United States Poker Sites
In the United States, the government heavily regulates online gaming and the federal government is very thoroughgoing when it comes to shutting down sites that do not comply with government regulations, but as long as the T&C’s of a cardroom say that you can register and play, there is not a single federal law that regulates simply playing poker. Offshore poker sites where the base of operation is not in the United States are legal for American players. Furthermore, more states are forming legislation allowing legalized online poker to be regulated.
Are you looking for the best US legal online poker sites or a real money poker app? If the answer is yes, then you came to the right place. This is one of our many online poker reviews where you can find more about the best online poker options.
Without further ado, keep reading to discover how to play the best online poker for money and how to form an online poker strategy. So, let’s get started!
Contents
Best Legal Online Poker Sites
- WSOP
- PartyPoker
- PokerStars
- Pala Poker
- 888poker
- Global Poker
Is online poker legal? It's not always the same as legal online casinos and legal online sportsbooks. All new players who decide to explore the vast universe of real money poker sites should know that federally, online poker sites are illegal. However, on the individual level, online poker is legal in some of the states.
Some websites such as Global Poker (which is a sweepstakes poker site) are allowed in 49 out of 50 US states. Only Washington does not allow it. At the moment of writing our online poker reviews, only four states offer legal online poker websites in the United States. These are the following: Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Nevada and Delaware.
For more information about some of the available sites, make sure to consult our Global Poker review.
US Legal Online Poker: State by State
Is online poker legal in your state? If the answer is no, keep in mind that the situation can change pretty quickly. Unsurprisingly, Nevada was the leader of regulated online poker. Once the ice was broken, the domino-effect followed.
One by one, many states tried or are still trying to pass the legislation. As you can see, some of them even succeeded. The last one to recently pass online poker is West Virginia, and we expect more legal US poker sites to be launched in the future.
When it comes to future predictions, we believe that chances are pretty good for some of the states to overcome all the legal obstacles and finally launch real money poker sites so their residents become able to play legal online poker.
Arizona, Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Ohio, New York are some of the states that’ll probably make some innovations when it comes to the possibilities of playing poker online. These are the states that have active supporters of online poker in the state senate.
What’s more, regulated real money poker sites in neighboring states can only have a positive effect on public opinion. Additionally, within the borders of the aforementioned states, you can find a considerable number of land-based casinos.
Many of them come with the best online poker rooms where you can play various variants of poker, including the most popular one - Texas Hold’em. In other words, these poker offline options make it easier to launch legal poker sites and eventually start to offer legal online poker.
States Where Legal Online Poker Seems Like a Distant Dream
From this point of view, Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Kentucky, Nebraska, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah are just some of the states where we can see a certain legislative hostility towards online gambling. Therefore, we don’t believe that we won’t be able to play Texas Hold’em online there for quite some time.
Sweepstakes Legal Online Poker - Play Poker Free No Matter Which State You’re In
As said before, Global Poker, a sweepstakes legal online poker site, can be accessed in all US states except for the state of Washington. This legal online poker platform was launched in 2106, and since then, many players use its services. The virtual currency gaming business model is what makes it unique.
Instead of playing for real money, players play poker free, using gold coins or sweeps cash. That’s why Global Poker often appears when players search for “play poker free” or “play poker online, free”.
To understand how sweepstakes poker works, let’s start with some poker basics and make sure to understand sweeps poker terminology clearly. There’s a difference between gold coins and sweeps cash, and there’s a reason for which “play poker online, free” is actually a bit of a misnomer here.
Gold Coins are the name for the virtual currency in Global Poker, and they are equivalent to what regular legal online poker sites usually call “play money”. In other words, you can’t cash them out, but you can use them to play Texas Hold’em online or participate in some of the available tournaments with other players. On the other hand, “$weeps cash” is a promotional, virtual currency that can be cashed out through PayPal.
To sum up, you can buy gold coins that don’t have any monetary value and can’t be cashed out. “$weeps cash” is obtained as free of charge once you buy Gold Coins. Because of this virtual currency online poker model, Global Poker is not quite considered an online gambling activity. Therefore, it’s allowed in almost all of the US.
