Legal Online Poker Sites in the US

The simple answer is: Yes, online poker is legal.

Online poker has experienced a roller coaster ride since the first online poker hands were dealt in the late 1990s. Its biggest setback was in 2011, but since then, the industry been steadily rising again, albeit at a slower pace and with a different structure than in the past.

Several states have legalized online poker for people within their boundaries: Nevada, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, West Virginia, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Michigan. West Virginia, Connecticut, and Rhode Island have yet to issue online poker licenses to operators who are ready to prepare sites for launch.

Many states have at least discussed online poker, some have introduced legislation, but few have actually legalized online poker. There are several bills pending in 2024 and more likely prepared for introduction in 2025.

In 2006, the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act passed in the United States, making it illegal for U.S. banks process financial transactions for online gaming sites. Some sites left the US market, while others stayed. Then, in 2011, the Department of Justice seized the domains of the remaining major poker sites – PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker, UltimateBet, and Absolute Poker – on charges that included bank fraud and money laundering.

After that, the game pretty much vanished from the United States until the DOJ’s Office of Legal Counsel issued an official memo declaring the Wire Act applicable only to sports betting. This eased the worries of states that wanted to license igaming and paved the way for Nevada to open up the first state-regulated poker site. New Jersey and Delaware followed. It took several years after that for more states to do the same, as Pennsylvania didn’t launch online poker until 2019.

The Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act

The Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, or UIGEA, passed Congress in September 2006, and President George W. Bush signed it into law two weeks later. This made it illegal for banks to process payments for unlawful gambling sites. It did not define what that was exactly, and as a result of the law’s ambiguity, most publicly-traded sites like 888poker and partypoker left the US market after the UIGEA came to life. Only when states legalized online poker on their own did those companies return to the United States.

Why Isn’t There a Federal Online Poker Bill?

While there have been many attempts to pass a federal bill for legal online poker, Congress has decided to leave the issue to the individual states. The 2011 DOJ memo regarding the Wire Act solidified that right of the states to handle igaming as they choose, without worry of violating the Wire Act that focuses on sports betting.

State governments have considered online poker and casino games, but many have been more inclined to focus on sports betting. The US Supreme Court’s 2018 decision to overturn the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992 (PASPA) allowed states to legalize sports betting within their state boundaries. While the Wire Act still prohibits sharing sports betting activities across state lines, more than half of American states have legalized the industry and launched betting sites. Even so, however, online poker was left out of most of those decisions.

The Wire Act

The Interstate Wire Act of 1961, or the Federal Wire Act, essentially prohibits the operation of certain types of betting businesses using wire communications. Its original aim was to put a stop to interstate gambling and end organized crime’s interest in the business.

The law passed decades before the internet or online poker even existed, but since it governed the loosely-related act of betting or wagering using wire communications, many believed it also included online gambling. In September 2011, the DOJ’s Office of Legal Counsel released a formal legal opinion on the scope of the law. The opinion stated that interstate transmissions of wire communications that do not relate to a sporting event or contest fall outside of its reach.

In January 2019, the DOJ under a new administration reversed its opinion to say that the Wire Act, in fact, does relate to all online gambling. However, the DOJ could never explain the scope of that opinion to states, despite repeated official requests to do so. The state of New Hampshire took the lead, with its state lottery suing the DOJ for infringing upon its online lottery. The federal district court and appeals court both agreed that the 2019 DOJ opinion should be reversed.

When it came time for the DOJ to appeal the case to the US Supreme Court, a new presidential administration took over and stopped the appeal. The DOJ under Merrick Garland decided to let the federal court decision stand. It meant that the 2019 Wire Act memo was reversed, and the 2011 opinion was again the precedent.

Where can I play Poker in the United States?

No matter where you are in the United States, you can play online poker. Where and which sites you can play on vary state by state, though.

