1. Are Online Poker Sites Legal
2. Free Legal Poker Sites For Us Players

• by Anthony Cicali IIIMarch 8, 2021
• by Sean ChaffinMarch 3, 2021
• by StaffMarch 1, 2021

Legal Online Poker Sites in the US

Here’s a look at some of the best free poker sites & apps available. One major positive for Global Poker is that it offers players all across the U.S. And Canada a real opportunity to play 100%. Launched in 2004, Bovada Poker is a hugely popular poker site with US players. It actually closed for a year in 2016, but still manages to be the poker site with the heaviest US player traffic.

Where is online poker legal in the US?

The following six states have now officially signed legislation to offer legal US online poker:

1. New Jersey
2. Delaware
3. Nevada
4. Pennsylvania
5. Michigan
6. West Virginia (Not live yet)

Five currently have open and operating legal online poker sites. And there are some differences between each of the regulated online poker states.

• Nevada only permits online poker.
• New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Delaware also spread casino games banked by the house (More about Michigan online casinos, NJ online casinos,Pennsylvania online casinos).
• Nevada, New Jersey and Pennsylvania allow the state’s brick-and-mortar casinos to operate online sites. In Delaware, the state lottery is the sole operator.
• Nevada, New Jersey and Delaware have entered into an interstate online poker agreement. If you play in those three states you can compete against each other only on WSOP.com.

Where can I play online poker in the US right now?

NJ online poker

New Jersey is currently home to the most online poker sites. Those sites are spread across four distinct networks and operate through three different licensees. Here are your options:

New Jersey online poker sites

• PartyPoker NJ (Borgata Poker, BetMGM Poker)
• Pala Poker

WSOP NJ is the second biggest site after Borgata/partypoker. It used 888 software, but was a standalone room. 888 operated its own platform, but began to share player pools with WSOP.com in January 2015.

PokerStars NJ launched in New Jersey on March 21, 2016.

The site opened at around the same size of WSOP.com and Borgata. Since launch, PokerStars has been the top site in the Garden State for much of its tenure.

In April 2018, New Jersey joined the multi-state compact with Nevada and Delaware. The agreement allows the three states to share their player pools across state lines.

Background

The New Jersey legislature legalized online poker and casino games in the state in December 2012. After some back-and-forth between Gov. Chris Christie and the lawmakers, the governor finally signed the bill into law.

As a result, New Jersey online poker and casino games launched on November 21, 2013. Borgata and its partner Party Poker dominated the New Jersey online poker world at the time after launch.

Pennsylvania online poker

Pennsylvania became the fourth state to legalize and regulate online poker and online casino play in the U.S. when Governor Tom Wolf signed bill H 271 on Oct. 30, 2017.

Online poker was expected to launch by July of 2019. However, that date was pushed back until PokerStars officially launched on Nov. 4, 2019. It was the first online poker site in Pennsylvania.

The site is now fully operational with the excellent software, cash games, and tournaments that players have come to expect. PokerStars has promised much more for players in the state and received a nice reception from many in the state.

There are eight casino or operators attempting to launch online poker in Pennsylvania right now. One of them is MGM Resorts, which applied for a license as a qualified gaming entity through its Borgata property in New Jersey.

Pennsylvania casinos which have both applied for and been approved to offer online poker are:

• Mount Airy Casino (now live through its partnership with PokerStars)
• Harrah’s Philadelphia
• Hollywood Casino at Penn National Race Course
• Parx Casino
• Sands Bethlehem
• SugarHouse Casino
• Valley Forge Casino

Michigan online poker

In a nice twist to start off 2021, Michigan online poker went live on Jan. 29. So far just one real money online poker site, PokerStars, is online for cash games and tournaments but BetMGM Poker is expected to go live in February.

Included in the PokerStars lineup for Michigan are the ever-popular Spin & Go’s (not available in Pennsylvania), lots of weekly guaranteed tournaments, new player freerolls (free online tournaments for real money) and the standard $30 in free play bonus with a $20 deposit. You can also choose an up to $600 deposit bonus at 100% match.

The full PokerStars poker app and PokerStars’ highly popular Home Games feature, for playing online poker games with your friends, are both available in Michigan.

Stay tuned for an exclusive PokerStars Michigan promo code from USPoker right here.

Nevada online poker

Nevada was the first state to launch regulated online poker. In December 2011, the Nevada Gaming Control Board adopted regulations pertaining to Nevada online poker sites.

The regulations required affirmation through the Nevada legislature. Nevada lawmakers meet on a biennium. The state passed the regulations governing Nevada online poker in February 2013.

