Appellate Court Rules Rules Against DOJ, Clears Way for Online Poker
The U.S. poker legislation landscape continues to shift as more states explore regulation and shared player pools. All other states either have legislation against online gambling or don’t yet have a regulatory framework. West Virginia legalized online casino gaming in 2019 through the Interactive Wagering Act (HB 2934).
The National Law Review is a free-to-use, no-log-in database of legal and business articles. Below is an update on the legislation and regulatory schemes for Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Maine, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New York, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico, South Carolina, Texas, and Vermont. The first of the five episodes, called Pilgrimage, has landed on 888poker’s YouTube channel, bringing a fun and unique perspective on the 2026 WSOP Main Event experience. Season 3 of Galfond’s intense Beyond the Game poker training program brings some big improvements and more flexible membership options.
Other states like Wisconsin, California, and Florida, just to name a few, are allowed to offer poker via compacts between state and tribal gaming interests. Online poker is also legal in Connecticut, Maine and Rhode Island, but as of 2026 no operator has decided to launch there. With a population of 19.8 million, New York could bring huge liquidity if it entered a multi-state gaming compact with states like New Jersey, Michigan and Nevada. “Regulatory oversight is intended to safeguard the integrity of the games and participants and to ensure accountability and the public trust.” Rush Street Interactive also launched a poker product in Pennsylvania in 2024 and plans to expand. Pennsylvania (13 million) is also expected to join the MSIGA soon and Connecticut (3.7 million) is considering legislation to join.
Thirty-one people were indicted in October, accused of a conspiracy to rig sports bets and underground poker games. BetMGM Poker ambassador and four-time World Poker Tour (WPT) champion Darren Elias said that adding a large market like Pennsylvania “is a huge milestone in continued expansion and provides the opportunity to compete against more players and for larger prize pools.” After signing off on the agreement, Shapiro sat down with Poker Hall of Famer and PokerGO President Mori Eskandani for a conference call interview about the development to the online poker landscape. Pennsylvania officially became the sixth state to join the Multi-State Internet Gaming Agreement (MSIGA) on Wednesday as Governor Josh Shapiro gave his final approval on the online poker agreement. However, Nevada players have been joined in a mutual pool by those from New Jersey, Michigan and Pennsylvania on WSOP.com. Buoyed by the 2011 DoJ opinion, Nevada arranged with Delaware and New Jersey to combine player pools.
Both states have markets too small for most operators to justify establishing poker sites just for the small populations. In those cases, we cover poker related news and provide reviews of our favorite poker sites where poker is legal. After that, companies pumped millions of dollars into various poker sites while funding and advertising live televised poker shows. Following Chris Moneymaker’s seminal 2002 World Series of Poker win, online poker quickly exploded into an international phenomenon. In some sense, this is a positive development for igaming as more states expand their gambling options and become familiar with geolocation and responsible gambling measures. While he’s no longer alive to continue waging the battle against online gaming, many of the institutions he laid the groundwork for still exist.
Large states like California, New York, and Florida — all with huge potential player bases — have failed to pass meaningful poker legislation, despite years of debate. Three more states (West Virginia, Connecticut, and Rhode Island) created a legal framework for online poker, but have no operations yet. The question is no longer whether online poker should be regulated. Just as importantly, it proved that regulated online poker can scale across state lines when the right conditions are in place. An earlier generalized online-gambling bill, since shelved, was among those listed, but the poker-only SB 9226 was missing from a short list that also touched on self-euthanasia, mass transit, and legalized prostitution measures.
What we mean by that is poker is a legal game, Indiana residents just can’t legally play it on the internet. Illinois isn’t an anti-gambling state, they just haven’t caught on with the online poker. Even worse, poker players in Idaho don’t have any nearby places to travel outside of Eastern Washington and Northern Nevada (Reno/Tahoe), but those are a bit of a hike.
Casino.org is the world’s leading independent online gaming authority, providing trusted online casino news, guides, reviews and information since 1995. Taxing people on money they don’t have will stifle the tourism industry in states like Nevada, push poker tournaments offshore, and drive betting into underground, unregulated markets. This led to the emergence of Americas Cardroom and Black Chip Poker as major players in the US market – and, more recently, Bovada and Ignition Poker. PokerStars went on to buy out Full Tilt Poker two years later, and made a settlement with the Department of Justice that included the repayment of former US Full Tilt Poker players. What the passage of UIGEA did achieve was the withdrawal of several major poker sites from the US – including the industry leader at the time, PartyPoker. The passage of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) made it illegal for US banks and other US-based payment processors to transfer funds to or from an Internet poker site.
