In Which States Is Online Poker Legal
The situation for internet-based poker in the United States is a mixed bag. On the one hand, there are only three states with legal online poker backed up by a full regulatory framework to protect the practice. On the other hand, the actual US legal online poker marketplace is just a shadow of its former self thanks to the passage of anti-gambling legislation in the mid-2000s that crippled the industry. Additionally, the fight to broaden the legal availability of online poker at the state level is a bitter one, with online gambling proponents locked in a struggle with antigambling politicians and moneyed, powerful special interest groups and personages looking to ban online poker outright.
Legal online poker in Delaware. Delaware is one of three states where online poker is entirely legal and regulated.Nevada and New Jersey are the other two. Delaware legalized online gambling on June 28, 2013. Online casino games launched on Oct. Is Online Poker Legal in the USA? And What State Laws Allow You to Play Internet Poker? What I hope to see someday soon By Steve Beauregard. While each jurisdiction is different, the short answer for most of the country is “Yes,” it’s OK to play poker online for real money in the USA. States Where It is Legal to Bet on Horse Racing. Poker fans, legislators, and even some of the major gambling companies in the States all assert that online poker is legal, even if the Department of Justice, the FBI, and many other legislators feel that it isn't. This has sparked the great debate over whether online poker is in a grey area, whether it is legal, or whether it is illegal.
However, the silver lining that emerged from the storm clouds surrounding the debate is that the demand for legal online poker has been filled by offshore gambling sites that operate outside the purview of US law. Because these legal online poker sites are fully regulate and licensed by the gaming authorities in their home countries, it has the effect of making legal online poker available to all US players, regardless of the state they call home.
Because of the ongoing discussion over more broadly available legal internet gaming options for consumers, the interest level surrounding online poker sites has gone through the roof in recent times. For that reason, we compiled this quick and easy-to-read guide to walk you through some of the basics on the states with legal online poker and the states that may soon pass online poker legislation, as well as give you some of our top recommendations among legal offshore poker websites that accept US players.
States That Regulate Online Poker
As we mentioned before, there are only three states that regulate online poker sites and have passed legislation specifically legalizing them. We’ll go into greater detail about each of those states in the following sections before we take a look at the states that may soon join the small fraternity of states with legal online poker. However, it is important to recognize that the states that have already legalized online poker haven’t had the easiest time in achieving the revenues promised during the intense campaigns to get pro-internet poker laws passed through their statehouses. When you also consider the interests arrayed against the young internet cards industry, the long-term viability of legal online poker in America is uncertain at best, giving even more credence to our belief that offshore poker websites like Bovada.lv, BetOnline.ag, SportsBetting.ag and 5Dimes.eu are the best bet for US players.
New Jersey
The Garden State has, far and away, the largest of the three markets of the three states with legal online poker. New Jersey also boasts some of the biggest names in the resurgent internet poker industry – including the return of the legendary PokerStars.com, which had at one time been the market leader. The presence of some of these big players in the online poker world (World Series of Poker’s website, Pala Poker NJ and 888 Poker and PartyPoker among them) means that New Jersey has got some of the country’s best long-term outlook for the industry.
However, the overall impression is that the numbers in terms of payouts – and particularly with regard to taxable revenues – have been much lower than promised by the politicians who pushed regulatory legislation through the statehouse.
Nevada
Nevada, famous the world over for the glitz and glamour of the Las Vegas strip, actually plays second fiddle to New Jersey with regard to legal online poker. Unlike New Jersey (and even Delaware, as we will soon see), Nevada does not offer other online casino games, instead relying solely on online poker. That marketplace is led by the World Series of Poker’s website, WSOP.com, which is regulated by the Nevada Gaming Commission and the Nevada Gaming Control Board.
The big advantage of WSOP’s leadership role in the Nevada online poker industry is the significant uptick in high profile live poker competition among Nevadans, owing to ease with which satellite qualifier events can be hosted over the internet. A fairly recent deal was struck between Nevada and Delaware to share a joint pool of online poker players. This is a move that should pay dividends well into the future as the domestic internet card room industry starts to rebuild after being all but dismantled by anti-gambling legislation in the mid-2000s.