On April 30, 2013, Ultimate Poker launched as the first regulated online poker room in the US. The launch was flawed due to poor software and unproven geolocation services. Ultimate Poker attracted about 300 peak players and the same number of players participated in sit and gos and tournaments.

WSOP.com launched on September 17, 2013. WSOP.com enjoyed massive brand awareness and dominated the market within two months.

Ultimate Poker succumbed to the small intrastate poker player pool in Nevada. It left the Nevada market on November 17, 2014. This leaves onlyWSOP.com and Real Gaming in the Nevada online poker market.

On March 24, 2015, a liquidity sharing agreement between Delaware and Nevada went live. New Jersey joined the compact in April 2018. So, players from three states can now sit at the same table.

Technically, there is a second active poker site in Nevada. Real Gaming, backed by South Point Casino, launched in February 2014. However, the site never has gained more than 1 percent of the market at any time. Currently, its influence in the market is small enough that WSOP more or less enjoys a monopoly in the market.

Nevada online poker sites

Delaware online poker

Delaware was the second state to legalize and regulate online gambling. It was legalized through the state legislature in June 2013. Online casino games went live on October 31, 2013. The Delaware online poker network opened on November 8, 2013.

Delaware offers online poker and casino games through its state lottery. Interactive gaming is marketed through its three video lottery racinos.

888supplies the platform all three sites. The online poker room shares liquidity between all sites. Delaware and Nevada started sharing online poker player pools on March 24, 2015. New Jersey joined the pool in April 2018.

Delaware online poker sites

• Doverdowns.com
• Delawarepark.com
• Harringtonraceway.com

West Virginia online poker and casino

West Virginia joined the online gambling party on March 27, 2019. Gov. Jim Justice allowed H 2934, the West Virginia Lottery Interactive Wagering Act, to become law without his signature.

The law allows the five land-based casinos to apply for interactive licenses. Each license initially costs $250,000 and must be renewed for $100,000 every five years. Casinos will pay 15 percent of revenue in taxes.

The five properties which will develop online casino sites in West Virginia are:

• The Casino Club at Greenbrier Resort
• Hollywood Casino Charles Town
• Mardi Gras Casino
• The Mountaineer Hotel, Casino & Resort
• Wheeling Island Hotel-Casino-Racetrack

Legalization is terrific news, but active online gambling in West Virginia is still somewhat in the future. The state’s officials will have to create a set of regulations. The best estimate from various sources is that the first online casino with online poker in West Virginia won’t appear until 2020.

Can I play at a legal online poker site while not in that state?

No. Legal online poker sites use geolocation software to ensure that players are located in the state at the time of action.

Are Online Poker Sites Legal

This takes into account the IP address of the player, location of a related cell phone, and nearby wireless access points. It is impossible to play at legal online poker sites when located outside state lines.

You do not have to be a resident of that state to play online poker there, however. If you visit any legal US online poker state you can download and create an account from your home state, claim any no deposit poker bonus, make any additional deposits and then play online poker when you arrive as long as you are within state borders.

Why should I choose legal poker sites?

One of the biggest advantages to playing online poker at regulated US sites is that all player funds are just as safe as they would be at a licensed real money online casino in any of those states.

The very same gaming regulations that apply to live and online casinos are also valid for regulated US online poker sites. All deposits are held in separate accounts from cash used for operations.

There are also ample deposit and withdrawal methods that are safe and secure. Legal poker sites in the US accept deposits by:

• Visa
• MasterCard
• Electronic checks
• Neteller
• Skrill
• PayNearMe (7-Eleven)
• Cash at associated casinos in Atlantic City, Las Vegas, etc

How do I withdraw from legal poker sites in the United States?

Legal poker sites pay winnings by:

• Electronic check
• Check by mail
• Bank wire
• Neteller
• Skrill
• PayPal
• Cash at associated casinos in Atlantic City,Las Vegas, etc

Regulated online poker sites also undergo rigorous checks to ensure that games are fair and secure.

Free Legal Poker Sites For Us Players

When will online poker be legal in my state?

The situation regarding online poker bills is always changing. There are several states that are considering legal online poker currently. They are:

• Connecticut
  • S 17 would legalize online gambling and sports betting
• Kentucky
  • H 175 would legalize online poker, sports betting, and daily fantasy sports
• New York
  • A 4924 would certify online poker as a game of skill under New York law
• Tennessee
  • SJR 165 would legalize all forms of online gambling
• Virginia
  • HB 2321 seeks to study online gambling expansion of all types

Two more states, Illinois and Massachusetts, are also interested in online poker.

History of legal online poker in the US

Legal US online poker sites debuted on April 30, 2013.

Ultimate Poker was the site that made history. Nevada was the first state to host fully legal online poker. Texas Hold ’em was the only game spread at Ultimate Poker during its first six months in business.

