Hello! Isn't it illegal to play poker on the ...internet

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it's illegal to have anal relations in texas.

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vibrators and dildos are illegal there too.

[Quicksilvre]

Utah is the only state that I know of that has a solid anti-Internet gambling law on the books.

[Niediam]

Michigan does too... and for some reason I want to say that I read that it's illegal in Illinios also.

The U.S. Department of Justice has chosen to interpret a law prohibiting people from using phone lines to make bets in such a way that they say online poker is illegal too. I personally think it's a pretty stupid and unenforceable and the federal government should figure out how to regulate it and be done with it. FFS I can drive 20 minutes and play poker in one of two casinos if I wanted to. I have no problem with the government taking a cut from the casinos. They have more important things to do than screw with millions of online poker players. Just make sure you pay your taxes. Besides, just because they've chosen to interpret the law this way doesn't mean it would ultimately hold up in a court of law.

[tonypaladino]

"The U.S. Department of Justice has chosen to interpret a law prohibiting people from using phone lines to make bets in such a way that they say online poker is illegal too."

The "wire-wager" act specifically applies to phone lines. Those of us with Cable modems are in the clear.

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Michigan does too... and for some reason I want to say that I read that it's illegal in Illinios also.

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I read its illegal in the US....

[Niediam]

It's probably not illegal in the US - we don't actually know as the government has not actually tried to prosecute anybody but most legal experts do not believe such an attempt would succeed.

However, several states (I know for a fact these include Nevada and Michigan) have pased their own laws making internet gambling illegal.

yes, in Illinois, darn "progressive" "can't mind your own business" "we care" "perfectionistic" politicians.

one book had a federal circuit court case that showed that "poker" was not "sports betting" and therefore not illegal. It was in the Frye brothers online poker book.

Oliver Wendell Holmes once said that the law is nothing more than a prediction of how courts will decide a given case.

I would go one step further and add that it is also a function of prosecutorial interest. In this sense, online poker is illegal in the same sense that adultery is illegal. Hello!