Delaware
Delaware, though it became the first state to legalize online gambling generally when its legislatures passed the appropriate law in 2012, it actually has the smallest online poker marketplace as of this writing. However the state’s fortunes have been steadily improving ever since lawmakers inked a 2014 interstate gaming compact with Nevada, the worldwide leader in all things wagering. According to the stipulations of that agreement, Delaware and Nevada share a joint pool of registered online poker players to the benefit of both states as they struggle to rebuild the online poker industry.
Delaware is unique among the other two states with legal online poker in that only one poker site operates in the state: the three legal operators, Delaware Park, Dover Downs and Harrington Raceway (all of which are “racinos,” or horse tracks with card rooms) share the site clearinghouse-style. This has presented some problems for Delaware over the years since the adoption of the regulatory framework, as the three operators essentially offer the exact same online poker and casino options with very little, if any individual special features to differentiate them. Furthermore, splitting a small pool of players has had the effect that tax revenues – projected to be in the $5 million mark – were a lot less than hoped for. Total online gambling revenues coming in at $1.4 million in 2014, and they haven’t seen much of an uptick in the years since then.
States Expected To Regulate Online Poker
Though the three aforementioned states, New Jersey, Nevada and Delaware, already have laws on the books to regulate legal online poker, there are other states looking to get in on the action too. However, indecision on the part of lawmakers and intense pressure from powerful and well-off special interest groups (brick-and-mortar casino owners like Las Vegas magnate Sheldon Adelson, one of the richest men in America, among them). Nevertheless, the states most likely to pass legislation regulating online poker have a mighty incentive to do so. They need money, and internet card rooms, though only a component of the broader online gambling industry, can help get their state budgets where they need to be. In the next few sections, we’ll briefly go over some of the states expected to regulate online poker within a few years’ time.
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania is perhaps the closest of any state to achieving success in regulating online poker. Both houses of its legislature approved a 2017 budget containing provisions for online gambling-related tax revenues, a big step in itself toward eventual adoption of this as official policy. However, efforts to actually legalize online gambling along with regulation for daily fantasy sports and other gaming reforms stymied in the Pennsylvania Senate in 2016, so the fate of the legalized online poker is still up in the air. Nevertheless, Pennsylvania is definitely on the frontline of the fight by states with legal online poker on the mind, and what the state does one way or another could be a leading indicator for the course of action taken by other states.
New York
The Empire State has gained a lot of ground in the past few years when it comes to the push for regulated online poker, as in 2016 such plans made it past the introductory phase for the first time ever in the movement’s history. New York’s primary concerns seem to stem from perceived security issues with online poker, but those worries seem to be sorting themselves out, as prominent lawmakers, including the chairman of legislative committee in charge of overseeing gambling, have given some early indications that the tables could be about to turn. In fact, even though New York failed to pass online gambling regulatory bills in 2016, it appears that the state will move to legalize online poker in 2017 or within the near short term.
Michigan
Michigan is the Johnny-come-lately among states with legal online poker bills before its lawmakers. Even though there was some headway made in 2016, when the legislature put forward a bill reforming gambling regulations in the state, Michigan’s statehouse couldn’t unify around the bill and it died for lack of action. There’s really no telling if the bill will be taken up again at any upcoming legislative session, but if it did, there remain substantial challenges to any eventual passage of such a bill, owing to the tightrope that has to be walked between the interests of commercial and tribal casino operators. Everyone, it seems, wants a slice of the pie when it comes to online poker revenues, and the state of Michigan, still reeling from the Detroit bailout fiasco and other scandals, could use the money too. Time will tell if anything comes of these efforts, but it looks like a longshot from here.
California
Golden State lawmakers let a bill to legalize online poker die on the floor when they failed to take action on the proposed legislation during the 2016 session, but all hope isn’t lost yet. A coalition of tribal casino operators from around the state of California are attempting to force Sacramento’s hand, but proponents of online poker legalization are still on-board for trying to get all sides to see eye-to-eye on the matter. Working out a compromise between the various stakeholders from the tribes to the horse racing industry representatives is most likely going to be a real challenge for California, but if its lawmakers can work out a deal then the Golden State could become one of the few states with legal online poker here in the next few years.
Online Poker Laws In The United States
We’ve already talked at length about the various states with legal online poker and why that list is so short – namely due to federal anti-gambling laws – but up until now we haven’t really spoken about the particulars of these laws and how exactly they impact the online poker regulatory movement. It is important to understand the gravity of such laws as 1961’s Federal Wire Act and the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 (UIGEA), as any conversation about legal online poker – and indeed any variety of gambling over the internet – will be colored by the effects of these two laws.
