Online Poker is NOT Illegal

The legality of online poker has historically been plagued by doubts and interminable amounts of questions, nevertheless here's the cheat sheet: it's now and always has been totally legal to play online poker in the comfy confines of your home. A handful of government high-ups have tried repeatedly to make it not legal but have been unsuccessful every time they tried.

The source of all the issues we find ourselves in currently can be narrowed down single-handedly to the questionable passing of the universally disliked UIGEA law, which is vague and ambiguous. The main goal of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act is to harm the finances of the sites by obstructing financial transactions. It has nothing to do with you as a poker player due to the fact that poker has been confirmed by top researchers not to be a gambling activity like Internet Slots. Even if it were, online gambling is still not the issue that is being affected, it's the bank transaction. To this day people still feel the effects of the law which was passed in a very underhanded form by attaching it to an unrelated bill, which was a lock to pass because of the infallible keyword, terrorism, and how it affected the US at the time. The Security and Accountability For Every (SAFE) Port Act of '06 was the act in question, and scheming government high-ups found a way to stick the UIGEA neatly. Head Honcho George W. Bush put his sign on it.

Boiled down, the UIGEA law makes it illegal for banks to transfer funds to online gambling sites, but thankfully (and you will see why shortly) a notable exception arises for poker rooms. It doesn't matter if you're on play or Money Poker Sites, it is NOT illegal to play online poker!

The great game of Poker, as has been demonstrated time and time again, is NOT gambling, period. Because of the heavy element of ability needed to win at poker, you truly need to be good at this if you want to win. A lot of resources can be found everywhere on the Internet which will explain with painstaking detail the facts pertaining to this research. Despite the fact that a sizeable amount of poker rooms bailed out American players in the dark there still exist a few poker sites that accept play from US online poker players without any problems.

The UIGEA has no effect on any American playing poker and because of that playing online poker is completely legal! Keep in mind, certain states such as Washington, have a specific law making online poker illegal, but there is no federal law to that effect. Poker is definitely a skill game, and not gambling; don't allow anybody convince you otherwise. No one has ever been prosecuted for playing online poker. You can participate in as many games as you would like for whichever buy-in you could afford with not a care in your mind about legal trivialities surrounding this very beautiful game within the U.S.A.