Online Poker Illegal??

[JeffO]

It is if you believe what is written in my morning paper. There is a long article on how internet gambling is cutting into the local racetrack revenue. In the article it says " Under Sen. John Kyl's Internet Gambling Prohibition Act, it's been illegal since 1997. According to a Kyl spokesperson, the senator is writing further legislation, however he would not commentuntil the legislation is introduced."

Should those of us making 6 figure incomes from online poker be concerned?

[J.R.]

well, Kyl has been trying for 8 years and hasn't gotten a bill passed yet.

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Should those of us making 6 figure incomes from online poker be concerned?

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yes, only people making at least 100K have to worry about this perpetually unsuccessful legislative campaign bucking history and getting something passed, few else would be impacted cause few are as special as you. [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]


google isn't hard to use

[BigBaitsim (milo)]

I seem to recall the official US gov't opinion is that internet gambling is "probably" illegal. Problem is, there are no actual laws on the books against it yet. It is illegal in some states, although I don't know that anyone's been prosecuted. This site has a lot of good, specific info listed by state.

[CORed]

Is online poker illegal? Possibly; almost certainly under some state laws.

Are the current laws, or any future, more explicit laws that may be passed enforceable? Probably not. I would me more concerned about laws that might make it difficult to get money into online gambling sites, or laws that would require ISP's to block gambling sites. Both approaches have been proposed. How effective they would be remains to be seen. I don't think prosecution of indivdual online gamblers is too likely. I seem to recall a case in South Dakota (or was it North Dakota?) of an online sports bettor being prosecuted under state laws. As I recall, he ended up pleading guilty and paying a few hundred dollar fine.

[LaggyLou]

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Are the current laws, or any future, more explicit laws that may be passed enforceable? Probably not.

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You must be joking. I could easily write a statute prohibiting playing online poker that would be enforceable.

[ThaHero]

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Are the current laws, or any future, more explicit laws that may be passed enforceable? Probably not.

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You must be joking. I could easily write a statute prohibiting playing online poker that would be enforceable.

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I'm not exactly sure. I would imagine most people don't mention gambling online when filing taxes and saying whether they made this money online or not. Also, many of the companies are offshore, so I would assume they are out of the jurisdiction of the U.S. Government or any State gov'ts as well, so they couldn't be forced to give up user information.

I'm no legal expert, and if I'm wrong, that's fine. But I don't think it would be all that easy to enforce a prohibition on internet gambling.

[Kurn, son of Mogh]

Gambling laws are the responsibility of the states, not the federal government. IIRC, the only states that have laws specifically making gambling on the internet illegal are Nevada and North Dakota.

For more info, check this site

[Neurotoxin]

I'd move out of the country the next day.