First, the Wire Act was devised in the late 1950s as a means of cracking down on criminal organizations involved in sports betting racketeering and match fixing. It was thought, and perhaps rightly so, that this illegal activity provided a much more easily concealed and more lucrative source of income for the mob than did extortion, prostitution or even the illicit drug trade. The Wire Act, appropriately enough, forbade the use of wired communications facilities for interstate sports betting purposes, but only for that purpose. Individual bettors were not the intended target of this law, but powerful politicians, even to this day, interpret the Wire Act’s language as an ambiguous attack on all forms of interstate data transmission related to any kind of gambling, a phenomenon that led to the recent introduction of the Restoration of America’s Wire Act (RAWA) in Congressional circles. If passed, RAWA would effectively ban all forms of online gambling in the US, and would criminalize participation in online gambling, not just the facilitation of illegal gambling practices as it does now.
Next up, and perhaps have more to do with the topic at hand – that being the states with legal online poker – is the UIGEA. Passed and signed into law during the George W. Bush presidential administration, the UIGEA was hastily tacked on to a piece of entirely unrelated “must-pass” antiterrorism legislation. This ignominious beginning was only the first of the woes to come out of the passage of the UIGEA, which prohibited US-based financial institutions from processing online gambling-related credit card transactions. This move, in short, effectively killed what was at the time a booming online poker market, and many operators were forced out of business overnight while some were even the subject of federal investigations resulting in arrests. While the UIGEA does not seek to penalize individual bettors (just like the Wire Act doesn’t), it does make the process of depositing and withdrawing money from player accounts at legal offshore online poker sits more difficult, as new means had to be devised to do those things. Players have largely embraced the offshore poker rooms and casinos that serve the US market for this reason.
The Best Legal Online Poker Sites For US Players
Now that we’ve looked at the laws that put the legal online poker marketplace in the straights it’s currently in, we ought to give you a look into what we think are the best alternative to the rigmarole. The best legal online poker sites for US players are those based in foreign countries, and they handily beat out their counterparts in states with legal online poker websites in terms of number of games offered, higher money limits, better comps and bonus promotions for new sign-ups and deposits and, often, better customer service too.
The cream of the crop among offshore legal poker sites is Latvia-based Bovada, which is also the industry leader among offshore sportsbooks and internet casinos. Bovada has numerous real money tournaments going all the time, but right now some of the biggest are a $100,000 guaranteed winner tournament and weekly guarantees with total payouts coming in at $1.5 million. The Euro-based gambling site also has some of the best bonus promotions on the market today, including a 100-percent match for new signups up to a $500 initial deposit. Bovada also offers a refer-a-friend bonus worth a 200 percent cash match and even a $5,000 BitCoin welcome bonus.
Some of the other truly excellent offshore poke sites include the poker sections of SportsBetting.ag, BetOnline.ag (both of which are based in the tiny Caribbean island nation of Antigua) and the European Union-based 5Dimes. Each website has roughly the same assortment of table games from roulette to craps as well as card games like blackjack and, of course, poker. Slots are also available at the various offshore sites’ internet casinos. However, the biggest difference, outside of the look and feel of each one, are their own unique bonuses and comps. It’s entirely possible to fund much of your bankroll using the free promotional money the offshore gambling sites will gladly pay out, so it quite literally pays to open and maintain multiple accounts at the sites we recommend.
Legal Online Poker FAQs
Can I Play Online Poker For Real Money At Offshore Poker Sites?
In case you haven’t already signed up at our top picks among legal poker sites, you should be aware that, yes, you can play for real money at offshore poker sites. Numerous guaranteed-money tournaments are available practically all the time, and the list is updated continually for the most bang-for-your-buck play.
Are Offshore Online Poker Sites Safe?
One of the biggest advantages of using legal offshore poker sites is the security measures they take to keep their account holders’ personal and financial information safe. All our top picks in this highly competitive market sector use multiple layer encryption software on the front end to securely lock down any bank account information you send over in the process of making a deposit, but that’s not all. They also have several backup redundancy protocols in place on the back end to make sure your personal information is only stored in secured locations and is never kept on the websites servers where it could be vulnerable to hackers. The best legal offshore poker sites have to have these kind of security measures in place in order to get licensed from their home countries, which have some of the strictest gaming regulatory commissions in the world.
What Is The Legal Gambling Age At Online Poker Sites?
