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Legal Poker Sites California
- California Poker – Legal Online Poker in the State of California Online Poker has become extremely popular around the world in recent years. In fact, it is now the preferred medium of playing poker for many amateurs and professionals alike.
- Online Poker California Laws. Outside of the states where online poker is fully regulated, the law in regards to Californian online poker sites and gambling, in general, is among the most liberal in the US.This then is only good news for gamblers of other states as California is only a few steps behind being fully legalized.
Some of those that stand out in the state include: Commerce Casino Bicycle Club Gardens Bay 101 Hustler Ocean’s Eleven.
Online Poker has become extremely popular around the world in recent years. In fact, it is now the preferred medium of playing poker for many amateurs and professionals alike. Contrary to popular belief, It is actually California which is considered the center of the poker universe and not Nevada. The reason that California has gained this reputation is due the fact that several high stakes games and tournaments are frequently hosted within the state throughout the year.
However, there seems to be a lot of confusion amongst online poker players and online gamblers in general about the legal status of online gambling in the Golden state.
In this article, we will take a deeper dive into the murky waters that is – the legislation that governs online casinos in California, and shed some much-needed light on it.
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Contents
- Legislation governing online poker in California
- Essentials of playing online poker in California
Most recent gambling news from the state of California
More often than not, the state of California makes it into gambling headlines as a result of some form of delay or disagreement with regards to the state attempting to regulate online poker and other forms of online gambling. It has been a decade and the state has remained highly indecisive about whether they are pro and anti and it seems like they just keep turning the tables back and forth periodically. Even though some progress has been made in recent years to thwart away opposition of horse racing, there is still a certain piece of legislation called the bad actor clause which is still in place and does not seem to budge or compromise even a bit.
In February 2018, Assemblyman Reggie Jones Sawyer proposed a bill in favor of online gambling, but faced such fierce opposition from proponents of the bad actor clause that the bill went down in flames, figuratively, just a few months after it was proposed.
Legislation governing online poker in California
The path to legalization of online gambling and online poker in California has been a long, winding one with a lot of pitfalls. As per Assemblyman Mike Gatto, Californian legislators come up with an average of 2 – 6 gambling bills almost every year since 2008 and not a single one of them has come anywhere close to being passed or enforced.
Eventually, after a final push in 2016 for the long pending legalization of online gambling in California, the matter has now been left hanging in limbo. Yes, it is basically on an indefinite hold at this point in time. In fact, the journey has been so upsetting and the source of such strong frustration that several lawmakers and supporters of legalization have hung up their gloves and called it quits.
Bad Actors – what are they?
As per the law books, a “bad actor” is an online gambling establishment such as an online casino or poker room which continues or continued to accept real money bets from American players even after the passing of the UIGEA was enforced officially as of the last day of the year 2016. UIGEA (Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act) basically outlaws American residents from playing real money gambling on the internet.
A quintessential example of a bad actor is PokerStars, a popular online poker room where even coveted professionals hold accounts and play frequently. Despite the passing of the UIGEA, PokerStars continued to accept American players into their online poker rooms and tournaments. They only stopped when the US Department of Justice seized the domain and charges were pressed against as many as 13 people from the company on the very same day. The same also happened with Full Tilt Poker and several other online poker rooms.
PokerStars settled the case by paying a staggering fine of over $700 million. PokerStars was then taken over by Rational Group for just under 5 billion US dollars and Rational Group tried every trick in the book to push for the legalization of this website throughout America. However, PokerStars remained blacklisted in the following states due to the bad actors clause in the state legislation of these states – Nevada, New Jersey, Delaware.
Essentials of playing online poker in California
If there is one thing you need to know about poker and online poker specifically in California, it is that it is highly popular throughout the state. This may be attributed to the many Californian players that are ranked highly in the world stage of poker, it can also be attributed to the fact that there is year-round poker action in the state’s card rooms, etc. Whatever the reason for the widespread popularity, California beats other states in terms of number of online poker players by a long mile.
Are Californians able to sign up at online poker sites?
In States like New York and Maryland, Poker players are being declined when they attempt to sign up and register accounts with online poker sites. However, thankfully, this is not the case with California. All the top, legal websites that have been ranked and reviewed on our websites recognize and accept players from California.
Therefore, signing up and playing online poker from California is absolutely fine. You just register an account, provide your details and you can get started playing in a matter of minutes.
Is online poker legal or not in California?
Provided that we are not legal counsellors, this is a question that we are technically not qualified to answer. Having said that, we have been in the industry for decades and so we can give you an insight into the current pragmatic status of online poker in California. Be it legal or not, it is certainly a gray area. However, what you should know and what will put things in perspective is that if you do choose to play online poker as a Californian resident, you are certainly not going to get into any legal trouble. Even if it is outlawed, it is just something that cannot be enforced and never has any criminal charge been pressed or action been taken against an individual player for online poker in the state of California.
Will California regulate online poker?
The fact is that the demand for online poker is humongous in California. Even though the legislation and the bad actor clause is providing some resistance, people are already playing online poker in California, in fact, hundreds of thousands of Californians play online poker.
