Online Poker Ban Us
Playing online poker in 2019 could be quite a challenge if you live in a country with a restrictive gambling regulation; instead of moving forward with laws that embrace the benefits of legal online gambling (controlled publicity, tax incomes, etc.), more and more countries opt-in for closing their borders and prohibit online poker. In this article, we share a few tips for poker players living in those countries and how they can make EV+ decisions.
It’s natural for online poker players in America to have questions about the legal considerations that go along with playing real money poker online. Not only do players have to be familiar with federal law as it relates to online poker and other forms of online gambling but also with the gambling law of each individual state in the US. Online Gambling is treated differently throughout the country with several states having declared it completely illegal, some have actually legalized it, and others have legislation in the works. Not all types of online gambling are fully legal even in states that do have more or less regulated industries. You can no longer play poker online. Watch Congresswoman Shelley Berkley (NV-01) call out the Republicans for their shameless tactics and indulg. Online poker is not banned in the USA. They don't get a piece of the action. US Funds are going abroad and out of the economy.
¿Which countries have banned online poker?
Literally, millions of poker players are trapped in countries like India, Israel, Italy, United States, Colombia, Australia, China, Spain, France, and many others, which in a way or another, have prohibited or at least restricted (for example the European shared liquidity) online poker. For all of them, we have prepared this survival guide for 2019, including all the necessary information to keep playing from home.
¿What online poker rooms are available on regulated markets?
Curiously enough, almost all poker rooms available on regulated markets have merged after being prohibited there at the very beginning; just to bring an example, the Chinese poker rooms are booming since last year and even have drawn the attention of PokerStars (recently PS launched Red Dragon Poker, a Chinese application very similar to PokerKing Asia or PPPoker) and those are developing on a very restrictive market.
At the bottom of this article, you will find a selection of the best online poker rooms available for players living in regulated countries.
Our team will be glad to assist you in picking the best poker room that fits your needs; no matter where you live, we have a solution for you.
Online Poker Bonus
¿How to make a deposit or withdrawal in regulated countries?
A common question: if online poker is forbidden in my country, how can I even make a deposit to a poker room? Agents, e-wallets, and cryptocurrencies are the answer:
Cryptocurrencies
The benefits of the Bitcoin and other cryptos are remarkable on the online poker market. As cryptos don't depend on any central bank, those can be easily used in almost any country for gambling-related payments. Sites like Exmo or Localbitcoins are very useful on highly regulated markets such as the Chinese or the Australian one.
ecoPayz
ecoPayz (a trusted e-wallet very similar to Skrill and Neteller) is accepted by countries like Canada, India, Spain, among others). SEPA residents can even request a MasterCard card to handle their money.
VPN? High-end PCs? What are the requirements to play at exotic poker rooms?
Our team will assist you in all the technologic requirements to start playing at international rooms:
- If you are playing in Asian poker apps, the emulators have high technical requirements;
- Additional software such as hand converters or add-ons may be needed to enable HUD at some rooms.
Another requirement to play at rooms from exotic countries like China is to adapt yourself to a routine to play with a different time zone: for example, the Chinese prime time corresponds to the morning in America or the evening in Europe.
What about the costs? Is it expensive to play on alternative poker networks? Can I get rakeback?
As usual, the answer to this question is: it depends. We made a comparison of the rake structure of traditional poker rooms and Asian poker applications, and the results proved that it's not expensive to play at Chinese poker rooms.
The good news is that almost all alternative poker rooms come with top rakeback deals from Worldpokerdeals. Some rooms charge a fee when you withdrawal your profits (to cover the costs of transferring money from China or Israel to e-wallets); for those cases, you can be sure that the fee charged by WPD is the lowest on the market.
The software has an additional cost, for example, a hand converter or card catcher may be necessary in order to play with a HUD.
Poker expat?
Hundreds of professional poker players have decided to emigrate from their countries (even high-profile ones like Adrían Mateos who left Spain after the regulation) looking for better conditions to play both online and live. The preferred destinations are Thailand, México, or the UK; if you are a poker expat, you can take advantage of our VIP promotions especially designed for poker players living abroad.
