Is Online Poker Legal in the USA? (2024) | Beasts of Poker (2024)

The legal status of US online poker is one of the most common topics that might confuse players. The US online poker scene seems to be changing monthly after the government attorneys announced that the Wire Act cannot be used for prohibiting states from making online poker available. State-regulated online poker withreal money pokergames such as cash games and tournaments is legally available in just a few states. Besides, many states are considering legalizing online gambling.

As of January 2021, you can access legal online poker in Nevada, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware. West Virginia and Michigan have passed laws that allow online gambling, including real money poker. However, state-regulated US poker sites aren’t yet available in these two states.

To clarify what sites are legal and regulated in different states, let’s quickly check whether online poker is legal in each state:

New Jersey is the largest online gambling market that’s being regulated in the US. Online poker was launched in late 2013 in the Garden State. There are seven regulated poker rooms across four poker networks that can be accessed by players in NJ.

The most remarkable poker platforms include WSOP/888 Poker Network, Borgata Poker Network, and PokerStars NJ. On most of these sites, new players can receive a free poker bonus upon registering.

From the US states with regulated online poker, Delaware is the smallest one. They have a shared poker player pool with Nevada and all three state casinos have their real money online games on a shared 888 Poker network.

The branded skins include Delaware Park, Dover Down, and Harrington Raceway. Unfortunately, these poker platforms don’t grant access to WSOP Online events for players in Delaware.

In March 2015, Delaware and Nevada were the first two states to agree on MSIGA. By this agreement, the player pools of 888Poker of Delaware and WSOP of Nevada were merged in a single poker network. This agreement increases the liquidity of cash game tables and tournaments with player pooling between the states.

New Jersey joined the MSIGA in late 2017 to become the third member of states with shared player liquidity. This made it possible for NJ poker players to test their poker skills in the 2018 World Series of Poker Online bracelet events.

PokerStars global player pool and platform are not available in the US. Instead, you can play on PokerStars NJ or PokerStars Pennsylvania. These state-regulated sites have separate player pools from the main player pool that can be accessed from most countries in the world but not the US. PokerStars has made an agreement with Eldorado Resorts Inc. with the intention to offer online poker in 11 other states in addition to New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

Many US players are waiting for large-scale online poker to be accessible across the states. This was possible before the so-called Black Friday of online poker that occurred on April 15, 2011. On that day, the United States Government seized the domain names of several big online poker sites. The seized sites included Full Tilt Poker, PokerStars, and Absolute Poker. Later in 2012, PokerStars purchased the assets of Full Tilt Poker and became the global market leader in online poker.

What if you wish to play poker legally with all the rest of the world on PokerStars as a US citizen? Your only viable option is to relocate to a jurisdiction where PokerStars is legally licensed. For many US poker professionals, moving to Canada was the only viable option after the events of Black Friday. Canada’s poker room selection is great since Canadian players have access to most major online poker sites.

We will likely see a lot of changes to the current state of the regulated internet poker market in the United States. Legislation of real money online gambling is re-considered in the states of New York, California, Illinois, and Michigan. States like California and New York are very attractive markets to internet gambling operators like poker sites and sports betting companies. Multi-state networks that can help expand the player base are viable solutions for running online poker sites or casinos in several potential states.

After the US Department of Justice declared that the Wire Act is not limited to sports gambling, it looks like a shared player pool between most of the states is an option in the distant future. On the other hand, there has been positive poker news regarding licensed operators. Many operators are applying foronline poker licensesin states that have passed legislation allowing online gambling. Due to this fact, rapid developments are possible in the gambling industry of the US.

Once enough states have committed themselves to public opinion on online gambling, many others are likely to follow suit. After all, the states are filling gaps in the budget & handing out licenses to online casino sites and poker rooms makes a lot of sense in this regard.