Each offshore legal poker site is usually going to set a minimum gambling age of 18 before players will be allowed to use any of their gambling services. However, in the US many state laws require that players be at least 21 before they are legally allowed to gamble. This is the case for the three states – New Jersey, Delaware and Nevada – with legal online poker. However, some states only require players to be 18 before participating in games of chance at their land-based casinos. Although our top recommendations among offshore poker sites technically aren’t beholden to any US laws, as they operate and are licensed and regulated in foreign countries, it’s probably a smart move to stick to the legal gambling age according to your local laws. There’s nothing to be gained but a lot to lose if you’re wrong in thinking you won’t get caught.
How Do I Make Deposits And Withdrawals At Legal Online Poker Sites?
The Unlawful Internet Gambling and Enforcement Act of 2006, which we discussed at length earlier in this guide, makes it more difficult to place deposits and collect your winnings via withdrawal than by rights it ought to be, even at legal online poker sites. States with legal online poker may accept most of the common credit and debit card types for deposits and withdrawals, but at the legal offshore poker sites we recommend, you are in all likelihood going to have some inconvenience when you try to do either.
Deposits are handled somewhat more easily, though the best method we’ve found is to use prepaid debit cards like Vanilla Visa card, Mastercards or American Express. These card types, though not strictly speaking credit cards, will still be processed like credit cards, which is why you could run into a decline, especially if the website you’re using has a higher volume at the time you’re making a deposit. The withdrawal process is even more dragged-out due to the need to accept payment in the form of a check in the mail (yes, even in the current year) or a direct bank account transfer.
Really, the best, speediest and most secure method for either deposits or withdrawals is to use BitCoin. The industry-leading offshore poker sites like Bovada and BetOnline will even offer pretty incredible mult-thousand-dollar welcome bonuses for making your first deposit using the hot new cryptocurrency, and payout literally takes minutes. Each site has its own procedures for this newer method using BitCoin, so be sure to check out availability at the site you decide to use for legal USA gambling.
Confused and frustrated with the lack of explanation on what online poker laws actually mean in the real-world? Well, look no further as OnlinePokerLaws.com is a new authority for U.S. residents that wish to learn more about the legality of playing poker on the Internet.
This site aims to do many things besides just simplifying the U.S. gambling laws which deal directly with the practice of playing online poker. Things like how to make deposits and how to get payouts will be covered in depth as those are two of the most important area that Americans should be focused on due in part to the laws. Along the way, we are going to recommend several poker sites which accept players from the United States that are safe, trusted and above all, fun.
Before going any further we want to point out the fact that we are just merely American poker players which know all about playing online and what comes with it. We do stay on top of all the latest news coming from the state and federal legislative floors however we are not legal professional nor were we trained to give legal advice; as we said, we are just avid online players that have seen and done it all. The team here at OnlinePokerLaws.com always recommends that our readers consult their local laws and statutes pertaining to online poker or seek the advice of a paid professional licensed in their state if they are unsure on whether it is legal to play poker online.
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Online Poker Laws By State - Is Poker Legal Where You Live?
There is no doubt that there is online poker players in all 50 states that are wondering if they are breaking the law when they play online poker. We have state pages that break down the online poker laws and tell you whether or not it is legal to play online poker in your state. On top of that, we give you links to all of the state resources that you would need like links to your state website so that you can read the laws for yourself. If you need more detailed information about the online poker laws in your state then the pages below are the best place to start.
On top of the individual state pages that we have, we also have some articles related to online poker laws that may have to do with your state. Take a look at these articles if you want to get some more general knowledge about legal online poker and the gambling laws that you need to know about.
Legal Online Poker Sites That Accept USA Players
Unless specifically said to be 'illegal' in your state, any poker site that accepts Americans is legal provided it is located off U.S. soil; those located off U.S. soil are 'safe' for all 50 states. Staying offshore allows these websites to operate under International laws and therefore they are able to welcome American players without violating any law. The UIGEA does cause havoc on American deposits at offshore poker rooms however authorities will not actually go after any of the poker providers as the law says it should.
Staying 'offshore' (off American soil) is the key here and below we've hand-picked a few of the better poker sites that Americans can choose. These sites are all located outside of the United States and while they are not regulated, they can be trusted with your more as well as for fair play.
