U.S. Poker Rooms

International Gaming Laws for US Residents

Online Poker has made the game immediately available to individuals from every walk of life and can be played in every corner of the world.

However, some sites are unable to take US residents on board as members because of the gambling laws in the US. Before seeing how this affects poker in general, let’s have a look at how gambling laws work in the United States and try to understand the implications they have on both US residents and the game of poker itself.

Gaming and gambling have enjoyed a massive boost in the US, particularly following the internet explosion that has taken place in recent years. Throughout the past decade or so, the overwhelming majority of US States have expanded the aspect of legalised gaming to include lotteries and regulated casino games. Native land-based casino operations have become much more common and that has led to the gaming laws being frequently modernised to comply with the current boom.

The terms ‘Gamble’ and ‘Gambling’ have come to generalise the act that may fall foul of the applicable criminal laws of a particular state. ‘Gaming’ is specifically reserved to describe an activity that has been legalised by applicable law or has been exempted from it. Hence, playing a casino-style game for profit is now referred to as ‘Gambling’ because there are no US states that have specifically authorised a website to operate that allows gamers to make a profit.

The two words in themselves are not completely exclusive. As such a ‘Gaming’ activity can become ‘Gambling’ if the applicable laws of a particular state dictate that regulations in place have been violated. In much the same way, ‘Gambling’ can be deemed as ‘Gaming’ if it is found to be exempt from criminal statute.

An example of this would be a card game in a social arena where none of the players make a profit. Such a game would merely be ‘Gaming’ as they are excluded from the reach of anti-gambling law.

Complicated, isn’t it?       read more ...