Internet poker has been around for years and online poker rooms have been proliferating at an astounding rate over the last few years. However, is online poker legal? Are these internet poker rooms legal? What implications does the law have for all those online poker players out there?

The short, somewhat unhelpful answer is that the answer totally depends on the country where the online poker room company is incorporated. There is no international law on the question as to how legal online poker is and so players have to be careful before signing up to the less well-known poker rooms.

Let us focus on the simpler question: ‘Is online poker legal in the US and UK’ as these are the markets where most of our customers reside. If you live in another country then please email us the law of your country so that we can add it to our site.

US

With regard to the individual poker player, there is no precedent to show that online poker is not legal. Some would refer to the Wire Act but in reality, there is no justification for putting forward this argument given that no individual has been charged, prosecuted or even arrested under this legislation for playing in an internet poker room. Millions of people in the US play legal online and not one of them has been fined or punished in any way so you would be hard pushed to conclude that online poker is not legal.

However, at the provider-level, it is a slightly different story! The Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 (UIGEA) was passed by George Bush and it makes it illegal to transfer money from a financial institution to an internet gaming site. This effectively makes it very hard to create a company offering online poker in a legal fashion. The law does not make it illegal to transfer funds to companies offering online lotteries or sports betting.

UK

The UK took a very different approach to the US with regard to the question as to whether online poker is legal or not. The government passed the Gambling Act in 2005, to come into force later in 2007. This specifically allows for legal online poker rather than prohibiting companies from setting up online poker rooms. It is argued that fully regulated, legal online poker rooms stop the sport going underground and leading to problem gambling.