The Merge Poker Network has discontinued accepting players from both New Jersey and Delaware and although the news came as a shock to those players affected, with no prior warning given, moving forward maybe it’s not such a bad thing. With regulated online poker now available in both states players do have options however players in Delaware will of course struggle to find the kind of liquidity that Merge provided. It’s fair to assume that with licensing being required to operate an online poker room in the states in question, and Merge being regulated offshore, that the safe option was to simply not conduct business there and save any chance of future problems, thus protecting its interests elsewhere.
Merge also blocked players from Nevada too for similar reasons and in the past has also closed its doors to residents of Kentucky, New York and Maryland all for legal reasons and again to protect its wider interests. Players in the state of New Jersey should have no concerns at all with the Party Poker/Borgata network offering a great alternative with good numbers of players at tables, or WSOP.com which isn’t far behind in the Garden State. With no other states seriously considering the regulation of online poker at present this should be as far as it goes for Merge, at least in the short term, and players from all other states should find no issues for the foreseeable future.
