The new opinion, published in late 2011, stated that the Wire Act only applied to sports betting. Though passed in 1961, the Wire Act had been used by the US government to justify (rightly or wrongly) that all forms of Internet gambling are illegal. The UIGEA is still the law of the land today, but states got a green light to offer poker and casino gambling on the intrastate level when the US Department of Justice reversed their longstanding decision on the 1961 Wire Act in December 2011. Banks that processed payments relating to online gambling could also be prosecuted. As I mentioned above, the law had no affect on the legality of playing online as an individual, but it did criminalize offering online gambling services to US citizens.Īfter the bill was passed, foreign companies and offshore gambling operators faced federal prosecution for offering gambling sites to American citizens. If online poker is legal to play, why was the passage of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Prohibition Act (UIGEA) so significant?Ĭongress passed the UIGEA in 2006, and it was signed into law by then President George W. It’s always good to know your local laws and keep an eye on the news regarding online poker, but for the most part, players have nothing to worry about from a legal perspective when it comes to playing online poker. Players in those states will have no issues playing on regulated sites in these states, but more on this later. Please see the referenced article for a complete article on safety and more here about getting scammed in poker.Ĭurrently, online poker is legal and regulated in New Jersey, Delaware, Nevada, and Pennsylvania. So yes, it is safe to play poker from the US. Even though these laws are on the books, no one is being arrested or prosecuted. Even in Washington state, there have been zero online poker arrests. With that said, no one has ever been prosecuted on the national or state level for playing online poker. States that have laws against individual gamblers, like Utah and Louisiana, also criminalize online poker by default. Citizens can even be prosecuted for simply having online poker software on their computers. Most states don’t have laws against online gambling, but in some states, such as Washington state, online gambling is a felony offense. It can get a little tricky on the state level. It’s certainly not illegal federally, despite many misleading statements over the years from government officials and those in favor of online gambling prohibition. The short answer is yes, online poker is legal in the United States on the individual level. This is probably the question most commonly asked by new players. Is playing online poker legal in the United States?

Playing online poker us illegal