Conclusion
The real challenge must be at the tables, beating the fish, and not struggling with regulations and prohibitions; we understand that you could be afraid of playing online poker if the authorities raise the regulation flag, but as we already mentioned, there are several options; in short, there is a life after regulation.
Note: if you are planning to take a poker trip, contact us for local information in Thailand, Russia, Colombia, USA, etc. Our gigs are world-famous :)
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Online Poker Ban Us Flag
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A year ago, hundreds of thousands of online poker players in the United States woke up on what was later dubbed Black Friday to the Department of Justice cracking down on the alleged crimes of the major offshore operators.
While the case (U.S. v. Scheinberg et al) is still playing out in federal court, many in the community are still coming to grips with not only the games disappearing, but their funds falling into the abyss of cyberspace.
PokerStars paid its U.S. players in full, but Absolute Poker and Full Tilt Poker have stiffed their former customers. The combined debt of the two companies is in the hundreds of millions.
Months after the indictment was unsealed, the government piled on the accusation that Full Tilt Poker was running a “global Ponzi scheme” by defrauding players to line the pockets of its shareholders. As the community holds out hope for a French firm acquiring the company and reopening its doors, the lingering pain of Black Friday rests with Full Tilt Poker.
Absolute Poker was already viewed as a big gamble by some, thanks to past cheating scandals within the company, but Full Tilt Poker had the illusion of stability and contained a much larger sum of player money ($300 million is owed to former FTP customers, compared to $60 million for Absolute Poker/UB).
After the insolvency of Full Tilt Poker and its atrocities with player funds, American poker players of the future will have the security of playing on sites run by publicly traded casino companies, with strict rules on accounting practices.
The Las Vegas Strip Shines Bright
With the largest offshore poker sites out of the way and stagnant efforts for a federal piece of legislation, Nevada brick-and-mortar giants are poised to tap into a demand for online gaming. Other gaming options still remain, including free online slots at Slotsadviser.com.
Despite lobbying efforts behind closed doors and public statements about the need for a federal bill, lawmakers on Capitol Hill haven’t made any significant progress on the issue.
Nevada, with its storied gaming history, has the attention of state governments around the country, Gov. Brian Sandoval said recently. The Silver State is in many ways the guinea pig for an American online poker industry.
Jim Murren, CEO of MGM Resorts International, said last month, during a meeting of the resurrected gaming policy committee, that his company will be “punished” if it stumbles out of the gate. Also on the panel was Reno businessman Paul Matthews, who said that Nevada only has “one shot at this and if we miss it it’s going to be a shame.”
Well before Nevada passed legislation that required the adoption of regulations for online poker, PokerStars was looking to set up shop in the Mojave Desert.
The largest site in the world hired a former Nevada lawmaker to lobby on the company’s behalf, before eventually agreeing to a joint venture with casino mogul Steve Wynn. The deal dissolved when PokerStars fell in hot water with the federal government.
PokerStars was once poised to dominate Nevada-based online poker thanks to a bill the company was backing, but instead it was left out in the cold.
While indicted companies flaunted their businesses in the face of U.S. law for many years, the precursor to bwin.party digital entertainment left the American market when the legal waters became muddied from the 2006 Unlawful Internet Gaming Enforcement Act. The company is now eying a huge return via a partnership to run games with MGM.
Long-term Outlook in the U.S.
With a population of just 2.7 million and a monthly visitor volume of about 4 million, online poker only existing in Nevada isn’t going to satisfy the demand in the country.
Thanks to a Department of Justice legal opinion in December 2011 — a move that was ironically both shocking and expected — states that legalize online gaming will likely have the freedom to form partnerships. For online poker, having a healthy player pool is the name of the game.
California and New Jersey currently have proposals working through their respective legislatures, while Delaware is prepared to introduce a bill.
Despite Black Friday and the DOJ letter, some states are still having a hard time with the online gaming issue. Bills have failed this year in both Hawaii and Mississippi, while Utah has preemptively banned and criminalized web poker.
The quicker resolution would be a federal law authorizing the activity. However, many in the industry are extremely pessimistic about anything coming out of Congress. A state-by-state patchwork might also not be too dissimilar from how it would look under a federal regime that allows opting in or out.