States that have passed online poker legislation license sites that operate within state lines. If you’re in Nevada, New Jersey, Delaware, Pennsylvania, or, Michigan, you have access to a few extra state-specific sites, like PokerStars, WSOP, and BetMGM. These sites have partnered with local land-based casinos to offer poker online.

The Multi-State Internet Gaming Agreement (MSIGA) is a contract that state governors can sign to allow sites to share their player pools across state lines. Delaware, Nevada, and New Jersey were the first states to sign, and Michigan has since signed as well. This has allowed WSOP to link its Nevada and New Jersey sites, and it will include Michigan as soon as that state’s gaming commission approves the technology. PokerStars connected its New Jersey and Michigan sites, and BetMGM is in the process of doing the same. West Virginia signed MSIGA as well, though it has yet to launch any online poker sites.

As more sites launch and more states legalize online poker, operators will link their sites, allowing for larger player pools.

But a few sites accept players from most of the 50 states:

BetOnline review
Bovada review
Americas Cardroom review
Ignition review
Black Chip Poker
SportsBetting.ag
Everygame Poker

Didn’t the U.S. Ban Online Poker in 2006?

No. 

Some sites did leave the United States market after the UIGEA passed. The 2006 law made it illegal for banks and financial institutions to process payments linked to online gambling. The law was a little ambiguous, though, and there was nothing explicitly banning poker.

Some big sites, like 888poker and Party Poker, left the United States, but other giants like PokerStars and Full Tilt stayed in the country. To process payouts for U.S. players, these sites had to disguise financial transactions as something other than poker and casino games. Then, in April 2011, the Department of Justice seized four sites’ domain names and indicted a few key people on charges of money laundering, bank fraud and more.

Absolute Poker and UltimateBet imploded, leaving their players with no access to funds. Full Tilt become insolvent and was declared a Ponzi scheme by the US government. PokerStars, on the other hand, paid the fines, bailed out Full Tilt and the other sites by paying most of their players, and is now back in the United States, currently in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Michigan.

New State Laws 

Nevada was the first state to legalize online poker for people located within its borders. That happened in 2011, though the first poker site didn’t launch until 2013. Shortly thereafter, Delaware and New Jersey launched their sites. Pennsylvania kicked off its new igaming industry in 2019, and Michigan followed two years later.

Connecticut, West Virginia, and Rhode Island legalized state-regulated online poker in the last few years, but no poker sites have applied for licenses in those states due to small population size.

The key to online poker growth in America is the Multi-State Internet Gaming Agreement, or MSIGA, so players can share tables across state lines. Nevada and Delaware did that in 2015, and New Jersey joined in 2018. Michigan signed the agreement in 2022, and PokerStars launched its NJ-MI combination in 2023. (As of May 2024, WSOP and BetMGM have yet to share their Michigan sites, and Pennsylvania has yet to even sign MSIGA).

Other states have come close to passing legal online poker bills: New York, Maryland, Kentucky, and Illinois. Even more have considered proposals, from Iowa to Hawaii, but most members of state legislatures do not fully understand online poker, multi-state liquidity, and the difference between online poker and casino games.

Photo by John-Mark Smith from Pexels

State-by-State Laws

At USPokerSites, we keep tabs on state legislation and laws. If you want to find more information on where each state is regarding poker legalization, just search and click below.

Alabama – Alaska – Arizona – Arkansas – California – Colorado – Connecticut – Delaware – Florida – Georgia – Hawaii – Idaho – Illinois – Indiana – Iowa – Kansas – Kentucky – Louisiana – Maine – Maryland – Massachusetts – Michigan – Minnesota – Mississippi – Missouri – Montana – Nebraska – Nevada – New Hampshire – New Jersey – New Mexico – New York – North Carolina – North Dakota – Ohio – Oklahoma – Oregon – Pennsylvania – Rhode Island – South Carolina – South Dakota – Tennessee – Texas – Utah – Vermont – Virginia – Washington – West Virginia – Wisconsin – Wyoming