- In the states where it’s legal and regulated, online poker has had an underwhelming debut. Secondly, it’s important to remember that as of this writing, states cannot share player pools between them — although we expect that to change in the coming weeks as Nevada and Delaware being sharing their player pools.
- It’s reasonable to ask, “Is online poker legit,” because cardplayer pay a lot of money into online poker rooms. This is a two part article, first covering online poker and second examining which sportsbooks are legit.I recommend www.IgnitionPoker.eu (previously known as Bovada) for poker and Bovada.lv for sports betting, and so does everybody else who isn’t paid off.
- US Online Poker: Frequently Asked Questions. On this page we explain in basic format the intrinsic and extremely confusing laws bound to poker sites whom operate in the United States as a future poker player should know before playing. We differentiate between offshore and U.S. Licensed operations as it pertains to poker players within U.S.
First and foremost: you can legally gamble online in the USA. Gambling laws are constantly changing on a state-by-state basis, but here’s what you need to remember: while running your own casino, sportsbook, or poker room inside the United States is not legal, individual U.S. Residents will not be prosecuted for making online bets.Most importantly, all of GambleOnline’s recommended casinos. Online Poker Legislation in the US. There is a significant amount of confusion about whether online poker in the US is legal or not. This confusion has not been helped by some sites referring to offshore poker sites as “illegal”, when in fact they are regulated and licensed – only not by authorities in the USA.
- by Sean ChaffinJanuary 7, 2020
- by Sean ChaffinDecember 30, 2019
- by Sean ChaffinDecember 13, 2019
- by Sean ChaffinDecember 11, 2019
- by Sean ChaffinDecember 2, 2019
Where can you currently play legal online poker in the US?
The following four states are the only ones to offer legal US online poker sites:
- Delaware
- Nevada
- New Jersey
There are some differences between the three regulated-poker states. Also, while Pennsylvania recently signed online poker into law, the state has yet to start running games. Pennsylvania is expected to launch in early 2019.
Nevadaonly permits online poker.
New Jersey and Delaware also spread casino games banked by the house. Read more about NJ online casino operators and soon to launch Pennsylvania online casinos.
Nevada, New Jersey and Pennsylvania allow the state’s brick-and-mortar casinos to operate online sites. In Delaware, the state lottery is the sole operator.
Finally, Nevada, New Jersey and Delaware have entered into an interstate online poker agreement. Players from the three states can compete against each other only on WSOP.com.
Background for legal online poker in the US
Legal US online poker sites debuted on April 30, 2013.
Ultimate Poker was the site that made history. Nevada was the first state to host fully legal online poker. Texas Hold ’em was the only game spread at Ultimate Poker during its first six months in business.
WSOP.com joined the Nevada online poker market on Sept. 17, 2013. The World Series of Poker’s online site brought the first games of Omaha, Omaha High/Low, Seven Card Stud and Seven Card Stud High/Low to Nevada.
WSOP.com now controls 99 percent of the Nevada market. This near-monopoly was caused by the shuttering of Ultimate Poker in November 2014.
Delaware was the second state to launch legal online poker. There is one network powered by 888. The state’s three racinos – Delaware Park, Dover Downs and Harrington Raceway – are skins on the Delaware poker network. Nevada and Delaware began pooling poker players in April 2015.
WSOP.com and 888 were the sites responsible for creating the first legal interstate online poker pool.
New Jersey became the third state with legal online poker on Nov. 21, 2013. There are currently three poker networks in New Jersey. One hosts Borgata and partypoker, the other has WSOP.com and 888 on it, and the third is made up solely of PokerStars NJ. All networks are about equal in overall size at any given point in time.
There were three additional poker platforms in New Jersey when the state launched regulated poker sites. 888 was originally a standalone site before it merged player pools with WSOP.com. Ultimate Poker was unable to gain more than 3 percent of the market share.
The Ultimate Poker site was shuttered on Oct. 5, 2014. The associated UCasino was also closed at that time. Betfair failed to attract any players and closed its poker site on Dec. 1, 2014. Betfair still operates an online casino in New Jersey.
After a long legislative battle, Gov. Tom Wolf signed a bill into law that legalized and regulated online gambling in the state of Pennsylvania on Oct. 30, 2017, making it the fourth state to legalize online gaming. The bill legalized online poker, online table games, online slots and daily fantasy sports. It also allowed for a number of other gambling expansions such as online lottery, tablet gambling in airports, video gambling terminals at truck stops and 10 satellite casinos. Players can expect to be able to play online poker in PA in 2019.
What other states are considering legalizing online poker?
Several states are actively considering regulating online poker:
- New York
- California
- Michigan
- Massachusetts
Of the list above, most experts consider New York to have the greatest chance of passing a bill.
Why should I choose legal poker sites?
One of the biggest advantages to playing online poker at regulated sites in Delaware, Nevada and New Jersey is that all player funds are just as safe as they would be at a licensed land-based casino in any of those states.
This is in contrast to offshore sites where poker players have a long history of seeing their funds held hostage or stolen altogether.
There are also ample deposit and withdrawal methods that are safe and secure.
Players can use Visa, MasterCard, electronic checks, bank wires, Neteller, Skrill, PayNearMe, prepaid card and cash at the associated licensed casino. Withdrawals are processed by electronic check, paper check, Neteller, Skrill, prepaid debit card and cash at the associated licensed casino. The method available depends on the state and participating site.
