Online poker goes live in Michigan

The first legal online poker room has gone live in Michigan after PokerStars launched on Friday.

On Friday, January 29 the Michigan Gaming Control Board officially approved an online gaming license for the Little Traverse Bay Band of Odawa Indians. The tribe, which runs the Odawa Casino in Petoseky, Michigan and has partnered with PokerStars to operate an online poker site in the state. Following the approval of the tribe’s license PokerStars went live at 11:00 a.m., making it the first online poker room to launch in the state.

Online gambling officially launched in Michigan a week earlier. However, since none of the casinos that received first approval to go live were ready to launch poker or did not have partnerships to do so, there was a slight delay in Michigan residents gaining access to the online poker tables.

PokerStars may be the first, and right now only online poker room to go live in Michigan but it won’t be like that for long. It is expected that BetMGM Poker, which has a partnership with MGM Detroit, will be the next out of the gate, possibly later this month.

With PokerStars going live in Michigan the number of states that have legalized online poker and have also launched has grown to five. Michigan joins Delaware, Nevada, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. Online poker has also been legalized in West Virginia, but they have not launched yet.

PokerStars is also live in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, although no compact currently exists between the three states to share player pools. Michigan does allow shared player pools under their state gambling laws, so that could be available in the future, especially since the problems with the Wire Act appear to be soon cleared up.