Bovada Poker Room - 100% Poker Bonuses For USA Players
Bovada Poker – Because Bovada is based in Costa Rica and several other countries such as Canada, the only poker laws that players should consider is the age to play poker. At Bovada that age is 18 years old for which players can register for free and then use the deposit methods offered by the site.
Deposit options are somewhat limited in the U.S. but the good news is that Bovada does have a high rate of success when processing VISA deposits, credit or debit. Bovada also accepts many VISA branded gift or prepaid cards but players should contact the cashier to find out exactly which ones are accepted at the time. VISA is the only card brand accepted however players who are unable to access the method, or are blocked because of the UIGEA do have other options through wire transfer services like Western Union, Moneygram and Rapid Transfer. Some services function online with credit cards as the funding source while others operate at physical retailers which means cash can be used to fund poker accounts.
U.S. residents, except those living in Washington State, New York and Maryland are welcome to sign up for an account without any pressure to make a deposit. Bovada Poker allows all users to play without commitment by offering several freeroll tourneys and ring games that can function simply as practice for the player... after all, poker is truly a game of skill and it is a skill that requires practice.
As an incentive for taking the plunge and depositing real-money into your account, all first-time transactions that are successful can earn as much as $1,000 in free cash. This bonus starts out completely 'locked up' but players turn this money into real cash as they play in real-money games/tournaments; earn 'player points' to unlock the cash within the first 60 days of depositing. Bovada only requires users to acquire 5,000 poker points to claim all $1,000 of bonuses (provided you deposited $1,000) and player points come faster when playing for higher stakes.
Even if your state has allowed online poker to be regulated, until it is actually done (state 'regulated' poker sites are running online) Bovada will continue to be the best choice for anyone living in the U.S. provided they do not live in one of the three states that are excluded. For Washington, Maryland and New York residents, there are options available besides Bovada and we have listed them for you below.
Online Poker Laws
Is Online Poker Legal In The USA?
This is the million dollar question and it's probably the reason why you are here. From a federal standpoint, the practice of playing online poker for real money is 100% legal provided the player meets the minimum age to play poker in their state.
Before the United States Department of Justice re-defined their stance on the Federal Wire Act (see more below) in late 2011, all forms of online gambling were in fact, illegal. However, that all changed following the aforementioned re-interpretation of the law which now only says that online sports betting is now all that the law applies to.
With online poker no longer being included under the Wire Act, there wasn't and still isn't anything that prohibits Americans from playing poker online... as far as the United States government is concerned. Yes, there is always another side to things and the other side to this is that individual states sometimes have laws on the books which forbid their citizens from playing online.
This is why we recommend checking the status of online poker in your state or contacting a lawyer/attorney however the key thing to note about state law is that you will not get into trouble provided that you use poker sites located off U.S. soil. Using offshore poker sites means that neither U.S. nor state authorities have the power to subpoena any information from these companies including your name, address, etc... That means that no matter where you live, no matter what the poker laws say, you are not going to get into any trouble for playing online because no one will ever know. Loose lips sink ships and as long as you keep your mouth shut, you will have nothing to worry about.
Furthermore, the only reason states have laws for online poker is because they usually have regulated live poker games at venues which are taxed meaning that they create revenue for the state. It's not hard to figure out why the state would want you in their poker rooms and not taking your business to the Internet. It's a valid reason but the product is nowhere near the same; playing with a few hundred players (at best) versus playing with thousands of players at any time of the day... state-run live poker venues simply can't compete.
Thankfully most of us do not even have to worry about that as the majority of states do not have laws on the books for it or against it. In most cases states concede to the Federal government which means that U.S. residents are free to play at will. In fact, we have good news to report as several progressive states, New Jersey being the latest, have already passed bills which allow the regulation of online poker websites in their states (Delaware, Nevada).
Just remember that the only time a citizen risks serious penalty is if he/she decides that it would be a good idea to use or license some online poker software and host/operate/profit from their own online poker site. Chances are it is located within U.S. borders and is within the reach of the law; we'd recommend not even playing at sites like those at all costs as your personal details could fall into the hands of the authorities.
State + Federal Online Poker Laws - What Makes Online Poker Legal?
We touched briefly on a lot of the things that make online poker legal in the United States but we're going to delve a little deeper into all of the laws surrounding the game and it being played on the Internet below. Again, we're not going to drill you with legalese by just copying and pasting the laws below like other sites do. If you want to read what the laws say, go to Wikipedia but if you want to find out what they mean then keep it clicked here.
