There have been two major periods of real uncertainty regarding Americans and online poker (and online gambling in a general sense as well). The first period was in 2006 just after the passing of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act. People were very worried about what this act would do for their online gambling activities since many of them were incorrectly convinced into believing that the UIGEA was actually a ban on online gambling.

The truth of the matter is that the UIGEA is not a ban on online gambling because such a ban would never have been able to pass through congress. Instead, the UIGEA was a method utilized by politicians that saw the banning of transfer payments from payment processors to online gambling websites. Such a move was intended as a way to get around the ban on online gambling by instead attacking the problem indirectly by trying to prevent Americans from funding their online poker and online gambling accounts. This was something that caused a number of online poker sites (most notably Party Poker) to exit the US market and since American players in many places had problems making their payments online, the US market became starved for online poker opportunities.

Eventually, people got over that fear because new payment processors emerged that stood up to the government policy on this issue and a number of credit card companies started coming up with ways to get around it. The legality of online poker in the United States was not challenged except on the state level for some time, but over the past few months the Bush Administration has been interested in cracking down on online gambling which has led to the second period of uncertainty regarding the legality or lack of legality for online gambling.

This history brings us to today and the fact that most people are so confused by what has been happening in Washington that they have no idea what is going on. Well, assuming that the Obama Administration does not continue the policies of the Bush Administration (considering the monetary and personnel costs, there is no reason to believe they will at this point in time), online gambling within the United States will really become a matter for the state. Federal online gambling bans within the US will be a thing of the past in theory and therefore you will need to check with the authorities within your particular region as to where online poker and online gambling is legal.

In essence therefore, the legality of online poker in the United States really depends on where you live. There are going to be some states such as New York, New Jersey, Nevada and others that have banned online gambling and there are going to be some that will embrace it. In the end, those policies themselves might change as well which is why you need to consult your local authorities for that answer.

Visit the Poker Blog for all the latest Poker News and articles related to online poker.

This entry was posted on Monday, July 27th, 2009 at 9:36 pm and is filed under Gambling. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.