Poker in the States has taken off in a big way. It is no longer acceptable that people living in the States would use to travel to play poker in another country. Online poker has become a reality after a recent loophole in the law was closed. The Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 has made it harder for the US Government to close down online poker sites but hopefully no-limit holdem sites stay open.
The Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 was passed after arenouncement by the George W. Bush Administration. The act would have allowed banks to engage in online gambling in the US and have not only been passed but signed by the President. But it wasn’t exactly what everyone expected. Those who were pushing for the passing of the act believed that it would be a one-off fix and not necessarily a long-term solution.
When the President signed the act into law, many legal experts in the US felt that it was going to be very difficult to enforce. It was felt that the ease of money transactions through the internet would make it very easy for people to hide and continue gambling. Also, no software programs were used to make the deals easier or more accurate. These experts were wrong.
As an outcome of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, any poker sites not located within the US are now banned from taking bets on American players. This means that nearly all of the major poker rooms situated in the US are no longer accepting American players. Basically, the deal is that if you want to play poker, you have to play on poker sites that are located outside of the US. The best thing about this though is that many poker rooms are willing to accept US players and you don’t have to travel to find a place to play. A lot of casinos will also accept players from the US since they don’t actually have to travel to the US in order to play.
Before the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act had gone into effect, there was a lot of concern about how it would affect the poker rooms. Some of the concern was that the new law would make it more difficult for players to withdraw their winnings. This hasn’t happened yet and it probably never will, according to the poker rooms.
Most of the poker rooms continue to take US players despite the law. It is estimated that less than 10% of players make any real money deposits in the poker rooms. Most of the time, when these players do play, they play with their initial deposit. They continue to play regularly with their initial deposit, making small inserts on a weekly basis. This amounts to less than 10% of all players making any real money deposits.
The Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act may have forced many online poker rooms to close their doors to US players, but it did not succeed in stopping all the poker rooms from accepting US players. Chris Moneymaker proved that everyone can make money on the internet and he did it legally.
If you live in the US and you want to play online poker, there are still many options. You can play at Rush Poker, Poker Stars, Full Tilt Poker, etc. Each of these sites has many regular players and also a huge amount of customers who play poker online on a daily basis. Most of these sites will also allow you to play Sit & Go’s, meaning you can play poker games whenever you want without waiting. You can also play Omaha Poker and Blackjack and many more besides.