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The platform is backed by World Poker Tour champion and professional poker celebrity Phil Ivey.

On Friday, Virtue Gaming, a decentralized online poker platform built on the Ethereum (ETH) blockchain, launched the first play-to-earn digital poker casino in the United States.

In the U.S., only six states (Nevada, Delaware, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Michigan) have legalized and currently regulate online poker. The country has been slow to act on the subject due to concerns that international poker platforms would take revenue away from domestic, land-based gambling venues. Moreover, even in the states listed, poker platforms must obtain licenses from each individual jurisdiction to operate.

As a result, U.S. residents typically cannot access popular online poker platforms, such as PokerStars or 888 Poker, available to players in the rest of the world. To solve this issue, Virtue Gaming proposed a play-to-earn setup where the platform gives users 500 Virtual Player Points, or VPP, worth an approximate $147.37 USD.

Players will receive these for free upon signup. Players who meet the minimum playtime requirements via cash games and tournaments can then cash out their VPP for Tether (USDT). U.S. players would then be able to compete with players for the rest of the world, who transfer VPP, Ether (ETH) or other cryptos into Virtue Gaming's locked sidechain smart contracts to stake in the game. To prevent cheating, the platform implements peer-to-peer encrypted shuffling for all decks.

Virtue Poker Casino UI | Source: Virtue Poker

According to legislation, "points or credits that the sponsor of the game or contest provides to participants free of charge and can be used or redeemed only for participation in games or contests offered by the sponsor" fall outside the scope of the legal definition of a bet or wager and could theoretically give the play-to-earn model some regulatory leeway. At the time of publication, there are currently over 25,000 players from outside the U.S. on the platform.

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The injection of additional funding will be used to facilitate Virtue Poker’s mainnet launch slated for May 2021.

Ethereum infrastructure firm ConsenSys and venture capital fund Pantera Capital have led a group of investors in a $5-million funding round for Virtue Poker, according to an announcement on Monday.

Other participants in the strategic investment round included blockchain investment outfit DFG and FunFair founder Jez San.

Virtue Poker, an Ethereum-based decentralized poker platform, was founded back in 2016 within the ConsenSys suite of blockchain projects. Back in 2020, the company secured a B2C — Gaming Service License from the Malta Gaming Authority.

The $5-million investment will be used to bootstrap the mainnet launch of the blockchain poker platform scheduled for May 2021. The mainnet launch comes after four years of development and two years of beta testing.

According to Ryan Gittleson, CEO of Virtue Poker, the company’s status as a licensed operator provides a suitable platform to challenge legacy providers for players. According to Gittleson, Virtue Poker will lead the charge to make crypto wagering mainstream.

Commenting on the $5-million funding round and the plans to release the mainnet platform, ConsenSys founder Joe Lubin remarked:

“I’m excited to see the Virtue Poker team realize its mission in bringing transparency and trust to the online poker industry. By working with regulators in becoming the first licensed blockchain-based platform, Virtue Poker legitimizes the use of this technology in the industry long-term going forward.”

Poker legend Phil Ivey, an ambassador for the company, also commented on the project’s progress, stating that Virtue Poker will play a “major part” in the future of poker.

Poker and the crypto space have a storied history with Bitcoin (BTC) creator Satoshi Nakamoto, which includes scraps of code for an online poker game in the first iteration of the Bitcoin code.

Back in April 2020, crypto charity outfit The Giving Block partnered with many industry stakeholders to organize an online poker game to raise funds for nonprofits helping to combat the coronavirus.

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