Coordination with commercial and tribal operators would be needed for any expansion on this. Live gambling is restricted to a few racinos, bingo halls, and a state lottery. Poker and other forms of iGaming have occasionally been the subject of legislative attempts to legalize. Given Hawaii’s historical opposition, legalization is extremely unlikely in the near future. Lawmakers consistently cite social and economic concerns about introducing gambling. Occasional proposals, such as House Bill 2422, have sought to establish a gaming commission, but have failed.
There have even been active pushbacks against online lottery ticket and scratch sales, which were subsequently banned in late 2014. Tribal compact negotiations dominate the gaming conversation, and tribes have been cautious about digital wagering. At that time, Delaware, Nevada, and New Jersey were permitted to share liquidity, while Pennsylvania joined recently. Major national brands and other licensed operators are supervised by the Michigan Gaming Control Board. The earliest practical window for legalization, according to ongoing debate and the bill, is March 2026.
Do I have to pay taxes on my online poker winnings?
Considering these complications, online poker is not likely to find consensus anytime soon. There have been serious conversations in the past about regulating online poker, though a 2021 compact negotiation almost immediately dropped online poker. Should Connecticut join an intra-state compact and share players with other states, such as that in operation across states like Michigan and New Jersey, things could change.
Pro Gamblers Face Unjust Tax
Pennsylvania was also recently asked to join the MSIGA, with some poker sites expected to share liquidity by the end of the first quarter. The bill makes two specific mentions of poker, including in the definition of “authorized interactive game,” which is “any internet-based version or substantial equivalent of a table game, slot machine constituting spinning reels, (or) poker tournament.” He’s a regular in live tournaments and cash games at buy-in levels around $400-$2,000. Along with the Seminole Tribe, Hard Rock already operates an online betting monopoly in Florida, which includes slot-like games. The wild card on the scale could be the new casinos themselves.
While Poker Stars had the best of two worlds, leveraging their American player pool to attract European and global players, European plcs had a very frustrating time competing, while also positioning for the early stages of regulation. Besides the cash grab, US authorities were able to claim admission of illegal gambling, bank fraud, wire fraud… but the reality is these were non-consequential pleas designed to give the impression underlying laws were successfully enforced. For most of the early years of online poker it seemed a U.S. federal bill was introduced, only to die each year as sessions adjourned. It was on November 20, 2002 the Federal Wire Act as it relates to poker (and casino) was finally tested in a significant U.S. court and it was positive news for the industry.
The state laws that apply to gambling in Pennsylvania are quite concise and pretty straightforward. The relevant legislation can be found in the state’s legal code in Volume 4 of the Oregon Revised Statutes, Crimes and Punishments, Chapter 167, General Welfare and Animal Offenses. There are parts of the North Dakota legal code that mention charitable poker, but that’s as close as we get to anything of note on the game. Having said that, there are still several offshore poker sites which offer services to New Yorkers.
- This means that players can compete against other players from certain states in a shared-liquidity pool.
- Could online gaming, including online poker, be back on the agenda in New York?
- A handful of live poker rooms, operated by tribes, offer low to mid-stakes limit and spread-limit games, while no-limit games are not permitted.
In January, PokerNews spoke with New York State Senator Joseph Addabbo Jr. about his efforts to bring online poker to the state’s 20 million residents. “First, FanDuel is supportive of the provision authorizing the Governor to enter into agreements with other states for multi-jurisdictional Internet games such as poker,” Ventre told Connecticut lawmakers on Wednesday. While a firm launch date has not been set, industry experts anticipate that the first legal poker hands could be dealt later in 2026 or early 2027. In any case, players must still wait for regulation to be drafted, with the Maine Gambling Control Unit responsible for drafting the specific rules and licensing requirements. Other states with bills put forward for online gaming and poker so far this year include Massachusetts, Indiana, and Wyoming. There are 34 New York casinos overall, 21 tribal and 13 commercial, which employed nearly 70,000 as of 2023 and brought in $4.72 billion in gross gaming revenue.
Financial institutions were then required to block such transactions pertaining to wagering on any “game subject to chance,” which was written to include online poker and casino games. Bally’s Corporation, which is based in Rhode Island, lobbied for a bill to legalize online gaming through its two land-based casinos – the only ones in the state. Connecticut’s legal framework grants the Mohegans and Mashantucket Pequots a monopoly over online casino games, including poker. Michigan lawmakers had worked to legalize online poker for several years. The Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board took much longer than expected to finalize its regulations and issue licenses for online casinos and poker sites. Its legislature passed a bill to legalize internet poker and casino games in January 2011, even before the DOJ’s Wire Act decision, but Governor Chris Christie vetoed it.
