Virginia

Poker Legend Quitting Poker Over Trump Tax Policy?

Many people believe that the Wire Act of 1961 or the Unlawful Internet Gaming Enforcement Act of 2006 (UIGEA) made it illegal to play poker online in the US, but that is inaccurate. As part of his push for iGaming regulation, Addabbo has constantly emphasized the need to address sweepstakes casinos, which he argues are predatory and unregulated alternatives to legal gambling platforms. It also introduces a three-year timeout period for unregulated operators, a move targeting offshore and sweepstakes casinos that operate in legal gray areas. In essence, this agreement would enable player pooling across state lines, boosting online poker traffic and prize pools in the process. State Senator Gary Pretlow is leading the charge this year with Senate Bill 2614, a proposal to legalize casino-style iGaming, including online poker.

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.

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.

Meanwhile, the $10,000 6-Max Championship is still alive, with Fahredin Key Highlights Day 50 of the 2026 World Series of Poker delivered three new champions in Las Vegas. Jumalon entered heads-up play with the chip lead and converted that advantage into a championship victory. Parallel to Pretlow, Senator Joseph Addabbo has reintroduced a separate bill focused on broader iGaming legalization. This omission is likely a political compromise to reduce potential pushback from lawmakers who aren’t too set on seeing the bill passed into law. After several stalled attempts in recent years, the renewed push signals a potentially relevant moment for gambling in the Empire State.

The aim of UIGEA is to make it a criminal offense for banks and financial firms in the US to process deposits or withdrawals to or from non-regulated online gambling sites. Outside of these legal sports books, it’s not legal to play real money games online. Both West Virginia and Michigan passed the gambling legislation for regulated real money internet poker in 2019. Unfortunately, these poker platforms don’t grant access to WSOP Online events for players in Delaware. From the US states with regulated online poker, Delaware is the smallest one.

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.

Providing everything you need to play poker online since 2006. Resorts World, meanwhile, has dabbled in online sports betting but has had less success. The question for iGaming and online poker proponents, then, is what has changed that would engender any optimism in 2026? “I think it’s terrible for the government to put people in a position to think about things like that. The players I know, the tournament players, pay their taxes. They pay quite a bit in taxes.” “It’s even worse for the younger players. These are people who put in an incredible amount of effort and hours learning, and now they’re going to be in a position where they can’t really play,” Seidel claims.

In 2016, a bill that would’ve allowed the New York State Gaming Commission to grant up to 11 online poker licenses and expanded poker licenses beyond land-based casinos in New York made it through the New York Senate before the Assembly shot it down. Live poker has been legal at land-based casinos in New York since lawmakers passed Upstate NY Economic Development Gaming Act in 2013. “These games are considered to be complex forms of poker which involve player strategy and decision-making and which pit the skill levels of the players against each other,” states the bill. If Illinois and Connecticut end up joining the interstate online poker compact, all MSIGA member states would total more than 42 million, providing a much larger player pool.

Connecticut House Passes Online Casino, Sports Betting Bill

Law is unclear both on the issue of internet gambling in general and internet poker precisely. No serious online gambling bills have been proposed in the last couple of years, but the state remains a strong possibility in the coming years. The Hoosier State has been a surprise contender for regulated igaming, having seriously examined several bills in the last few years.

Hochul’s signature makes New York officially the sixth state to enact some sort of prohibition on sweepstakes casinos this year. Just a week before the bill’s passage, the state’s Attorney General announced that enforcement actions had led to 26 sweepstakes casinos shutting down in the state. It arrives months after most platforms had already exited the state or halted Sweeps Coin promotional play in anticipation of the law and mounting enforcement pressure. “I don’t know how to play them well,\” Engel admits, \”but in 2021 I was playing a big bet mixed game at the Wynn where it was only carnival games – so at least I have some sense of them.

In other words, operators would need to clear $66 million in gross gaming revenue for the first five years (about $13 million per year). Online poker would be taxed at a 15% rate, but operators would have to pay a whopping $10 million one-time fee for licensing. If a repeal isn’t in the works, it could spell trouble for the entire poker industry.

