Online Poker in the US
10th December, 2008
Many online poker sites in the US have struggled since the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement, was put into practice. However this federal legislation has proved to be extremely difficult to enforce.
The Act has criminalized the acceptance of U.S. initiated financial instruments by operators of online gaming sites. The law, also banning U.S. financial institutions from processing transfers of funds to them, was brought in 2006.
Gambling in the U.S has at most been restricted to casino's, bingo halls and sports bookies in recent years with the banning of online gaming, however the Bush administration has been under strong pressure to allow a regulated online industry.
Currently US poker fans are having to search for sites which allow American players. Many have turned to large European sites which accept U.S players others have found illegal unregulated sites to play on within America.
So US poker players have a decision to make. Do they stick with land based casino's offering poker games? Or do they continue to play online games at European sites or unregulated illegal U.S ones?
Here's a short video explaining the situation for poker players in the U.S:
Online Gambling has resulted in a 'poker boom' in recent years, which has lead to the game growing in popularity around the world. The benefits are there to be seen by everyone.
There's no need to travel miles to the big casino's for the high stake games and its cheap buy-in's have attracted millions onto poker sites. The U.S government have been under increasing pressure to reassess Federal gambling laws, but for the mean time, players will have to risk playing at unregulated sites or opt to play at foreign based operators.
By Jamie
