Brad posted on May 28, 2011 16:49
The world of online poker is changing with each day. Despite the US department of Justice terming all forms of online gambling as illegal, there are various websites that allow US player to participate in gambling. This is mainly because of the fact that the question of whether foreign off-shore gambling sites are subject to US laws is not clear and so such websites accept US players.
If you are a US resident, you need to know that you might be blocked from the online gambling websites. Some poker websites particularly bar US residents residing in states such as New Jersey, Louisiana, Indiana, Illinois, Nevada, South Dakota, Wisconsin, Oregon and Washington. Some websites, such as the Royal Vegas poker and Poker Share allow US gamblers except those residing in the above mentioned states.
The Department of Justice of the United States had undertaken a huge campaign to indict and seize money from the websites that offered their services to US gamblers. However, thanks to the increasing popularity of online gambling, some websites have decided that they will not succumb to the ban imposed by Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of October 13th 2006. This has further encouraged several websites to fight the online poker ban and hence you will find many sites operating in the United States and provide services to the players from the USA despite the ban.
Several networks and iPoker web sites, such as the Ongame and PartyGaming are traded publically on the London Exchange. These websites argue that since their operations are based outside US, the ban does not have effect on their operations. They also reason that their business is in compliance to the international laws. In addition, the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act has no clear definition of UIG and there is not a single case registered against any player for gambling on the international poker websites.
Another reason why majority of the websites allow players from USA is they believe in the possibility that the US is ultimately going to be a regulated and licensed market for Internet gambling. Several online poker websites had stopped allowing players from the US because the Department of Justice had indicted many online poker sites and payment processors for allowing US players. However, poker websites that do not face difficulty in money encumbrance while allowing players from the US see no reason for barring US players from participating in gambling on their websites.