In July the US government came to a settlement with PokerStars, dismissing all civil complaints and ending all litigation between the government and the company. This day marked the end of an era for Online Poker in the US as most big operators were shut off the US market and for a long time, only small sites remained open for US players.

The founders of the sites were charged with bank fraud and violating gambling laws, namely tricking US banks into receiving money from online gambling and thus violating the UIGEA.

On April 15 th (the so-called “Black Friday” of Online Poker) the FBI temporarily shut down PokerStars, Full Tilt and Absolute Poker in the US, seizing multiple of their bank accounts. The Partypoker traffic plummeted after the UIGEA in 2006. (Please note that we currently don’t have accurate data for US-regulated operators.) Largest Online Poker Operators in the USīelow is a list of the average real money cash game traffic across international poker sites and networks operating in the US. While players face no legal risk when playing at any of the sites, those international operators do not offer the same legal security as US-regulated (or European-regulated) operators do. But most of the operators offer deposits and withdrawals with cryptocurrency which does not fall under the UIGEA. Technically those operators are not allowed to accept funds from American players per the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA). Those international poker sites operate in a legal gray area. Most of these operators hold a Curacao gaming license and have been offering online poker worldwide for many years. For players living in states that currently don’t offer US-regulated online poker, it is possible to play at various poker sites that are not operated in the United States, but in other countries.Īmong those operators are Ignition Poker, America’s Cardroom, CoinPoker and Juicy Stakes.

Us states online poker legality