinepokerreport.com/31...ing-messaging/

"For whatever reason, online gambling can barely get a mention.

Since 2016, just 11 states have considered online gambling legislation, and just one state, Pennsylvania, has passed a bill.

Basically, states are not only ignoring online gambling as an issue, it’s batting well below the Mendoza Line in the states that are actively pursuing it.

So what gives?"

For about 40/50 states....

Political ads against politicians that vote “pro gambling” are just too easy.

Also, try to pass it quietly and you lose your next primary.

When the Fed stopped it, it was pretty much dead.

Unless it is marketed as “all proceeds go directly to tax cuts” I don’t see how it can pass the state legislatures in most states.

Yeah, the biggest sports league in the world embracing sportsbetting definitely isn't good for gambling/online gambling in the USA...(sarcasm)

Looks like its headed in that direction in 20 states besides the 3 that already have it. And the NBA giving gaming the green light certainly doesn't hurt and probably will help in my opinion.

http://www.espn.com/chalk/story/_/id...-all-50-states

The NBA gave sportsbetting the greenlight, not online poker.

Sports coattails for online poker simlpy are not evident, other than in a couple of states. It's to the good, but not sufficient.

There is a scramble among Nevada operators to sign brick and mortar partnerships clearly. There is a good list of 20 states where that is so, BUT ......Online Poker and online casino may even get tossed overboard is the sports ship draws fire from anti-onlinegambling folks.

I'd say culturally it's directly connected to poker and all vice just like weed. Gambling and drugs of certain kinds (like medical testing of shrooms) are being taken more lightly and that spells good news for online poker in this culture. Besides the future of online poker has been looking good for a while, it's just legislation and getting businesses set up for it takes a while. It's the same way in the weed market too, slowly but surely they are like ****ing turtles but at least they are getting there. In my state we have 1 online poker room and and had the same for weed dispensaries. After a few years we finally got a 2nd and 3rd dispensary and one of them is another owner. It sucks having a monopoly in a market that is heavily regulated but they will get past that in time.

I think online poker looks good in the future but it just takes time.

It's going to take an awful lot of time. Despite DFS being legalized across the country along with sports betting in states beyond NV, there's little in the way of pending legislation at the state level to be optimistic about the growth of online poker. PA will be ready to launch probably around the new year or a bit thereafter and hopefully will join the multi-state pool. Beyond that, there's almost nothing: some movement in New York that stalled, some movement in Michigan that stalled, and some movement in Illinois that stalled.

I don't see sports betting legalization as speeding things up much if at all for poker. It's not helping that, compared to weed and sports/casino betting, the amount of money states stand to make from online poker is small.

Depending on the numbers that you get from PA online poker will determine how fast other state act. PA is pretty large state and if they post big tax revenue then other states short on cash will pounce.

Idun215, if you happen to run into any of those Sands Bethlehem PA casino workers who defeated Sheldon Adelson's bid to keep a union out of his casino there, throw out a Congratulations!! to them.

The below article speculates in the last paragraph that one of the reasons he might sell his casino there was to prevent the spread of unions. (God forbid some of his workers should get some sort of security in their jobs). If true it sounds like one big power trip to me.

https://www.playpennsylvania.com/iga...on-sands-sale/
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Looks like more walls are coming down as this week the Dallas Cowboys (sometimes called "America's Team) have formed a partnership with WinStar casino.

https://apnews.com/4a6fc419cfd44836888ad89cde7017c3

Seems like the more walls that fall the better it will be for legalized poker.

If only there was some sort of poker themed hotel. That would really get my poker juices flowing. Mmmmmm....poker juice....

And apparently the Packers are now America's team.

The correlation between legal sports betting and poker is probably the same as the one between legal marijuana and poker.

Although I have yet heard of anyone arrested for DUI for being under the influence of sports betting or poker playing.

I don't see how that could possibly be true.

With sports betting being legal it seems much easier to form the opinion poker should be too.

I'm not very nuanced on the subject matter though so that's just my uninformed opinion.

Sports betting (and to some extent also weed) are backed by very wealthy people who pay tons of money to lobbyists because legalization might make them even more wealthy.

For various reasons, there’s no one doing that for poker.

I see what you're saying. So basically even though poker and sports betting are pretty similar it's irrelevant because lobbyists are the underlying factor and only SB (somewhat weed) is aligned positively on that front?

Who are the lobbyists for SB? NFL, NBA, casinos? And they're negative poker because that would come from the same pool of $ ppl use to SB with?

I wouldn't say no one.

Excerpt from this link:

https://www.cardplayer.com/poker-new...lobbying-group

"According to the American Gaming Association, leading online gambling firms GVC Holdings PLC {bwin party/party poker}, Paddy Power Betfair and The Stars Group have joined the AGA Board of Directors. The AGA is the top lobbying group on Capitol Hill for the $40 billion-a-year commercial casino gambling market."
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And then there are the several states trying to get online gaming passed.

https://www.playusa.com/15-online-ga...ndidates-2018/

Did you even read or understand the playusa article you linked ? It details the failures, as of Nov 2017 and not anything more.

btw, how's that poker-only hotel idea doin', maybe the NBA would be interested ?

LOL at your statement not anything more.

Add to that Harrah's recently signing a deal with the Philadelphia Eagles:

"Expect to see lots more mentions of Harrah’s Philadelphia Casino and Racetrack at Lincoln Financial Field, which is home to the Philadelphia Eagles. Harrah’s parent, Caesars Entertainment, has a new marketing deal with the struggling 5-7 Eagles. The deal includes in-stadium signage, branding, and appearances by Eagles’ legends at Harrah’s...

https://www.playpennsylvania.com/eag...nsorship-deal/