Coming off of the MoneyMaker Tour, 2003 WSOP Main Event champion Chris Moneymaker shared his thoughts on the current state of poker in the United States.
The MoneyMaker Tour recently finished. Chris Moneymaker was touring across the country between August and November last year. He was hosting $86 buy-in tournaments that gave players a chance to win $30,000 PCA Platinum Packages.
Moneymaker’s Historic Win
The $86 price for a Moneymaker tournament ticket is no coincidence – that is exactly how much Moneymaker spent on the satellite ticket that got him into the WSOP Main Event in 2003.
Previously, he admitted that he wasn’t even going for the World Series seat at all. In fact, while 4 people left in the satellite, he typed it in the table chat that he’s trying to finish 4th to take the $8,000 prize money, rather than one of the 3 seats. Luckily for him, another player had same plans so Moneymaker “got stuck” with the WSOP Main Event buy-in.
Chances are you know how that story ended. The 27-year-old accountant out of Tennessee won the poker world’s most prestigious title and $2.5 million with it. His triumph resulted in what’s often called “the Moneymaker Boom”. When the nation heard about his story, traffic on poker sites tripled. The Main Event field also ballooned up next year, from 839 entries to 2,576.
The Current State of online poker in the USA – According to Moneymaker
The tides reversed for poker in America, however, when the infamous “Black Friday” events took place in 2011. The biggest US poker sites were shut down due to their owners’ illegal fund mismanagements. But Moneymaker believes times are changing again; this time, for the better.
“We had a void where there wasn’t a whole lot of poker advertising or poker marketing going on, especially in the U.S. It had gone more overseas. But now with states starting to regulate and starting to legalize, and sports betting definitely just gets the gambling talk going, people are getting back into poker. I think just with the advertising coming back into the market, you’re getting that buzz again” – Moneymaker told Metro US.
It is true that there’s some good news coming out of the US for poker players in terms of legislation. Recently, it was announced that the three states with regulated online poker currently operating are going to share their player pools. These states are Nevada, New Jersey and Delaware.
In addition, Pennsylvania passed a bill in 2017 that made it the 4th state to declare online poker legal. However, issuing gambling licenses and setting up regulatory boards take some time, so players still aren’t able to play poker online legally from PA.
Meanwhile, The Department of Justice issued an opinion that can delay progress even further. The DOJ argues the 1961 Wire Act prohibits internet poker. This is a sad development since in the wake of Pennsylvania legalizing online poker, many other states proposed legislation that would do the same.
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