Why Isn’t There a Federal Online Poker Bill? This included partypoker, however, many sites returned to the US market when states started to regulate legal online poker. It did not define what that was exactly, and as a result, most publicly-traded sites left the US market after the UIGEA came to life. They made it illegal for banks to process payments for unlawful gambling sites. The Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, or the UIGEA, passed Congress in September 2006 and was signed into law two weeks later. The Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act

Many states have taken the opportunity to address online poker along with sports betting. The floodgates really opened up after the Supreme Court struck down a ban on sports betting, letting states regulate it as they see fit. This paved the way for Nevada to open up the first state-regulated poker site and several states followed. Then in 2011 The Department of Justice seized the domains of major poker sites for charges that included bank fraud and money laundering.Īfter 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. banks to do business with online gaming sites. In 2006, the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act passed in the United States, making it illegal for U.S. This is a big 180 from where poker was a decade ago.

Several other states are in the process of legalizing it too. The sites for those states are still in development though but are expected to launch soon. Most states have at least discussed online poker, many have introduced legislation and Michigan and West Virginia actually legalized online poker. Four states, Nevada, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware all legalized poker and sites are up and running in each of those states. Its biggest setback was in 2011, but after that it’s been steadily rising and things are really looking up. Online poker has had a rocky roller coaster ride since the first online poker hands were dealt in the late 90s. The simple answer is: yes, online poker is legal.

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