With all of the complexities surrounding the access and legality of online poker in the United States these days, as well as all of the misinformation out there on it, online poker players have not had an easy time at all understanding what the real availability and reality is.

For many years now, a lot of American players have been kept out of the online poker scene due to misconceptions about its legalities in general. However, UIGEA and Black Friday only slowed down online poker and it put stricter standards on banks and other financial institutions who continued to facilitate deposits and cashouts for players.

What it DID NOT do was make online poker a federal crime for the player itself. If you live in the United States and your state hasn’t passed individual legislation regarding the criminalities of online gambling, you are more than free to sign up at any offshore poker site that allows Americans and you are able to deposit your hard-earned cash if that’s what you so choose to do.

However, just know that some banks will make it difficult to process your deposits and you’re always taking a risk if you sign up with a shady poker site that doesn’t have an already strong reputation in servicing United States players and paying them out properly. We do our best here at PokerLaws.org to steer you towards only the most trustworthy rooms and ones we’ve vetted over the years in the poker industry.

Dec 18, 2020 It is illegal to play online poker for money in Kentucky. A state law says people who lose $5 or more in illegal wagers have six months to file a lawsuit to recover the money. If they don’t, the law says “any other person” can sue to recover the money. The Kentucky Justice and Public Safety Cabinet filed the lawsuit in 2010. State law specifically prohibits the operation of an online gambling site, but not necessarily playing at one. Indiana Poker: State takes aggressive approach to illegal gambling. Players appear to be targets along with operators. Indiana has a law outlawing the operation (but not the use) of online casinos.

Proper Interpretation of the Laws

Poker players may know a fair bit about poker but generally know very little about interpreting laws, so this is why a site such as ours can be a valuable resource. What we do not provide legal advice here of course, we do provide to you our understanding of how the law in a given state may apply to online poker and online gambling, which will serve to enhance your understanding of it.

There are other sites which may discuss these matters but in general they tend to be superficial and may rely on some common misconceptions, such as if the law does not address online gambling specifically then it cannot be prohibited, which is not true at all.

This area can be complex enough that even legal experts can disagree a fair bit, and the law tends to be vague quite often but this is actually intentional, to allow for it to apply better to changing circumstances, as well as allow it more flexibility generally. This vagueness is not without its problems though, especially to the inexperienced eye.

So we’re here to help you sort all of this out so you can have a good idea of whether it may be legal to play online poker in your state, and what the issues may be. We are also here to be your guide to playing poker in your state, whether that be whether you can play online poker living in the state you live in, where the best places to play online poker are if any good options do exist and to properly interpret any and all US online casino legalities as well.

This all must be tackled on a state by state basis though due to the fact that each state is truly separate and unique, which is why we have a separate section for every state in the country.

The Real “Legality” of Online Poker in the USA

The first big misconception is that there has been a feeling among a great many players that online poker is not legal in the United States. Sure, there could be a law prohibiting the transmission of gambling information across state lines, or internationally, but there isn’t one now nor has there ever been for that matter, so that’s the first thing that needs to be understood.

When you see attempts to “legalize” online poker in Congress, this just serves to further confuse matters, as Congress does not have the authority to legalize online poker in the United States, as these matters are entirely decided by each individual state. The most Congress can do is not stand in the way, and they don’t presently anyway, so no such legislation is even required.

So if federal law does not prohibit it, and it could only prohibit certain forms of it, for instance it could not prohibit gambling taking place entirely within a state whether it wanted to or not, then the ball gets turned over entirely to the states to decide this, and that includes playing at offshore online poker sites.

Determining State Poker Laws

So in order to decide whether playing online poker is legal in a given state, we must first turn to the laws that exist in that state. Laws vary from state to state, especially in how they address the possibility of online poker, so each must be treated differently.

So that’s exactly what we do for you on this site, look at the law of each state in the country and provide for you an interpretation of how that law applies generally and how it may apply to online poker in particular.

This can be a fairly tricky business at the best of times, and this can especially be the case since a lot of state law was not written to even address online poker or online gambling for that matter, since it’s often the case that the law was written before the existence of internet communication.

The Future of Online Poker in Your State

We will also give you a heads up on whether any legislation is planned to regulate online poker in your state, as well as what the level of progress with that may be. There are a few states now which have regulated poker, and more that are considering it, and the list is growing all the time.

It is not the case at all that you necessarily have to wait to play poker online until your state regulates and “legalizes” it, and in fact just about all Americans can play online poker right now, with the exception of a few states, and we definitely do tell you which states.

Also, after bringing you up to speed on the legality of this in your state, it may be prohibited to various degrees of certainly, but if they have never sought to enforce it against online poker than a lot of players decide that the risk is so low as to not keep them from playing, and in fact this is the case generally. If there are any real problems then this tends to scare away the poker rooms long before poker players have any real need for concern anyway, so if you can play there, it is generally pretty safe to do so.

So feel free to make full use of our site to get yourself more in the know about this very important issue.

