The Lowdown on the (Alleged) US Online Poker Ban
By now it has become common knowledge that many of the most popular online poker rooms no longer accept US players. This has led many American online poker players to conclude that it is illegal for them to play poker at an online casino. This is not the case.
The law in question – the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) – was signed into law in 2006, buried inside the Safe Port Act with the stated intention of increasing port security post-9/11. Since then, there has been much speculation, and even more confusion, about what exactly this act does and doesn’t mean. Let’s clear all that up here and now.
The UIGEA targets gambling businesses, not players themselves. It makes it illegal for internet businesses to accept electronic deposits from US players for the purposes of online gambing. The act also directs the Federal Reserve to impose new regulations forbidding US financial institutions from facilitating transactions to gambling sites (but – interestingly enough – not from gambling sites).
The act does not, however, prohibit transactions by check. So any gaming site only accepting checks as deposit methods from US players may be exempt from prosecution under the act. Electronic checks are also successfully finding their way through a loophole in the act.
The act does not make it illegal to gamble online and it does not refer specifically to poker in any explicit way.
Though this law has scared off many poker sites from accepting US players, numerous poker sites still permit US players to sit in at their tables, including PokerStars and FullTiltPoker.