Finally, regulated sites undergo far more rigorous checks to ensure that games are fair and secure than unregulated sites.
Will the federal government ban online poker?
Federal law allows states to legalize and regulate online poker. This is specifically exempted from the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act. A September 2011 Department of Justice opinion confirmed this and explicitly gives states the right to permit intrastate gaming.
There was an attempt in Congress to reverse this legal opinion. The effort was spearheaded by Sheldon Adelson, founder and CEO of Las Vegas Sands, the parent company of Venetian in Las Vegas.
Adelson’s lobbyists submitted the Restoration of America’s Wire Act (RAWA). The bill failed in 2016 and does not appear to have much support in this Congress. Libertarian groups, states’ rights activists, governors, state lotteries and most of the gaming industry have come out in opposition to RAWA.
Since then, Adelson and company have been working through other channels to head off online casino and online poker play. It is extremely likely that the group effected some degree of influence over the Department of Justice’s January 2019 opinion to reinterpret the Wire Act.
In that opinion, the DOJ essentially reversed its prior position on the statute to say that the law actually pertains to all gambling, not just sports betting. Needless to say, there were many parties in opposition to this opinion.
So far, the opinion has not found much success in court. A June 2019 ruling from a New Hampshire federal court dismissed the opinion from affecting that state’s lottery commission and an associated vendor. Only time will tell if the precedent will ripple out to other interested and/or affected parties.
In the United States, gambling is restricted almost everywhere, except in Las Vegas and in Atlantic City, New Jersey. If you do not know this and unwittingly participated in a gambling scheme that turned out to be illegal, you can still be charged with a gambling crime and may be slapped with significant penalties that may result in some serious repercussions. In these kinds of scenarios, knowing your rights and the gambling laws of your state can spell the difference between a safe trip home and a one-way ticket to prison.
The laws related to gambling are not only important for those involved in the industry operating such games like poker, bingo, and other casino-type games, but also for all those regular Joes who want to know whether he or she can start a fantasy football league, a home poker game, or an NCAA tournament betting pool at the workplace.
The words “gamble” and “gambling” are generally used to discuss an activity that may run afoul of applicable criminal laws. The word “gaming” is usually reserved for those instances where the activity has been specifically legalized by applicable laws or where the activity is exempted from the criminal laws. Thus, playing a casino-style game at a for-profit website online in the United States is referred to as gambling, since no state has yet to finalize any gambling law that specifically authorizes a for-profit website operator to offer any casino games.
The two words are not mutually exclusive. That is, a gaming activity could turn out to be gambling where applicable laws regulating that particular gaming are violated. Similarly, a gambling activity may turn out to be gaming if it is exempted from a given criminal statute. For example, playing a card game for money in a purely social setting where no one earns anything from the game other than as a mere player would be gaming if such social games were excluded from the reach of the criminal anti-gambling laws in the state where the game takes place.
The Spread of Legalized US Gambling
Decades ago, gambling used to be illegal almost in every part of the continental US, again, except for Nevada and New Jersey. However, as time flew by, more and more states have made various types of gambling legal, ranging from Indian casinos, bingo and poker rooms, off-track horse race betting, and more. While some states have approved certain types of gambling, there are other types that have remained “illegal”, so to speak, like online gambling. In fact, almost all states have laws that ban at least some form of gambling.
Gaming and gambling in the United States have undergone a great boom. During the past decade, most states have expanded legalized gaming, including regulated casino-style games and lotteries. There has been an explosion in opening Native American casinos. The popularity of online gambling and betting has increased exponentially.
Online Gambling in the USA
Online gambling has been more stringently regulated by the US government. Some of the federal laws that encompass online gambling include the Federal Act Wire of 1961 and the UIGEA (Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act) of 2006. The former outlaws interstate wagering on sports but fails to address the other forms of gambling. The latter did not specifically ban online gaming, however, it disallowed US-based payment processors from participating in any financial transactions involving online gaming services. These rigid regulations made most online gaming operators decide to move their businesses offshore where they can be left untouched by US federal laws.
It may seem that the United States has been very slow when it comes to reacting to online gambling. In fact, when online gambling sites started appearing in the early ‘90s, there were not even any legal guidelines set in place to regulate the operations of these sites, even though their services are easily accessed by US-based players.
This, however, changed in the year 2006, when then-US President George Bush signed the Safe Ports Act – a law that had a section that made it illegal for US banking institutions to allow their customers to send money to gambling sites offshore.
Online Poker United States
The fact is, before 2006, any US resident could quite easily gamble online for real money by using any of their US-issued debit or credit cards to fund their accounts. Then again, when the aforementioned law took effect on that year, all US banking institutions were legally required to block all these types of payments, making it extremely difficult for US-based players to fund their online gaming bankroll.
As the years have gone by, many US States have started to look at online gambling sites, and several of them have placed their own robust sets of regulations that will allow gambling sites located in certain US states to operate legally after applying for and being granted a gambling license, but only within state boundaries.
There are still a lot of websites offering casino-type games that are located offshore that accommodate US-based players, though. However, sending and requesting money from those sites might take some time and in doing such, players are encouraged to exercise extra vigilance in checking where the gambling site of their choosing is licensed and regulated before they start playing, because they will have very little protection should they encounter any kind of issues or problems with an unlicensed and offshore gambling website.