Therefore, it is virtually impossible for the state to penalize them all. Eventually, the state is going to have to recognize the demand and realize that their prohibition is not going to work. The only thing that will work is to legalize online poker fully, regulate it, make is safe and fair for all Californians and even maybe generate some revenue by taxing the industry. Therefore, it is not a matter of whether California will regulate online poker, but a question of when California will regulate online poker.
Are you looking for the best US legal online poker sites or a real money poker app? If the answer is yes, then you came to the right place. This is one of our many online poker reviews where you can find more about the best online poker options.
Without further ado, keep reading to discover how to play the best online poker for money and how to form an online poker strategy. So, let’s get started!
Contents
Best Legal Online Poker Sites
- WSOP
- PartyPoker
- PokerStars
- Pala Poker
- 888poker
- Global Poker
Is online poker legal? It's not always the same as legal online casinos and legal online sportsbooks. All new players who decide to explore the vast universe of real money poker sites should know that federally, online poker sites are illegal. However, on the individual level, online poker is legal in some of the states.
Some websites such as Global Poker (which is a sweepstakes poker site) are allowed in 49 out of 50 US states. Only Washington does not allow it. At the moment of writing our online poker reviews, only four states offer legal online poker websites in the United States. These are the following: Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Nevada and Delaware.
For more information about some of the available sites, make sure to consult our Global Poker review.
US Legal Online Poker: State by State
Is online poker legal in your state? If the answer is no, keep in mind that the situation can change pretty quickly. Unsurprisingly, Nevada was the leader of regulated online poker. Once the ice was broken, the domino-effect followed.
One by one, many states tried or are still trying to pass the legislation. As you can see, some of them even succeeded. The last one to recently pass online poker is West Virginia, and we expect more legal US poker sites to be launched in the future.
When it comes to future predictions, we believe that chances are pretty good for some of the states to overcome all the legal obstacles and finally launch real money poker sites so their residents become able to play legal online poker.
Arizona, Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Ohio, New York are some of the states that’ll probably make some innovations when it comes to the possibilities of playing poker online. These are the states that have active supporters of online poker in the state senate.
What’s more, regulated real money poker sites in neighboring states can only have a positive effect on public opinion. Additionally, within the borders of the aforementioned states, you can find a considerable number of land-based casinos.
Many of them come with the best online poker rooms where you can play various variants of poker, including the most popular one - Texas Hold’em. In other words, these poker offline options make it easier to launch legal poker sites and eventually start to offer legal online poker.
States Where Legal Online Poker Seems Like a Distant Dream
From this point of view, Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Kentucky, Nebraska, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah are just some of the states where we can see a certain legislative hostility towards online gambling. Therefore, we don’t believe that we won’t be able to play Texas Hold’em online there for quite some time.
Sweepstakes Legal Online Poker - Play Poker Free No Matter Which State You’re In
As said before, Global Poker, a sweepstakes legal online poker site, can be accessed in all US states except for the state of Washington. This legal online poker platform was launched in 2106, and since then, many players use its services. The virtual currency gaming business model is what makes it unique.
Instead of playing for real money, players play poker free, using gold coins or sweeps cash. That’s why Global Poker often appears when players search for “play poker free” or “play poker online, free”.
To understand how sweepstakes poker works, let’s start with some poker basics and make sure to understand sweeps poker terminology clearly. There’s a difference between gold coins and sweeps cash, and there’s a reason for which “play poker online, free” is actually a bit of a misnomer here.
Gold Coins are the name for the virtual currency in Global Poker, and they are equivalent to what regular legal online poker sites usually call “play money”. In other words, you can’t cash them out, but you can use them to play Texas Hold’em online or participate in some of the available tournaments with other players. On the other hand, “$weeps cash” is a promotional, virtual currency that can be cashed out through PayPal.
To sum up, you can buy gold coins that don’t have any monetary value and can’t be cashed out. “$weeps cash” is obtained as free of charge once you buy Gold Coins. Because of this virtual currency online poker model, Global Poker is not quite considered an online gambling activity. Therefore, it’s allowed in almost all of the US.
Where Can I Play Legal Online Poker in the US?
Pennsylvania is the last state where online poker had become legal when PokerStars was launched there at the end of 2019. Right now that’s also the only available option to play online poker for money in Pennsylvania.
If we don’t count Global Poker, which can be accessed in 49 states, all the other legal online poker sites come with pretty restricted access. For example, Pala Poker and PartyPoker are only available in the state of New Jersey.
However, they are not the only NJ poker sites one can access. WSOP, America's top legal online poker site, is available in the Garden State, and it’s also accessible to all Nevada online poker fans as well. Likewise, PokerStars NJ, available both independently and within the FOX Bet app
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get a $1,000 signup bonus!Where Can I Play Poker Live?
Most of the land-based casinos across different states include special poker rooms where you can play live poker. Playing Texas Hold’em online is definitely the most popular option. After all, poker is an American thing, so it’s no wonder to see it available in the vast majority of mortar and bricks casinos.
