Is online poker still illegal in USA?

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RickAversion

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What is the deal with online poker sites in the USA?
Black Friday shut down all the sites.
So, when did it become legal again?

And not all states are allowed.
So, it's legal in some states, but still illegal in other states?

What's the current legality???
 
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tazer

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It is not technically illegal, it's more frowned upon. Certain state governments have decided to ban it which is why it's not accessible within those states. The whole deal with it is that the government is trying to "protect" the citizens from any fraud or anything that the people running the sites could do. Which is what happened with pokerstars and FullTilt. They were laundering money into the US through the site which is why the DOJ shut them down for so long. As long as the sites aren't doing anything sketchy behind the scenes then it's within the grey area. That's the way I have interpreted it.
 
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RickAversion

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So, in the banned states, can people access international sites?
 
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terryg642

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online poker is a class 3 felony in Washington state and a misdemeanor in Utah and you can some how play on bet on line in Washington(who would want to)and ACR In Utah.Although, it's not explicitly illegal some states(just my opinion) could combine federal law and state law to bring a case against you.The odds of this happening are unlikely, being it's never been done before,and if you were the first, the PPA would probably fund your defense.
 
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dmorris68

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Outside of perhaps the aforementioned very few states that have specific anti-OLP legislation on their books, playing OLP is not illegal in the US. There is no known precedent of any OLP player ever being prosecuted at a federal level.
 
pcgnome

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Isn't there still a way for a US citizen to play on poker stars? I know of at least one prominent poker player that does this while still living in the US. (Not going to mention anybody's name though.)
 
dmorris68

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Isn't there still a way for a US citizen to play on poker stars? I know of at least one prominent poker player that does this while still living in the US. (Not going to mention anybody's name though.)

Not for real money, no. And it's not something any "prominent" player would openly do, because PS is extremely strict on this matter. No exceptions. If they catch anyone playing from the US, even if they're based in another country, they're quick to suspend or seize those accounts. Former US players that are still openly playing on PS have setup residences outside the US in order to continue playing.
 
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RickAversion

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Why is PokerStars illegal for ALL Americans, yet online poker is legal in most states?
 
suit2please

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Why is PokerStars illegal for ALL Americans, yet online poker is legal in most states?

Pokerstars is not illegal, but pokerstars does not allow US residents to play because of agreements with the DOJ. As already mentioned it is only illegal to play online poker in a few states.

As for US Federal Law it is not and has never been illegal to play online poker.
 
dmorris68

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Why is PokerStars illegal for ALL Americans, yet online poker is legal in most states?

What?? There is no difference between PokerStars and any other OLP site when it comes to the US legal situation. No idea where you got that from.
 
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poltax

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there working on it
the try to get a deal that the can offer the site again I hear in 2014
good luck
 
punctual

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The only way for US players to currently play on PokerStars for real money is:

Home Games

So there are some people out there who offer home games on PokerStars with real money prizes. These are allowed because no rake is being collected by pokerstars. I have never participated in these kinds of games but I have heard that payouts are often in the form of paypal and/or Amazon Gift Cards.

So while you are not allowed to play the real money games on PS per say, you can play for real money on pokerstars through home games...
 
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