New Hampshire donned its battle gear and brought forth its lawsuit, and the poker world, among others, looked on anxiously as the legal fight began. Supreme Court, there’s little to stop the continued growth of online poker in the U.S. now. “This new law protects New Yorkers today, and it may also serve as a precursor to the thoughtful, comprehensive regulation of online gaming tomorrow,” Addabbo’s office noted. Sweepstakes-style online poker rooms like Global Poker and ClubWPT Gold were a big chunk of the Golden State’s viable choices. The new law is expected to upend the industry, which will no longer be able to offer sweeps gaming in the country’s most populous state.

We’ve got five states (NJ, Nevada, Delaware, Michigan, PA) running regulated poker, each with their own hoops, and everywhere else either no option or offshore rooms with zero safety nets. Now, nearly twenty years later, U.S. online poker still looks like a mismatched fabric. The bill also notes that seven states in total have already legalized online gaming, with most of those states in close proximity to New York. New York quickly became the US’s largest online sports-betting state after authorizing it in 2021, with the first live wagering occurring in January 2022.

The legislature passed a comprehensive gambling expansion package in October, including the legalization of online poker and casino games. To achieve legal status in the US, online poker sites navigate a complex landscape, with no federal regulatory system for internet gaming. After expanding land-based gambling, West Virginia lawmakers included online poker and casino games in its regulatory scheme in 2019. Lawmakers finally began to examine the possibility of casinos in recent years, along with sports betting, but online poker remains out of the question.

States like Wyoming and Indiana are at the forefront of discussions about legalizing iGaming, signaling a broader shift in how gambling laws are approached across the nation. The landscape of online gambling in the United States is undergoing significant transformations. Attempts to legalize www.pokernewsdaily.com online gaming in Virginia, however, ended on Saturday after the legislative session came to a close without legislators agreeing on a final bill in conference committee. For online poker, the bill allows for “reciprocal agreements with other approved jurisdictions,” meaning joining the country’s Multi-State Internet Gaming Agreement (MSIGA). “Illegal internet gaming channels operating throughout the United States pose a critical threat to the safety and welfare of the citizens of the commonwealth,” the bill says.

Live poker has been available to people in Connecticut since the Mashantucket Pequot Tribe opened Foxwoods Resort Casino in 1992. With the lack of federal legislation around the game, the United States is anything but united on the issue. The most common poker variants are No-Limit Texas Hold’em, Pot-Limit Omaha, Seven-Card Stuf, Razz, Omaha Hi-Lo, 2-7 Triple Draw, and Five-Card Draw. She has spent years advocating for diversity, most notably gender equity in the traditionally male-dominated poker sphere. It’s important to note that no website – no matter how well-researched or informed – can be a substitute for advice from a licensed legal professional.

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.

Many states struggle with various issues related to online poker sites, such as defining whether it is a game of skill or chance and if collecting rake is illegal. The poker industry in live settings, such as cardrooms and brick-and-mortar casinos, is thriving in the United States. Since the US Supreme Court ruling, dozens of states legalized sports betting in some form – live, mobile, online, or a combination.

“The negative ramifications for this industry are obvious, and they have high-powered lobbyists. And several casino operators are known supporters of the current Administration. I strongly suspect they will be working to reverse this.” The sports betting bill, SD 1657, would ban prop and in-play betting, bar ads during televised sporting events, and raise the tax rate to 51%. A new bill has been proposed to update the Massachusetts online casino industry.

He has called the issue “worthy of consideration.” Some legislators have already expressed support for adding online gaming. Gov. J.B. Pritzker has lent his support to adding online gaming in the state, which could bring in an additional $1 billion per year. Could new tax code end the gambling industry as we know it? You saw poker media evolve from blogs, written updates, and experimental podcasts into official livestreams, social video, and organization-owned content. With only a handful of exceptions, I don’t think any player really struck me as wildly different from how they were on television. Honestly, if Chops hadn’t outlined the vision for others, I don’t think I would have ended up doing as much multimedia as I did because the industry was so stuck in the paradigm of girl in poker video equals ‘hot girl.’

West Virginia joined in November and is expected to see an operator go live in the state this year. The agreement already includes New Jersey, Michigan, Nevada, and Delaware. Addabbo’s bill would allow as many as 10 poker licenses. The original bill called for a 30% tax on the industry.

Physical and online sports betting have also been available in the state since 2019, with the first legal bet taken in 2020. Georgia’s constitution forbids most forms of gambling, including online poker. Delaware remains a model for early-state adoption of regulated internet poker. The Delaware Lottery oversees all iGaming operations, including poker, casino games, and slots. Rare discussions on gambling legislation in Arkansas focus on lotteries or casinos.

