Nevada and Delaware ipoker revenue figures have been released for September and show that a kickstart in player traffic is sorely needed.
A third straight month of declining revenue in the Silver State following a robust June points to the fact that the anticipated historic launch of an interstate pooling of players between Nevada and Delaware cannot get here fast enough. Both states could use additional partners to join them in the Multi State Internet Gaming Agreement (MSIGA) that was established in February but has yet to be put into play.
Online poker accounted for $693,000 in revenue for Nevada in September, a decrease of 6.7%. While the WSOP was being held in Las Vegas during June, revenue surpassed $1 million thanks to the players in town who fired up their laptops and played online at WSOP.com while not active in live tournament action.
Over in Delaware, September saw the state’s three racinos take in a collective $32,304 in online poker revenue. That’s the third-lowest monthly ipoker revenue total since Delaware launched in November, 2013.
Delaware also offers online casino action for its residents to add to its revenue totals, but those numbers look as scary as the trick-or-treaters who will be ringing doorbells today. Including the video lottery, poker and online casino games, Delaware revenue totaled $145,022 in September.
The pooling of players between the two states is expected to boost revenue substantially. It is believed that a number of players in both states have remained on the rail due to a lack of action and table choices. Once the launch does get underway, those online poker players currently on the sidelines are likely to get in the game and hopefully continue to return when they see that the player numbers and table options have increased.
The question is, when will the Delaware and Nevada partnership finally launch? Unfortunately, representatives from both states have remained mum as of late and and Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval’s projection of a summer launch when the agreement was signed in February has failed to materialize. Autumn leaves are falling and soon Old Man Winter will make an appearance –at least in Delaware.
Online poker revenue numbers were also down in New Jersey in September, a decrease of 4.3%. That may actually be good news for the industry as a whole, as it may prompt Garden State officials to enter the MSIGA with Nevada and Delaware sooner rather than later.
It should be emphasized that low ipoker revenue numbers for any of the three states shouldn’t be that surprising considering there is no real room for growth when the player pools are restricted to state residents and tourists due to the current intrastate frameworks. It is the interstate partnerships that will create the real boost in liquidity.
Unfortunately, the MSIGA is only a few pieces of paper at this point. It’s up to Delaware and Nevada (and hopefully New Jersey) to make the transition from paper to software and allow online poker players to cross state borders to play.
