Safest US Accepted Poker Sites
In July 2010, HR2267 passed the US House Representatives Financial Services Committee by a 41-22 vote. When this or a similar bill eventually passes the full House, the Senate, and is signed into law by the President, fully legal online poker, licensed and regulated in the US, will be right around the corner. What this likely means is that it won’t be long before large companies get in on the action. Perhaps in 2011 or 2012 we might have Google Poker, Harrah’s Poker, Bellagio Poker, or who knows maybe even Wal-Mart or George Bush Poker available. Also, we’ll almost certainly see big name existing sites who never operated in the US such as Betfair, Ladbrokes, and Everest Poker open their virtual doors for the first time to the US, each branding one of the first issued US online gambling licenses. In the meantime, the options for US players are limited to sites operating in small countries or Indian reserves not subject to heavy regulation or independent auditing.
Are US Poker Sites Safe to Play at?
If you’re wondering “are US poker sites safe to play at?”, the answer to that question is that most are relatively safe. However, until such time the US makes it legal for companies to operate here, we’re not going to have online poker that is as safe as it cold be. For example, some of the more popular US poker sites such as Absolute Poker and Ultimate Bet (UB) are for all intents and purposes a little too closely associated with the gambling commission that regulates them. Each of these companies mentioned are owned by Tokwiro Enterprises, which is a private company solely owned by Joseph Tokwiro Norton and is headquartered in Kahnawake Mohawk Territory. This territory is a small (48.05 square kilometers) sovereign Indian reservation on the south shore of the St. Lawrence River in Quebec with a population of about 8,000. The gambling commission which regulates these two sites is also in the Kahnawake Mohawk Territory and is called the Kahnawake Gaming Commission. The real conflict is that Joe Norton, the sole man behind Ultimate Bet and Absolute Poker, was the highest ranking government official in this small 8,000 population reservation from 1980-2004, serving as the Grand Chief. His retirement coincides with the ownership change of Absolute Poker and Ultimate Bet making it plausible he stepped down from this prominent role as leader of the nation to become the owner of these sites. His own people and his own government agency more or less are the only people and agencies he is accountable to regarding his online poker sites.
Don’t get us wrong though, Joe Norton is likely a smart business man and if he could he’d likely seek licensing in a major country such as the US (which doesn’t offer them yet) or the UK, which offers licenses but not the sites that accept US players. Norton simply has his poker site licensed where the majority of poker sites servicing the US are licensed, his own local Kahnawake Mohawk Territory.
While many poker sites operating under licensed issued by the Kahnawake Gaming Commission are likely safe and have great reputations, personally because we don’t have faith in this gambling commission, we can’t include any of these sites on our list of “safest US poker sites”. So which ones can we include? We’ll cover that below.
Top 3 Safest Online Poker Sites for US Players
#3 DoylesRoom.com – Doyles Room is the online poker home to living poker legend Doyle Brunson. Doyle is one the most famous poker players of all time, a member of Harrah’s Poker Hall of Fame (started by Binions) and the World Poker Tour Walk of Fame. His rolls as a player, trainer, poker author, and now gambling site spokesperson has helped take poker to new heights. While this was once a game played by gritty middle-aged men, it’s now become a national pastime thanks to guys like Doyle Brunson who paved the way. Those who’ve known the man for years can tell you, he’s an old school stand-up guy, he’s well backed financially, and he’s certainly not going to be behind any site that’s not safe for poker players. Add this to the fact that Doyles Room is licensed in Curaçao, a territory of the Dutch Netherlands Antilles known for its strong gambling commission, and this is the reason we consider Doyles Room one of the safest US poker sites.
#2 Full Tilt Poker – Full Tilt is the second largest online poker site on the net and is licensed by the Alderney Gambling Control Commission (gamblingcontrol.org). The primary reasons this license is a huge plus: Alderney is a British Crown dependency, which means Full Tilt is legally accessible, and the United Kingdom recognizes Alderney licenses. In the UK only companies with a UK gambling license, or a license by one of the few commissions they’ve white-listed (such as Alderney), can advertise freely to UK residents. Considering Full Tilt Poker is the second largest online poker site, has been operating for over six years with no known payout complaints, and is backed and endorsed by many of the biggest names in poker, we consider them one of the safest sites for US players.
#1 PokerStars.com – There are a plethora of reasons we consider PokerStars the absolute safest poker site for US players. For starters, they’ve been servicing US players since 2001, are the world’s largest online poker site by a near 2.5-to-1 margin, and have never had a missed payout complaint. On top of this PokerStars is heavily regulated, and has a dominating live presence. PokerStars US is licensed and regulated by the Isle of Man, a British Crown dependency, and their company also holds gambling licenses in both France and Italy, and operates a live poker room in Macau, China. PokerStars is perhaps the most legally accessible of all online poker sites servicing US players because of their dominate presence in major countries which license them. PokerStars is also the owner of several live poker tours including the European Poker Tour (EPT), Latin American Poker Tour (LAPT), Asia Pacific Poker Tour (APPT), Australia New Zealand Poker Tour (ANZPT), UK & Ireland Poker Tour (UKIPT), Italian Poker Tour (IPT) and the North American Poker Tour (NAPT).
If you’re looking for the safest place to play poker online, head to www.pokerstars.com.