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.

The online poker bill, which was introduced this week, mentions both Texas Hold’em and Omaha and cites case law that has determined poker to be a game of skill rather than a game of chance. Meanwhile, fellow Democrat David Weprin’s AB 1580 would allow “any person who holds a license to sell alcoholic beverages for consumption on premises to allow players to engage in certain recreational contests,” including contests involving poker. Assembly Bill 1380, sponsored by Democratic State Assemblyman J. Gary Pretlow, would allow “certain interactive poker games (to) be considered games of skill rather than games of luck,” a crucial distinction that would clear the way for New York entering the online poker market. Supporters of the bill noted that many in the state are already gambling using unregulated sites and giving them a legal option. Finding any real sustainable numbers for online poker would mean joining the Multi-State Internet Gaming Agreement (MSIGA), which includes Nevada, New Jersey, Michigan, West Virginia, and Delaware.

Since Addabbo introduced SB 9226 as a standalone online-poker measure with other forms of online gambling removed from earlier measures, neither he nor his office have issued any statement specific to the bill. Though vital in the long run for the success of online poker in New York, online poker still only represents a tiny percent of the revenue available from an expansion into casino-style iGaming. Check out our Poker Player of the Year race, as well as years of data of poker player results and casino poker tournament pay-outs. CardPlayer.com is the world’s oldest and most well-respected poker magazine and online gambling guide.

First, we attempt to summarize the current legal status of online poker in the United States. Simply legalizing online poker seems unlikely to alleviate major MTA funding concerns. Addabbo was a major backer of efforts to legalize online sports betting in the state as well. In May, Addabbo introduced a more scaled-down version of the legislation that only included online poker. Could online gaming, including online poker, be back on the agenda in New York? The hope would be that online gambling legislation now has few roadblocks.

The most remarkable poker platforms include WSOP/888 Poker Network, Borgata Poker Network, and PokerStars NJ. Launched in 2013, WSOP Nevada shares liquidity with the 888 Poker network in New Jersey & 888 Delaware. Whether these bills gain traction remains to be seen, but having legislation on the table is at least a step in the right direction. But given the state’s recent history, lawmakers may still be hesitant. With fewer than 600,000 residents, Wyoming would struggle to sustain a poker market on its own, so linking up with other states is essential. After all, if passed, this bill would mark the first real attempt to bring sweepstakes gaming under state regulation — a move that could set a precedent for other states.

The Restoration of America’s Wire Act, also known as RAWA, was an attempt to reverse the 2011 DOJ decision regarding online gambling as restricted by the Wire Act. The 2011 memo relegating igaming and online lottery decisions to individual states became the national precedent once again. The Federal Wire Act, also known as the Interstate Wire Act of 1961, was the primary law enacted to specifically address sports betting and wagering across state lines using wire communication. For more information about Black Friday and its consequences, visit online poker history in the United States page. In 2017 alone, former UB and AP players were contacted for reimbursement opportunities, and by the end of November, approximately 12,000 players were paid a cumulative total of $37.5 million.

The Hoosier State has been a surprise contender for regulated igaming, having seriously examined several bills in the last few years.
In 2014, a tribal casino opened a live poker room, only for the state to eventually shut it down, effectively ending live poker in Idaho.
Even if a bill is passed, it would likely take at least 18 months before online poker could go live.
The bill’s chances of passing this year remain uncertain, but it represents one of many efforts over the past decade by the state to legalize online poker in particular.
Brand of casinos around the United States, has unveiled a new proposal for a mixed-used development – which includes a casino – in Petersburg, Virginia.

The DOJ also engaged in a far reaching fishing expedition which was widely panned in Europe considering that US authorities were well out of their jurisdiction and ultimately had no authority to enforce their laws across the Atlantic. In addition, it clarified that betting takes place where the user is located and not on the remote server (an argument sometimes made by operators). The language of the Act focused on payments, essentially placing liability on financial institutions and banks and forcing them to proactively restrict all transactions that could be gambling related. It was an amendment to an unrelated legislation (the Port SAFE Act) pushed through the senate floor on the last day before the session closed for the summer. This all changed in September 14, 2006 when the senate passed the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) in a hurriedly fashion and without any traditional discussion or vote.