WSOP.com joined the Nevada online poker market on Sept. 17, 2013. The World Series of Poker’s online site brought the first games of Omaha, Omaha High/Low, Seven Card Stud and Seven Card Stud High/Low to Nevada.

WSOP.com now controls 99 percent of the Nevada market. This near-monopoly was caused by the shuttering of Ultimate Poker in November 2014.

Delaware online poker was the second state to launch. There is one network powered by 888. The state’s three racinos – Delaware Park, Dover Downs and Harrington Raceway – are skins on the Delaware poker network. Nevada and Delaware began pooling poker players in April 2015.

WSOP.com and 888 were the sites responsible for creating the first legal interstate online poker pool.

New Jersey online poker came next on Nov. 21, 2013. There are currently three poker networks in New Jersey. One hosts Borgata and partypoker, the other has WSOP.com and 888 on it, and the third is made up solely of PokerStars NJ. All networks are about equal in overall size at any given point in time.

There were three additional poker platforms in New Jersey when the state launched regulated poker sites. 888 was originally a standalone site before it merged player pools with WSOP.com. Ultimate Poker was unable to gain more than 3 percent of the market share.

The Ultimate Poker site was shuttered on Oct. 5, 2014. The associated UCasino was also closed at that time. Betfair failed to attract any players and closed its poker site on Dec. 1, 2014. Betfair still operates an online casino in New Jersey.

After a long legislative battle, Gov. Tom Wolf signed a bill into law that legalized and regulated online gambling in the state of Pennsylvania on Oct. 30, 2017, making it the fourth state to legalize online gaming. The bill legalized online poker, online casino table games, online slots and daily fantasy sports.

It also allowed for a number of other gambling expansions such as online lottery, tablet gambling in airports, video gambling terminals at truck stops and 10 satellite casinos. Players were officially able to play online poker in PA in 2019.

Why isn’t there a federal online poker bill?

There have been many attempts to pass an online poker bill at the federal level.

• 2009 – Rep. Barney Frank first proposes regulated online poker.
• 2011 – Frank and Rep. Joe Barton attempt to get Congress to repeal the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA).
• 2012 – Sen. Harry Reid and Sen. Jon Kyl combine to propose a poker-only bill, known in the poker community as Reid/Kyl. The bill dies when Congress adjourns.

Nowadays, the federal government is more likely to focus its attention on sports betting. Unfortunately, online poker and gambling just doesn’t rate for many constituencies as key issues.

There does seem to be a movement towards greater states’ rights, however. The dismissal of PASPA in May 2018 allowed sports betting to proceed at each state legislature’s discretion.

A recent reversal of Department of Justice opinion on the Wire Act may also end up being a net positive for online gambling advocates. The DOJ seems to have been swayed by anti-gambling lobbyists funded by Las Vegas Sands owner Sheldon Adelson.

Neither the states nor the media are amused by the appearance of corruption and impropriety. As a result, online gambling might become a medium for states to argue a greater issue, and thus, rise in prominence.

What is the UIGEA?

UIGEA is an acronym for the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act. It passed Congress in September 2006 and was signed into law by President Bush two weeks later.

The UIGEA made it illegal for banks to process payments for unlawful gambling sites. It did not define what that was. Most publicly-traded sites immediately left the US market after the UIGEA was enacted.

These included Party Poker, iPoker, Microgaming Poker Network, Ongame, and 888. All of these examples returned to the US market when states started to regulate online poker.

What is Black Friday?

Black Friday was the day the US online poker community describes April 15, 2011.

On that date, PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker, and Absolute Poker were charged with gambling crimes by the US Department of Justice in the Southern District of New York.

Unfortunately, Full Tilt Poker and Absolute Poker did not have enough cash on hand to pay players. PokerStars paid all customers within weeks. Strange as it may seem, it was PokerStars that eventually made all Full Tilt Poker players whole after coming to an agreement with federal authorities.

Will the federal government ban online poker?

Federal law allows states to legalize and regulate online poker. This is specifically exempted from the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act. A September 2011 Department of Justice opinion confirmed this and explicitly gives states the right to permit intrastate gaming.

There was an attempt in Congress to reverse this legal opinion. The effort was spearheaded by Sheldon Adelson, founder and CEO of Las Vegas Sands, the parent company of Venetian in Las Vegas.

Adelson’s lobbyists submitted the Restoration of America’s Wire Act (RAWA). The bill failed in 2016 and does not appear to have much support in this Congress. Libertarian groups, states’ rights activists, governors, state lotteries and most of the gaming industry have come out in opposition to RAWA.

