Is it Safe to Play Online Poker from the US

A question new online poker players often ask is, “is it safe to play online poker from the US?” The answer, or perhaps the question, is twofold. If you’re worried about getting cheated by players, as long as you’re playing at a major US poker site and keep your network and password secure, this is unlikely to be an issue. We’ve covered this aspect of poker security on our page about cheating in online poker. The second aspect of this question is whether or not companies are honest, regulated, and financially secure and if your deposits are safe. We’ll address that aspect of the question in this article.
 
 
PokerStars.com is the safest US friendly site
 
 
In this article we’ll mention some topics that might scare you. We want to tell you upfront there is no shortage of safe online poker sites in the US. One example of a US poker site that falls under this category is PokerStars.com. Their company, while not on the US side, is one of only a few companies to hold gambling licenses in Italy and France – very few online poker sites are licensed by either, PokerStars is by both. This opens them up to strict auditing and full disclosure from major European countries. Add this to the fact that they are the largest poker site in the world, with a near 2.5 to 1 margin on their closest competitor and that they have a dominating international presence hosing live tournaments all over North America, South America, Europe and Asia and even have their own live card room in Macau China, and you’ll see PokerStars.com is likely one of the safest online poker sites to play at. They are a multi billion dollar private company licensed on the US side of things by the Isle of Man, a British Crown dependency. Also PokerStars.com keeps players funds in segregated accounts to ensure players deposits are never used for operating costs. If you’re highly concerned about security, we recommend you play your online poker at PokerStars.com.
 
 
Are Players Funds at Risk When Poker Sites Go Out of Business?
 
While we’d love to be able to tell you no US poker site’s failure has ever resulted in the loss of players funds, but that would be a lie. One of the first online poker sites ever to launch was Dutch Boyd’s PokerSpot.com which failed miserably. The Boyd family and their partners as early players on the online poker scene didn’t have the experience required to manage risks associated with credit card fraud. At the time PokerSpot.com was near bankrupt the company had nearly $600K worth of virtual chips in play that they had never actually been paid on. Most of these were the result of deposits made with stolen credit cards, or chargebacks. With these fraudulent chips won and circulated by legitimate poker players whose accounts were in good standing, this was a tough situation for PokerSpot.com, as there was no way to say some chips were valid and others were not. Needless to say PokerSpot was the first online poker site that closed where players lost their balances.
 
While many online poker sites have closed since PokerSpot.com first closed their virtual doors, 75+% of these sites did so without loss to players funds. A couple that come to mind that didn’t were PokesPoker.com, an Ongame networked skin associated with FutureBet, and a small independent site called JetSet Poker. In all of these cases, including PokerSpot.com, there were warning signs that suggested it might not be 100% safe to play on these sites. Continue reading…
 
Which Poker Sites are Safe to Play at?
 
We’ll, if you’re not simply skimming this article, you’ll have already read we have high regard for PokerStars.com which in our opinion is the safest site for US players. They are not the only safe site however. For example, we also consider Bodog.com to be safe even though they don’t have quite the presence or licensing PokerStars.com has. The reason we consider them safe is because they’ve been in business since 1994, have no missed payout complaints and were founded by one of the most assessable to the media operators in the history of gambling, Calvin Ayre. Bodog has soft games and a great reputation. We personally consider them one of the best and safest online poker sites to play at.
 
There are other sites that are likely safe, but pose some risk. For example, the Everleaf Network (Poker4ever, Minted Poker, etc.) and the Merge Poker Network (Carbon Poker, Poker Nordica, Aced Poker, etc.) are two networks with very slow payout speeds and complaints about customer support. Each has been in business since 2005 (not nearly as long as Bodog or PokerStars) and it seems they do eventually pay players, but their slow payouts and moderately low player volume keep them on our medium risk radar. In plain English: while these sites might be safe to play at from the US, they are near certainly not as safe as PokerStars.com or Bodog.com.
 
When choosing a US poker site, always look to see how long that site has been in business, and then google search or search popular gambling forums to see player’s feedback about that poker site. While it is true some players have lost funds due to sites closing, in all cases we know of, there were clear warning signs that these sites might not have been safe. So long as you’re proactive in researching sites before you deposit, you should find it safe to play online poker from the US.
 
If you have any doubts about which online poker site is safe, we encourage you to stick to our recommended site PokerStars.com.