Online poker has been illegal in the United States since the passage of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006. The act, known colloquially as UIGEA, was passed as part of a larger legislative package intended to crack down on online gambling.
UIGEA makes it a criminal offense to knowingly participate in or provide financial assistance to any online gambling activity in the United States.
UIGEA is based on Section 201 of the US criminal code, which makes it a crime to “engage in any unlawful internet gambling.” Under UIGEA, this includes not just playing online poker, but also providing money or other resources to help others do so.
Participation in online poker constitutes “unlawful internet gambling” even if you are not actually playing against other people; all you need is access to the internet and an account with a poker site.
UIGEA is an overly broad statute that could be used to Target a wide range of activities that have nothing whatsoever to do with online gambling. For example, providing banking services to an online poker site could be construed as providing financial assistance for unlawful internet gambling activities.
This is why UIGEA has been widely viewed as an overly restrictive statute that goes beyond what is necessary to address concerns about online gambling.
UIGEA has had a significant impact on the way that Americans conduct their business online. Since 2006, many major US poker sites have closed down because they cannot comply with UIGEA’s requirements for verifying customer identities and prohibiting financial transactions related to online gambling.
This has had a serious negative impact on Americans’ ability to participate in legal online poker activities.
In 2011, the US Department of Justice issued a memo stating that UIGEA does not prohibit real money transactions between US players and poker sites located outside of the United States. However, because UIGEA prohibits financial transactions related to online gambling, US players are not allowed to use their own money to buy chips or other gaming assets from foreign sites.
This effectively prevents Americans from participating in legal foreign-based poker tournaments.
In March of this year, Senator Scott Brown (R-MA) introduced legislation that would repeal UIGEA and allow Americans to once again participate in legal online poker activities. However, there is no indication that Congress will take action on this issue anytime soon, so Americans continue to be prohibited from engaging in legal online poker activities.
