How the US Combats Illegal Poker Sites

Whether you’re a seasoned online poker player, casual bettor or someone thinking about hosting your own poker website it’s important to stay on the right side of the legislation in the industry. The United States government has been very strict with its regulation of online poker, with the infamous Black Friday action back in April 2011. Let’s assess how the country deals with online poker sites and attempting to shut down the illegal ones.

Make It Difficult for Sites to Procure Funds

One of the biggest challenges that both legal and illegal poker sites face is being able to procure funds from their customers. This is because the laws that banks have to abide by mean that it’s incredibly difficult for any gambling site in the US to offer conventional banking methods, they’ve got to undergo rigorous tests. The top brands will be able to pass these and offer banking via regular means. However, illegal and offshore poker sites will try to make customers deposit funds through unfamiliar means like Cryptocurrency and different apps that have not entered the mainstream.

Legitimate banking and financial firms can be resistant to working with poker sites for fear of not complying with ever-changing regulations and possibly being fined as a result.

Add Pressure on Internet Service Providers

One of the biggest tools that the US government uses is the ability to add pressure on internet service providers to do their work. ISPs can be ordered to remove access to specific sites upon the government’s requests, which are chiefly poker sites that the regime sees as a risk. Legit sites will be found if you look for the best online poker site on this page, but others lurk on less trustworthy websites and some illegal links will still slip through the cracks too.

Devolving Responsibility to State Governments

Since the Black Friday incident in 2011, the central federal government in America has largely given responsibility back to state legislations to run and regulate their online poker activity. This has made it harder for sites to work in the country as the same provider will have to meet different criteria for all the states it wishes to operate in. That’s if the state allows them to do so at all.

This also means that the local authorities work closely with the law enforcement bodies in the area to ensure that these laws are abided by, allowing police officers to shut down sites that are functioning in their state, illegally.

The fact that the law can change from state to state is befitting with the general wording of the law surrounding online poker in the US. It is confusing even to those who are passionate about the pastime and have researched it. The lack of clarity and confusion-causing conjecture on the matter seems to be another method that the US government tries to deter people from playing online poker.

Criminalising Offenders

In the summer of 2023, seven people were indicted for the possession and operation of an illegal poker website. The New York state police raided a building in Rochester where the business is believed to have been hosted from. While the final verdict and sentencing have not been confirmed, they are looking at a serious fine and/or jail time.  Acting with a heavy hand in these publicly followed cases sets an example of how seriously the authorities will deal with those who break the law by operating illegal poker sites in the US.

Can’t Stop Offshore Sites

One aspect that the US and every government face is that it is very hard to control or seize offshore poker sites. These websites are regulated by other nation’s governments but just make their site accessible to a global audience. When a customer uses one of these sites they’ll have signed an agreement in the terms and conditions that states they are conducting business outside of the US. As it’s not technically taking place in America, the local authorities have no jurisdiction over the website.

Many US politicians have referred to offshore sites as ‘illegal US-facing’ platforms. While in theory, they oppose the idea of nonchalant betting, seeing the popularity of such sites and the money spent by the American population, American dignitaries often find a new problem. That is there is a sizable amount of money leaving the US economy as gamblers are betting on offshore poker sites. This has led to some trying to legalise the practice to benefit from the activity as income revenue.