Where Can I Play Legal Online Poker in the US?
Pennsylvania is the last state where online poker had become legal when PokerStars was launched there at the end of 2019. Right now that’s also the only available option to play online poker for money in Pennsylvania.
If we don’t count Global Poker, which can be accessed in 49 states, all the other legal online poker sites come with pretty restricted access. For example, Pala Poker and PartyPoker are only available in the state of New Jersey.
However, they are not the only NJ poker sites one can access. WSOP, America's top legal online poker site, is available in the Garden State, and it’s also accessible to all Nevada online poker fans as well. Likewise, PokerStars NJ, available both independently and within the FOX Bet app
Claim the WSOP promo code in New Jersey and Nevada to get a $1,000 signup bonus!Where Can I Play Poker Live?
Most of the land-based casinos across different states include special poker rooms where you can play live poker. Playing Texas Hold’em online is definitely the most popular option. After all, poker is an American thing, so it’s no wonder to see it available in the vast majority of mortar and bricks casinos.
In fact, instead of listing all the states where you can sit back, relax and try out your luck with live poker, it’s better to list all those where you can’t play poker online. It’ll be easier to remember this list:
- Alaska
- Georgia
- Hawaii
- New Hampshire
- Tennessee
- Texas
- Utah
We must add that in Texas, private poker clubs aren’t forbidden. As long as no house makes a profit from the game, poker can be played in private places for fun.
US Online Poker Basics
When talking about the current status of legal US poker sites, there are two especially important laws that you should be aware of. Let’s take a look at these two federal laws that govern online poker in the country.
The Wire Act
The first one is the Interstate Wire Act of 1961, often called the Federal Wire Act. As you can see, it passed long before online poker or even the internet existed. However, it prohibits certain types of betting businesses to operate via wired communications.
In 2011, the US Department of Justice concluded that the scope of the act was limited to sporting events. Therefore, states, where online poker is now regulated, found that the bill didn’t apply to online poker nor other forms of gambling.
However, in 2019, the US Department of Justice reversed its opinion. The new opinion concludes that the Wire Act applies to all types of online gambling.
The UIGEA
The other relevant law is the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) from 2006. This law made it illegal for US banks to proceed with transactions for offshore gambling companies. That’s how they were pushed out of the market.
History of US Legal Online Poker
Online casinos started to appear back in 1994. They were usually situated in Antigua or the Isle of Man. However, the vast majority of their users were US-based customers. Two years later, in 1996, online gambling was also brought to the North American market soil.
The Kahnawake Gaming Commission was established just outside Montreal. They started issuing licenses, and pretty soon, it was possible to find hundreds of new online gambling websites.
Once again, two years later and again in Canada, the first-ever poker online website saw the light of day. Planet Poker was the favorite source of fun to thousands of Americans who were spending endless hours playing the first real-money online Texas Hold’em.
Over the next few years, thanks to technological advances, better online poker software was developed, while the number of websites kept increasing. These online poker operators also started to offer various tournaments and cash games and got a solid fan base all over the world.
The Industry Kept Growing & Then It Collapsed
Even though there were different interpretations of the law, especially of the famous Wire Act, the newly developed industry kept growing.
The year 2003 is especially important in the evolution of online poker. Using an account from Tennessee, Chris Moneymaker won the World Series of Poker after participating in the event through an online satellite. In Chris Moneymaker's case, we guess, it's okay to say that name determines destiny.
This online poker strategy was live-streamed on ESPN. Suddenly, the whole nation knew about Chris's story. A good number of Americans were hoping to be the next. All of a sudden, poker was everywhere on TV. Live games were followed carefully, and commercial breaks had one purpose: promoting online poker for money and playing Texas Hold 'em online.
The great number of promoted sites were, in fact, offshore online poker sites. A lot of them disappeared from American browsers after Congress passed the above-mentioned UIGEA in 2006.