Federal Wire Act of 1961 - We're going to lead with this law even though it no longer applies to online poker because it essentially opened the door for players in the U.S. to play freely. Introduced in 1961, the Wire Act was originally created to combat inter-state sports betting such as someone in Ohio phoning in a wager to a bookmaker in another state whether that bookmaker was regulated or not.
As the definition of 'wire' communication expanded to include cellular and Internet communication, all forms of online gambling were lumped in under this law. Though no one ever really got into any trouble for simply playing poker online, it still loomed over the industry and even shut down a few of the biggest names in the business (see Poker Black Friday). And while the definition of wire communication has not changed, the forms of gambling prohibited by the law have and poker is no longer included.
Unlawful Internet Gambling Act of 2006 - There is absolutely nothing about the Unlawful Internet Gambling Act of 2006, herein UIGEA, which says it is illegal for Americans to play online poker for real-money. What it does say that gambling business like poker rooms (though whether poker is actually 'gambling' is hotly debated) are not allowed to accept payments from U.S. residents which are to be used for wagering over the Internet.
What that means is that it is illegal for a poker room to accept your payment that you plan to use for playing in real-money ring games or tournaments. But, do you think the online poker business just went away after 2006? Obviously it didn't because we're talking about it now which means that Americans can find ways to deposit into poker sites despite it being illegal for the website to accept those funds.
This law has caused some headaches when it comes to depositing funds because banks help enforce this law by not allowing transactions to go through to payment processors which have been linked to gambling. Poker rooms and other gambling sites change their payment processors all the time (at least the good ones do) in order to throw the banks off their tracks but there can be periods where players have excessive problems when trying to make instant deposits via credit cards and other electronic transfers. When that happens the game is not over but it will take a little more work to get funds into your account. We'll get into more about that below in our deposits section but the main thing to take away from this is that it is only 'illegal' for the website to accept your money and not for you to play there.
Note: We put the word 'illegal' in quotations simply because by inhibiting financial transactions to countries where the operation of online poker websites is permitted, the UIGEA is actually in violation of International trade laws. It's amazing that this hardly ever gets brought up. The U.S. government doesn't want to draw attention to the fact it is in violation which is why you don't see Interpol slamming down the doors of these poker websites; the reason why only American deposits are affected by this law and not the actual business as the law would suggest.
Will I Go To Jail Or Be Arrested For Playing Poker Online?
Being arrested for playing legal online poker is very unlikely even if you live in a state that has laws on the books against the activity, as those are usually just scare tactics to keep players from taking their money to the Internet. Plus, if you do not tell anyone that you play online, how is anyone going to ever find out?
We always recommend sticking to the poker rooms that are offshore because they will not disclose any of your info to authorities. The U.S. has no jurisdiction in the countries where these sites operate and therefore cannot force the websites to reveal their clientele.
Furthermore, these websites take great steps to ensure their networks are secure and most go as far to not even store your details in servers that aren't even connected to the Internet. For someone to gain access to them, they would have to go in guns blazing because these servers are kept in secure off-site facilities with armed guards. If a thirteen year old sitting his parent's basement cannot hack your details, you have nothing to worry about from the U.S. government.
As a final word, check your local booking reports. Most counties make them available to the public online. Do you see anyone booked in the county jail for playing poker online?
The Regulation Of Legal Online Poker In The USA In 2013
Right now, the online poker laws in the U.S. do not regulate the practice of playing poker online but with that said, things are heading in the right direction. As mentioned earlier, several states are on the path to actually putting regulations in place but for now, all the laws (New Jersey, Delaware, Nevada) say is that online poker can be regulated. Just allowing it to be regulated is a major hurdle and once states put successful online poker regulations in place, they will serve as a model for other states to open their doors.
Being regulated is where this industry needs to get to in order to gain credibility with the American public. That is NOT saying that the poker sites that take U.S. residents today are not credible, only that the perception of the activity's legality and legitimacy will improve.
Our staff is well-versed in the pre-regulation era of online poker and knows which websites are legitimate even though they are not 'regulated' by U.S. authorities. OnlinePokerLaws.com makes sure to only suggest those websites which can be trusted and that are safe until state-run regulated poker rooms go live.
When those sites do go live, we'll have all the info posted right here. Times are very exciting for the industry and the players as well. We welcome you to keep coming back for more news and info about the latest developments in online poker laws and regulation.