Currently, legal issues have held back Indian casinos in MA. Massachusetts still has one commercial casino license remaining for the Southeast part. A year later, Encore Boston Harbor joined the list. MGM Springfield, the first commercial casino in the Bay State, opened to business in 2018. Plainridge Park Casino, the first slot parlor, opened to business in 2015. The Expanded Gaming Act, passed on November 22, 2011, allowed MA to have three resort casinos and one slot parlor. However, the first commercial casino only opened to business seven years later. Gambling in Massachusetts was finally signed into law in 2011. In fact, the commercial gambling market is still in its early days, which is quite surprising. While Massachusetts has a long history of gambling, commercial casinos are very new. The state lottery was created in 1971, with its first draws happening in 1972. Charitable gambling has also been around for a long time. Pari Mutuel gambling has been legal in MA since the 1930s. In order to take a look at poker in Massachusetts, we must first recap gambling in the state. History of Poker and Online Poker in Massachusetts Find everything you need to know about Massachusetts online poker in this guide brought to you by PokerNews. And with two Indian casinos already planned for the future, MA poker could thrive soon. Both Bay State casinos offer live poker rooms. This, of course, doesn’t mean that you cannot play poker in Massachusetts. It’s fair to say that MA actually has better chances to legalize online gambling compared to plenty of other states.

On the other hand, there is no way of telling what the future holds. For now, online poker in Massachusetts is still a bit of a distant dream.

Talks have been significantly delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic. And while it did not come to fruition, the topic is still ongoing. Online gaming originally proposed during the initial discussions for the 2011 gambling expansion. While such a scenario might look a bit disheartening at first, Massachusetts actually has some positive prospects. Under these circumstances, it’s no surprise that MA online poker has yet to be legalized and that you can't play online poker in Massachusetts right now. However, commercial casinos in Massachusetts have been in operation for just over two years. The first casinos were legalized just back in 2011, along with one slot parlor. While horse and dog racing betting has been around for more than eight decades, that’s not the case for casinos. It’s fair to say that the gambling market in Massachusetts is fairly new.

Can You Play Online Poker in Massachusetts?

States that allow legal online poker