Since then, Adelson and company have been working through other channels to head off online casino and online poker play. It is extremely likely that the group effected some degree of influence over the Department of Justice’s January 2019 opinion to reinterpret the Wire Act.

In that opinion, the DOJ essentially reversed its prior position on the statute to say that the law actually pertains to all gambling, not just sports betting. Needless to say, there were many parties in opposition to this opinion.

So far, the opinion has not found much success in court. A June 2019 ruling from a New Hampshire federal court dismissed the opinion from affecting that state’s lottery commission and an associated vendor. Only time will tell if the precedent will ripple out to other interested and/or affected parties.

Online gaming today is more fast-paced than ever before for U.S players. And we are not just talking about the fact that Internet speeds are faster, and more accessibility is there than ever before. We are also talking about the fact that more and more states are jumping on the notion of legal online poker in United States. Currently, online poker can be played legally by all 50 states in some form at various websites, and it's important for players to understand the options that are out there for them.

We do our best to talk about the topic of playing online poker legally in the U.S., and educating our readers about the process to do so. The good news is that with online gaming in general perceived as being a much more legitimate practice, the choices are better and better in this competitive industry. Find out where and how U.S. players can participate in legal online poker games in the United States, including specific sites where Americans can sign up for an account.

Where Can I Play Online Poker In The United States?

Think online poker can't be done but only in a few states where it's starting to be regulated by the states? Think again. Despite the fact that a very public downfall of American poker sites may lead people to think that it is in some way illegal, actually playing online poker is not illegal. The proof is in the pudding, or in this case, the law itself. The law is on the side of the poker player, which allows Americans to get in on a great deal of online poker action.

Speaking generally, U.S. players have a choice when it comes to selecting an online poker site that will allow them to play poker for real-money. It's just as if you were sitting in a live poker room in Las Vegas, or in one that is licensed in your state, only the experience here is virtual, and you can play from your computer with the downloaded software.

BetOnline Poker Room

BetOnline Poker offers players some of the best games of poker they've ever had, and gain a poker deposit bonus of 100% up to $500 while enjoying themselves. BetOnline puts the same high quality into their poker room as they do into all of their other sections, so you know you are getting nothing but the best.

BetOnline offers sit and go tournaments on on a daily basis and large cash tournaments frequently as well, which always result in large cash prizes for the big winners. Visit BetOnline Poker

SportsBetting Poker

A variety of great guaranteed poker tournaments awaits any player choosing to go with SportsBetting.ag. This poker room creates fields where tournament prizes are in the thousands of dollars. They say right on site that there is $150,000 in guaranteed money that is won by players every month.

SportsBetting.ag tournaments are some of the best you will find, and trust us we know from experience with playing many different poker sites and reviewing many others as well. But it goes the same with great cash games as well. SportsBetting.ag has a variety of different cash games to get in on, for a bunch of different amount at tables. Visit SportsBetting Poker

Are Online Poker Sites Legal In The USA?

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. This includes states like Nevada, New Jersey, and Delaware. It also appears that more states are leading toward poker regulation on the Internet in the future as well.

Online gambling laws in the United States are interesting though, especially at the federal level. Most of them actually pertain to sports betting only, but online poker site operation is covered. The one thing about the legislation is that at the state level things seem to be changing rapidly.

U.S.A. Online Poker Laws

The main law at the federal level concerning online poker is the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006. This law doesn't expressly forbid the playing of Internet poker though as it merely encompasses what the operation of such a site entails. It's actually quite interesting, and leaves open the possibility for players to participate in online poker still, especially if you play online poker for free. For more information on this law and others affecting online poker, please visit our page about online poker laws in the U.S.

Age To Play Online Poker - Know Your Local Age To Gamble

State laws come into play a lot in terms of online poker, but no more so than with the legal age. The gambling age is not a federal law, it's a state law. There is not one consistent gambling age, though it is either 18 or 21. But what we mean is that different states will have a different age, so it's important to know how old you have to be.

Depositing Into Online Poker Sites - UIGEA of 2006

The ways in which American players are able to legally deposit into online poker sites can be affected by the UIGEA. This is because financial institutions are required to block any transactions sent to an offshore business for the purpose of gambling, or in this case, online poker games. This doesn't always happen, but fortunately, online poker sites will have several ways in which a deposit can be made.

Why You Should Stick With The Sites We Recommend:

One quick Internet search about online poker sites that have Texas Hold 'em + other games, and you will be given a great many of them at your disposal. But not all poker rooms are created equal. We know that there are some to be trusted, and some that aren't.

These sites we list on here for you, we can vouch for. Some of the other sites that you might find could be just fine, but we can say for sure the sites we've reviewed exhibit everything that we look for when assessing a quality poker room. So check them out, and see if they're right for you.