Meanwhile, some states have long embraced poker such as Nevada, New Jersey, and Louisiana. Find out more about the poker scene in each of those six states.
Assemblyman Clinton Calabrese introduced Assembly Bill 5196 not long ago, aiming to regulate sweepstakes online casinos. New Jersey already has a well-established US online poker scene, but a new bill could shake things up this year. Meanwhile, Senator Joseph Addabbo is pushing a separate bill for broader iGaming regulation, including measures targeting unregulated sweepstakes casinos. If things go smoothly, Pennsylvania players could be competing in multi-state tournaments just in time for WSOP Online 2025. But the final hurdle’s been cleared, and Pennsylvania’s nearly 13 million residents will have access to a much larger US online poker scene.
On most of these sites, new players can receive a free poker bonus upon registering. There are seven regulated poker rooms across four poker networks that can be accessed by players in NJ. West Virginia and Michigan have passed laws that allow online gambling, including real money poker. As of January 2021, you can access legal online poker in Nevada, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware. Right now, Pennsylvania is set to become the latest state to offer multi-state online poker, with player pooling likely by April 2025. The idea is to create a dedicated online poker space rather than lumping it in with online casino games.
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The New Hampshire lotteries also didn’t take kindly to the DOJ opinion, taking them to District court in June 2019, and winning with Judge Paul Barbadoro concluding that the Wire Act does not cover all forms of online gambling (including poker). This is also important to remember when looking at the legality of online poker. He has over a decade of experience covering the online poker vertical, including www.pokernewsdaily.com work on industry flagships like OnlinePokerReport, Bonus.com, and PartTimePoker. The skill element of both products makes them more palatable to some gambling opponents than online casinos. It is becoming ever harder for the online gambling industry to present a united lobbying front, while its opponents keep finding ways to work together.
Proposals to expand gaming face resistance from conservative lawmakers. Without voter approval, the legal status of poker remains unchanged. Gambling is restricted to Deadwood casinos and tribal facilities under the oversight of the South Dakota Gaming Commission. While poker platforms are still under development and no operator has yet launched, the statute provides a clear legal pathway.
With consistent pressure from advocates, ambassadors, and lawmakers, that goal may finally be within reach. Americas Cardroom, despite its offshore status, shows what’s possible when platforms invest in technology, security, and responsible gaming tools. They want platforms with strong consumer protections and fair gameplay.
However, poker operators haven’t launched a site in either Delaware or West Virginia. Under the current Connecticut landscape, the state’s two tribal nations were given exclusivity over online gambling. However, there isn’t an online poker room operating in the jurisdiction.
To alleviate cannibalization concerns, gaming law and sports betting attorney Daniel Wallach has said any iGaming legislation in union-friendly states like Maryland should offer some kind of job guarantees. It is the responsibility of consumers to be aware of & comply with any state and national laws that apply to them regarding online poker and online gaming in general. Editorial team curates and publishes in-depth reviews and ratings of online poker sites by using their extensive industry experience. While having access to a regulated online poker site is currently possible only in four states, live poker is accessible in almost all US states. WSOP.com is legally available to US players in New Jersey, Nevada, and Delaware. By using this model on their online poker site, Global Poker is not considered real money online gambling.
There are quite a few live card rooms in the Treasure State, but what about online poker rooms? This is where we find the rules that relate to regular players in the state who choose to gamble on the internet. The FAQ page on the Mississippi Gambling Commission’s website we see that playing poker is illegal unless in a casino. Nobody has ever been charged or convicted for playing online poker in Maryland. After the state of Kentucky tried to fine PokerStars $870 million over residents’ losses back in 2015, it’s fair to say that most residents of the Bluegrass State aren’t too sure of the legality of online poker. The state laws make practically every form of real money gambling illegal besides those which are authorized and regulated by the state.
Live poker players in Indiana have the choice of playing in tribal casinos or in properties like riverboats. It showed that Delaware saw the future of the gambling industry, as it authorized online lottery ticket sales and online poker before most other states even considered it. However, online poker is not available on those sites, given the small player population in the state.
Bet MGM then hopped on board less than two months later, and the state of Michigan is now pulling in massive online poker revenue. Poker players in the state get to compete on the WSOP.com platform, as part of the NV/NJ shared liquidity deal. This is the ability to share player pools for tournaments and cash games across state lines in other jurisdictions, which improves revenue opportunities greatly.
As mentioned, there are no federal laws governing online gambling and poker, allowing each state to establish its own legal framework. Below, we break down online poker legality by state, including where licensed sites are live and where online poker still isn’t authorized. In this climate, many U.S. players choose to play on reputable offshore poker sites licensed in international jurisdictions, where real-money games remain widely available.