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The State of US Online Poker on Ninth Anniversary of Black Friday

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In case you’ve forgotten, today marks the 9 year anniversary of poker’s Black Friday in America. On April 15, 2011, the DOJ indicted the three major online poker sites in the world along with Isai Scheinberg and various others in what effectively shut down online poker in the United States at the time.

Since then, there has been some progress made towards brining online poker to the US, but that progress has been slow. Today, we take a look at the current state of online poker in the US on the 9th anniversary of Black Friday.

Online Poker Legal In Six States – For Now

Most of us know about the DOJ memo in 2011 that opened the door to state-level online gambling legalization. However, during the nine years that have followed, only six states have regulated online poker. Only four of those states are presently offering online poker.

Nevada was the first state to go online, followed by New Jersey and Delaware. Nevada and Delaware then formed the first legal interstate online poker network. New Jersey then joined that network in 2019. The only other state presently operating legal online poker is Pennsylvania.

While this sounds great, keep in mind that for Nevada, Delaware, and Pennsylvania, there’s only one option for online poker. WSOP.com operates in Nevada, 888 operates in Delaware, and PokerStars is Pennsylvania’s sole online poker provider. New Jersey is the only state with more than one option for online poker.

Michigan and West Virginia have both regulated online poker but they are still in the process of drafting regulations. It may be 2021 before we see online poker live in either state.

Of course, the DOJ is looking to try and shut down legal online gambling or severely cripple it. They are trying to once again change the Wire Act to include online gambling. If they are successful in their legal challenge in courts, it could force some operators out of business and would end the interstate online poker network.

Unregulated Sites Operate – Play With Caution

Despite the DOJ crackdown in 2011, there are still some online poker rooms that operate in the United States. They are all in violation of the UIGEA and subject to prosecution from the DOJ. Americas Cardroom, Ignition Poker, and BetOnline Poker are all sites accepting US players.

Then there are sites like Global Poker who operate on a sweepstakes format. While they claim that their games are legal under US law, this matter has yet to be tested. They operate in a legal gray area such as skill-based gaming in some states.

While the DOJ doesn’t prosecute players from gambling at unregulated sites, you are still taking a risk by playing at the sites. There are no guarantees that your funds are protected and if the sites were to shut down, you’d have few legal recourses, if any.

Don’t Expect a Solution from the Government

Back in 2011, many people started calling for Congress to step up and do something about online gambling. Some of those people are STILL making that call, despite the pleas falling on deaf ears.

If anything, Congress has worked against the poker industry. Congress has introduced bills on multiple occasions to try and tighten up the Wire Act language that would effectively cripple online gambling. During the last 9 years, there has yet to be a legitimate bill on online gambling to move out of a single committee.

There has been the occasional Presidential candidate, the latest being Andrew Yang, that claims to support online poker. However, these candidates never have a legitimate shot at winning a nomination. Otherwise, we’ve yet to see any serious talk about a Congressional solution to online gambling.

I’ve stated from the beginning that a Congressional solution was unlikely. For now, the best hope for online gambling will be at the state level. However, most are not happy with the slow progress. Online poker is not like sports betting, which has exploded in the last couple of years. Odds are that ten years from now, we might have 10 to 15 states offering legal online poker, but don’t expect much more than that.

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