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The simple answer is: yes, online poker is legal.

It has a tumultuous history in the United States, but things are looking up. Four states, Nevada, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware all legalized poker and sites are up and running in each of those states. Others like Michigan and West Virginia legalized poker and are working on launching sites soon.

Several other states are in the process of legalizing it too. This is a big 180 from where poker was a decade ago.

In 2006, the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act passed in the United States, making it illegal for U.S. banks to do business with online gaming sites. Some sites left, others stayed. Then in 2011 The Department of Justice seized the domains of major poker sites for charges that included bank fraud and money laundering.

After that, the game pretty much vanished from the United States until a federal judge ruled in 2012 that poker was a game of skill, not luck. This paved the way for Nevada to open up the first state-regulated poker site and several states followed.

The floodgates really opened up after the Supreme Court struck down a ban on sports betting, letting states regulate it as they see fit. Many states have taken the opportunity to address online poker along with sports betting.

Where can I play Poker in the United States?

That depends on where you are. There are several different poker sites out there, some serve the entire United States while others are specific to each state.

If you’re in Nevada, New Jersey, Delaware or Pennsylvania, you have access to a few extra state-specific sites. PokerStars is live in New Jersey and Pennsylvania and you can play WSOP Online in Nevada and Delaware. These sites have partnered up with local casinos to offer poker online and you have to be within state lines to play. New Jersey, Nevada and Delaware have share player pools though. That means players from all three states play against each other.

More states are legalizing poker, so this list will grow. We’ll keep it up to date as more sites launch in different states.

But a few sites accept players from all 50 states.

BetOnline, Bovada.lv,Ignition andAmerica’s Cardroom all accept players from any U.S. state. We’ve reviewed each of these sites in detail. So head on over to our reviews page to find out more about each one.

Didn’t the U.S. Ban Online Poker in 2006?

No.

A lot of sites did pull out of the United States after it passed though. The 2006 UIGEA made it illegal for banks and financial institutions to process payments linked to online gambling. The law was a little ambiguous though and there was nothing explicitly banning poker.

Some big sites, like Party Poker, pulled out of the United States, but other giants like PokerStars and Full Tilt stayed in the country. To process payouts for U.S. players, these sites had to break the law. Then, in April 2011, the Department of Justice seized the sites’ domain names and indicted a few key people on charges of money laundering, bank fraud and more.

Absolute Poker imploded, Full Tilt almost went bankrupt. PokerStars, on the other hand, paid the fine, bailed out Full Tilt and is now back in the United States.

New State Laws

After a federal judge ruled that poker was a game of skill, not chance, Nevada took the first step to legalize online poker. The state paved the way for others to do the same. Delaware followed and also legalized lottery and casino games. New Jersey did all of this on an even larger scale. The latest to join the group was Pennsylvania, which passed its law in 2017 and finally launched regulated poker in late 2019.

Michigan has passed legislation but won’t launch any sites until later 2021. West Virginia also legalized it and sites won’t be too far behind.

All these states have sites that are linked with land-based casinos. Several other casinos are developing sites too. We’ll see more develop as online sites keeps gaining popularity. The big question now is whether sites will share their player pools.

New Jersey, Delaware and Nevada have all signed up to share their player pool. Pennsylvania is the most populous state to legalize poker sites, but it has yet to join the pool. A joint pool would be critical to creating large tournaments, a wide selection of cash games and a healthy poker ecosystem.

State-by-State Laws

Us Online Poker Sites 2019

We here at USPokerSites have been keeping tabs on several different states. Our list isn’t complete, but if you want to find out more information on where each state is regarding poker legalization, just search and click below.

Alabama – Arizona – Arkansas – California – Colorado – Connecticut – Georgia – Idaho – Iowa – Kansas – Maine – Maryland – Massachusetts – Michigan – Minnesota – Mississippi – Montana – Nebraska – New Hampshire – New Mexico – North Carolina – North Dakota – Ohio – Oklahoma – Pennsylvania – Rhode Island – South Carolina – Tennessee – Vermont – West Virginia – Wyoming

Us Online Poker Laws 2021

What About Online Sportsbooks?

Online sportsbooks have also been gaining popularity recently. Is that because of poker? Well, not really.

In May 2018, New Jersey won a landmark Supreme Court that overturned a federal ban on sports betting. New Jersey quickly legalized online sports betting and other states quickly followed.

Many states are using the sports betting debate to reconsider other forms of online gaming, especially poker. So many states that are currently debating sports betting are also considering sports betting.

Online Poker Laws Us

They don’t always go hand-in-hand, but they often do. Many sites that these days even offer both a sports book and a poker room.

Online Us Poker Site Reviews

So, is it Legal to Deposit on Poker Sites in the USA?

The answer is yes. The laws may be confusing, but we tried to break down the individual components of those laws. And as things change, we will update these pages with the most current information. You can check ourpoker reviews to learn about potential places to play.

Us Online Poker Legal

If you’re ready to play poker, let’s get to it. We’ll see you at the tables!