Is Online Poker Legal
De CidesaWiki
The short answer:
Online poker players have absolutely nothing to concern yourself with. The only time you can find struggling with internet poker in the USA would be if you actually owned a texas holdem site where players can start to play legitimate money.
The long answer
Online poker resides in a very legal grey area in the United States. There are no federal laws that specifically outlaw the adventure. However, some politicians have tried to apply the wire act to internet poker. There has been much debate over poker online recently but thus far, the authority to play poker on the net has withstood test.
Online poker is a huge possibility for US citizens because the late 1990s. Some players have played for years and years online and there exists yet to be a clear case of a person being charged with playing poker on the web. The law is way too vague to really make it a good case for any player being charged with a criminal offence.
Where you can find in danger with poker online is should you actually started an poker online site where players could play online legitimate money. In that case, you can get in most types of trouble. The states like their monopolies on gaming so you can rest assured they'll prosecute you in the event you try to begin an online poker site or hold an underground poker game.
Although some states (particularly Washington State) have laws on the books against internet poker, no player has yet been involved in an offence for playing poker online. Existing laws are simply too vague and poker is way too popular because there being a realistic possibility of anyone actually getting in trouble for playing poker for the computer. Additionally, public opinion is overwhelmingly and only online poker so even most overzealous DA would think carefully before you take action against an internet poker player.
The UIGEA
The UIGEA, or Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, was signed into law in 2006. This act doesn't make poker online or online gambling illegal. This act instead targets banks and banking institutions, demanding that they can identify poker and gambling transactions and block them.
To date, banks experienced extreme difficulty enforcing this act. Billions of transactions come about daily in the US and banks not have the resources to recognize individual transactions. In late 2009, the implementation with the UIGEA was delayed for 6 months to allow for more debate and to give banks more hours to comply with legislation.
So far, the UIGEA have proven to become an impotent piece of legislation. The only effect the UIGEA has had is sometimes charge card transactions to poker sites are blocked. In those cases, players simply go with a different deposit method and carry on as normal.
So what's the final word?
Note that I'm not really a lawyer which doesn't constitute legal services but I can advise you that you do not have anything to think about with internet poker. US citizens have a directly to do what they need making use of their own cash in their particular homes. It's perfectly legal to experience poker qq inside a casino setting so it will be tough to justify it being illegal to learn online at home.
If you want to experience internet poker, go for it. I've played internet poker for decades and thus have millions of other poker players. As long as you don't actually own an online poker site, you may be fine.