However, even though a lot of sites weren't accessible anymore, online poker couldn't be erased that easily. Some of the offshore gambling companies had found a way around the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006, but not for long.
In 2011, some of the largest online poker operators, including PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker, and Absolute Poker/Ultimate Bet, were accused of violating UIGEA and money laundering. These websites were definitely excluded from the significant US online poker market, which seemed to come to an end at the time.
Legal Online Poker Sites Rise Again
Also in 2011, the DOJ released a legal opinion that the Federal Wire act exclusively applied only to one form of gambling: sports betting. A few states saw this as a possibility, paving the way to regulated online casinos and legal US poker sites.
In 2012, Delaware was the first state that managed to do just that. Then, in December 2013, Nevada followed the example of passing online poker legislation. A week later, the Garden State became the third to legalize online gambling, and plans for NJ poker sites were made.
The first-ever regulated US online poker site was launched in Nevada in April 2013. Delaware and NJ poker sites went live that same year, a few months later. In 2017, Pennsylvania became the fourth state to join this group. West Virginia is the fifth state where online poker was regulated in 2019. Probably, more states will try to do the same thing in the near future.
Which State is Next?
Is online poker legal in California or New York? This is one of the frequently asked questions that people search for in the USA. They also search for different terms of poker terminology that sound unfamiliar to them. However, that’s another question that we could discuss on some other occasion.
Let’s get back to our question of legal online poker sites and the possible new markets in the USA. Michigan has made significant efforts to legalize online gambling, particularly online poker, while California, New York, and Massachusetts also seem to be moving in the right direction.
Real Money Poker App: How to Find the Best Poker App
It doesn’t matter if you are a Pennsylvania online poker fan or a regular visitor of NJ poker sites, the good news is that you can play poker whenever you want, anywhere within the borders of one or the other state.
Many of the best online poker websites have launched a dedicated real money poker app that you can easily download and install on your device. The best poker apps are available for both iOS and Android operating systems.
In order to find the best poker app, make sure you visit one of the websites we listed at the beginning of our review.
Also, before you replace your poker offline adventure with the one that can be found on the internet, make sure to read some of the online poker reviews and get to know the poker terminology used by the players worldwide. After a brief introduction to the poker basics, it’s time to create your own online poker strategy and join one of the legal online poker communities!
Quick Introduction to Online Poker in the USA
The perception of United States poker sites is undergoing a dramatic change. Online poker sites for players in the States which were once considered to be ‘Ponzi schemes’ run by criminals for the pleasure of degenerates are now becoming licensed, regulated and accepted as a welcome income stream for both state and federal government.
As the pace of these changes accelerate, players are often left in the dark about whether it is legal or not to play Internet poker in the United States – with the Statute Books of many States containing laws which could be interpreted as both encouraging online poker in the US while at the same classifying it as a misdemeanor.
Our site intends to bring some clarity to the situation and advise players not only what poker web sites in the United States are available for them to play on, but where the best poker bonuses exist to maximize the potential for turning playing poker online in the US into a profitable experience.
Let´s Start with the Best US Friendly Poker Sites in 2021
The following is a list of US poker sites that accept players who reside in jurisdictions which “allow” online poker in the US. By “allow” we mean:-
- States which welcome online poker in the US with open arms – whether or not laws have yet been passed regulating online poker sites for players in the States
- States in which Internet poker in the United States is tolerated because the jurisdiction is looking to regulate it sometime in the future (and tax it!),
- And States where playing on poker sites in the United States is considered a misdemeanor, but the penalties are so small that law enforcement officers have something better to do.
There are exceptions to the above criteria (indicated as necessary) and for a full list of where Internet poker in the United States is “allowed”, please refer to our list at the bottom of the page.
Americas Cardroom
100% Match Bonus up to $1,000
This patriotically-named web site is the largest individual poker room in the Winning Poker Network – the network considered the quickest for cashouts after a win. Although relatively small compared to some of the bigger United States poker sites listed below, Americas Cardroom offers one of the easiest online poker bonuses to clear among all the online poker sites for players in the States (except for Kentucky, Maryland or Washington).