In fact, instead of listing all the states where you can sit back, relax and try out your luck with live poker, it’s better to list all those where you can’t play poker online. It’ll be easier to remember this list:
- Alaska
- Georgia
- Hawaii
- New Hampshire
- Tennessee
- Texas
- Utah
We must add that in Texas, private poker clubs aren’t forbidden. As long as no house makes a profit from the game, poker can be played in private places for fun.
US Online Poker Basics
When talking about the current status of legal US poker sites, there are two especially important laws that you should be aware of. Let’s take a look at these two federal laws that govern online poker in the country.
The Wire Act
Legal California Online Poker Sites
The first one is the Interstate Wire Act of 1961, often called the Federal Wire Act. As you can see, it passed long before online poker or even the internet existed. However, it prohibits certain types of betting businesses to operate via wired communications.
In 2011, the US Department of Justice concluded that the scope of the act was limited to sporting events. Therefore, states, where online poker is now regulated, found that the bill didn’t apply to online poker nor other forms of gambling.
However, in 2019, the US Department of Justice reversed its opinion. The new opinion concludes that the Wire Act applies to all types of online gambling.
The UIGEA
The other relevant law is the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) from 2006. This law made it illegal for US banks to proceed with transactions for offshore gambling companies. That’s how they were pushed out of the market.
History of US Legal Online Poker
Online casinos started to appear back in 1994. They were usually situated in Antigua or the Isle of Man. However, the vast majority of their users were US-based customers. Two years later, in 1996, online gambling was also brought to the North American market soil.
The Kahnawake Gaming Commission was established just outside Montreal. They started issuing licenses, and pretty soon, it was possible to find hundreds of new online gambling websites.
Once again, two years later and again in Canada, the first-ever poker online website saw the light of day. Planet Poker was the favorite source of fun to thousands of Americans who were spending endless hours playing the first real-money online Texas Hold’em.
Over the next few years, thanks to technological advances, better online poker software was developed, while the number of websites kept increasing. These online poker operators also started to offer various tournaments and cash games and got a solid fan base all over the world.
The Industry Kept Growing & Then It Collapsed
Even though there were different interpretations of the law, especially of the famous Wire Act, the newly developed industry kept growing.
The year 2003 is especially important in the evolution of online poker. Using an account from Tennessee, Chris Moneymaker won the World Series of Poker after participating in the event through an online satellite. In Chris Moneymaker's case, we guess, it's okay to say that name determines destiny.
This online poker strategy was live-streamed on ESPN. Suddenly, the whole nation knew about Chris's story. A good number of Americans were hoping to be the next. All of a sudden, poker was everywhere on TV. Live games were followed carefully, and commercial breaks had one purpose: promoting online poker for money and playing Texas Hold 'em online.
The great number of promoted sites were, in fact, offshore online poker sites. A lot of them disappeared from American browsers after Congress passed the above-mentioned UIGEA in 2006.
However, even though a lot of sites weren't accessible anymore, online poker couldn't be erased that easily. Some of the offshore gambling companies had found a way around the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006, but not for long.
In 2011, some of the largest online poker operators, including PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker, and Absolute Poker/Ultimate Bet, were accused of violating UIGEA and money laundering. These websites were definitely excluded from the significant US online poker market, which seemed to come to an end at the time.
Legal Online Poker Sites Rise Again
Also in 2011, the DOJ released a legal opinion that the Federal Wire act exclusively applied only to one form of gambling: sports betting. A few states saw this as a possibility, paving the way to regulated online casinos and legal US poker sites.
In 2012, Delaware was the first state that managed to do just that. Then, in December 2013, Nevada followed the example of passing online poker legislation. A week later, the Garden State became the third to legalize online gambling, and plans for NJ poker sites were made.
The first-ever regulated US online poker site was launched in Nevada in April 2013. Delaware and NJ poker sites went live that same year, a few months later. In 2017, Pennsylvania became the fourth state to join this group. West Virginia is the fifth state where online poker was regulated in 2019. Probably, more states will try to do the same thing in the near future.
Which State is Next?
Is online poker legal in California or New York? This is one of the frequently asked questions that people search for in the USA. They also search for different terms of poker terminology that sound unfamiliar to them. However, that’s another question that we could discuss on some other occasion.
Let’s get back to our question of legal online poker sites and the possible new markets in the USA. Michigan has made significant efforts to legalize online gambling, particularly online poker, while California, New York, and Massachusetts also seem to be moving in the right direction.
Real Money Poker App: How to Find the Best Poker App
It doesn’t matter if you are a Pennsylvania online poker fan or a regular visitor of NJ poker sites, the good news is that you can play poker whenever you want, anywhere within the borders of one or the other state.
Many of the best online poker websites have launched a dedicated real money poker app that you can easily download and install on your device. The best poker apps are available for both iOS and Android operating systems.
In order to find the best poker app, make sure you visit one of the websites we listed at the beginning of our review.
Legal Online Poker Sites In California
Also, before you replace your poker offline adventure with the one that can be found on the internet, make sure to read some of the online poker reviews and get to know the poker terminology used by the players worldwide. After a brief introduction to the poker basics, it’s time to create your own online poker strategy and join one of the legal online poker communities!