Is Online Poker Legal In The USA

Online poker is certainly one Americas favorite pastimes but with recent developments many Americans still wonder whether playing poker on the internet is actually legal you aren't. I am not a legal professional and still have no legal background but I did lots of research for this topic and have made my own conclusions.

In 2006, the United States passed the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act or UIGEA. The bill was coupled to the Safe Ports Act and permainan capsa susun was overwhelmingly passed into law. This was the work of two US Senators whom wanted to end gambling online within the United States.

The UIGEA is a controversial law from the time it passing. In short the law makes it illegal for Banks and other banking institutions to knowing process payments when it comes to gambling from United States residents. The Act excluded lotteries and fantasy sports in addition to games of skill. Initially it was considered that poker online couldn't survive effected through the bill numerous viewed poker as a skill game. Unfortunately, since many poker players know, the Department of Justice considered poker gambling and enforced what the law states while using indictment with the owners of some in the largest on-line poker sites that still accepted Americans. Poker sites like Full Tilt, Poker Stars, Absolute Poker and Ultimate Bet were the first to fall. Subsequent poker online rooms would also later be indicted yet others thought we would leave the US market.

With everything that said, does the UIGEA really make playing on-line poker illegal? The simple and short answer is no. The law applies only to the financial institutions and internet poker rooms. Nowhere in legislation can it suggest that anybody who plays online poker is breaking what the law states. Nor should it claim that making deposits and withdraws from poker sites are illegal. The onus is for the banks and poker sites to stick to the law.

So just how do some the poker room still accept USA players? Many the poker room make stance that as they are licensed and regulated in countries away from United States and they do not need to abide by the UIGEA. For this reason they still accept existing and new USA poker players. This is a very "grey" area of the law but hopefully inside near future we will see full regulating on-line poker within the United States. Some states have passed bills allowing on-line poker inside their state borders. With such progress we hope to see poker regulated at a national level soon.