BetOnline
25% bonus on Sportsbook Deposits
Similar to SportsBetting above, BetOnline offers the best bonuses to its sports betting, racebook and casino clients (the site also has a mobile app for its sports betting clients) but there is plenty of value to be had against the weak level of sports bettors that drift onto the real money poker tables after a win and the online poker tournaments which have guaranteed prize pools. Again, everybody is welcomed to play Internet poker in the United States at BetOnline.
SportsBetting Poker
25% bonus on Sportsbook Deposits
United States Legal Online Poker Sites
SportsBetting is predominantly a sports betting and racebook site which offers Internet poker in the United States as a side-attraction. Consequently the standard of play is not spectacularly good and (despite some valuable guaranteed prize poker tournaments) the level of traffic at the poker tables is nothing to write home about. There are no restrictions on where players can originate from within the States to take advantage of this easy site.
The Future of Internet Poker in the United States
The situation regarding at which US poker sites you can play poker online is changing quickly, and you can keep up to date with the changes by bookmarking unitedStatesPokerSites.com and returning frequently. My name is Curt, and you can contact me if you have any questions. Be sure to also check out my poker blog here with the latest poker news and promotions!
The Legality of US Facing Poker Sites
The legality of United States poker sites is sometimes questioned after the introduction of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (‘UIEGA’ 2006) and ‘Black Friday’ (April 2011) – the date on which PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker were closed down. However, after the Department of Justice acknowledged that online poker in the US was not in contravention of the 1961 Wire Act, PokerStars took a financial slap on the wrist and acquired all the assets of Full Tilt Poker in return.
Best United States Poker Sites
PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker and any other poker web sites in the United States that continued to provide a service after UIEGA have been labeled ‘bad actors’ and barred from several States who are regulating online poker in the US. However, this is more due to the pressure of brick and mortar casinos that want to be the leading players when Internet poker in the United States is properly licensed and has nothing to do with any federal law making online poker sites for players in the States illegal.
Is it Legal To Play Online Poker If You Are From the US?
Legal Poker Sites Usa
Although no federal law exists which determines the legality of United States poker sites, several States have taken it upon themselves to introduce legislation which either approves selected poker web sites in the United States or makes playing online poker in the US illegal.
You can see which poker sites accept players from your state to play online poker for real money, at this awesome page here at pokerSites.us. Our list below provides an overview of where Internet poker in the United States is legal, where it is “allowed” (please see our definition above for what constitutes “allowed”) and were you may get more than your wrists slapped for playing poker online.
| Get a Game Here | Get it Quietly | Don´t Get It at All |
| Arizona | Alaska | Alabama |
| California | Arkansas | Florida |
| Connecticut | Colorado* | Hawaii |
| Delaware | Georgia | Oregon |
| Idaho | Illinois | South Carolina |
| Iowa | Indiana | Tennessee |
| Kansas | Kentucky | Utah |
| Maine | Louisiana | Washington |
| Massachusetts | Maryland | |
| Michigan | Mississippi | |
| Minnesota | Montana | |
| Missouri | Nebraska | |
| Nevada | New York | |
| New Hampshire | Texas | |
| New Jersey | Wisconsin | |
| New Mexico | Wyoming | |
| North Carolina | ||
| North Dakota | ||
| Ohio | ||
| Oklahoma | ||
| Pennsylvania | ||
| Rhode Island | ||
| South Dakota | ||
| Vermont | ||
| Virginia | ||
| West Virginia | ||
| DC (naturally) |
(*) In Colorado, it is only an offense to play online poker in the US if you make a noise doing it. So going on tilt and causing a breach of the peace might find you on the wrong side of the law.
Footnote – In Pennsylvania, online poker in the US is still technically illegal, but the penalty for failing to declare your online winnings on your tax return is much higher!
Good luck at the tables!