One week ago today, online gaming history was made, as Nevada and Delaware signed an agreementcreating the first interstate online poker compact in the United States. The compact will allow people from either state to play on poker sites based in the other. Let’s take a look at a few ramifications of the recent agreement according to PokerScout’s Weekly Scouting Report.

Despite its long history as being the brick-and-mortar capital of the world, Nevada’s online poker sites are not thriving yet. The main culprit: its population, estimated to be just 2.8 million residents last year. As frequenters of this site know, online poker rooms need a solid amount of player traffic in order to sustain themselves.

Delaware is one of the smallest states in the Union. It is only about one-third of the size of Nevada with about 925,000 residents. And, according to PokerScout, it has just one-twelfth the online poker traffic of Nevada.

The agreement between the two states was a necessity, especially for Delaware. PokerScout’s traffic ranks show Delaware with a seven-day average of just 18 cash game players. Two full-ring tables aren’t going to make much of an impact. And even if the Blue Hen State “reaches its full potential,” as PokerScout puts it, 60 cash game players still isn’t that impressive.

One advantage the combination could provide, says PokerScout, is that the time zone difference between Nevada and Delaware could smooth out the slow periods during the day. The early morning hours are naturally the times when the fewest players are online, but as that time comes in Delaware, many night owls will still be logged in out West in Nevada. And as those Nevadans go to sleep, players in Delaware will be waking up and quite possibly getting in some morning poker before they start their day.

PokerScout points out that mitigating daily lulls in traffic will make the games look more attractive and could possibly pull in more players.

PokerScout also points out that despite being the smaller of the two states, Delaware will have equal power on the supervising Association’s governing board. Even if other states join the team, the Chairperson of the Board will be from Delaware for two out of the first four years.

As for which other states may join, if New Jersey doesn’t jump in, it doesn’t look like the compact will consist of more than Delaware and Nevada any time soon. There were online poker bills introduced recently in California, although many in the industry see them as long shots for 2014. One of them, Assembly Bill 2291, would prohibit interstate poker compacts anyway.

PokerScout’s Scouting Report is a daily newsletter for the online poker industry, with in-depth data and analysis of the market. More information can be found by clicking here or contacting support@pokerscout.com.

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