Online Texas Holdem Poker: Legal or Not?

Neither of your authors is a lawyer, and the discussion that follows is not legal advice. Every jurisdiction’s laws are different, and court rulings can be superseded by later decisions. The information provided here may not apply to your circumstance. If you have any doubt as to whether online holdem poker is legal where you live, seek competent legal advice from a licensed attorney.

Online Texas Holdem Poker in the United States

Is it against the law to play online texas holdem poker while in the United States ? The United States federal government would like you to think it is, but the only relevant case was decided against it. The Federal District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana found that the Federal Interstate Wire Act, which outlaws sending or receiving sports bets over a out. The same thing goes for significant others, such as girlfriends, boyfriends, spouses, and pets. They all require nourishment, attention, and tender loving care, so you need to make time to get away from the neat video game you’ve found and fan the flames of whatever romance, friendship, or outside interest that makes life worth living.

One of the advantages of online play, the speed of the game and the increased number of hands you get to play per hour, is also one of the biggest downfalls for new players. We both took some time to adjust to the pace of online play, just as we went through a bit of a transition when we realized how fast casino holdem and other poker games were as compared to the kitchen table games we’d played throughout college. Increasing the number of hands you play magnifies losing streaks as well as winning streaks, so your variance (a statistical measure of how much data in a set, such as your hourly poker wins and losses, jumps around) is much, much higher.

Another serious disadvantage of playing online is the lack of human contact. Yes, if you’re awkward around your fellow humans, it might seem like a dream come true to be able to play in the privacy of your own home, but the best way to overcome social awkwardness is to put yourself out there and learn. Another down side of not being able to see your competition is that there is no way to verify whether or not your opponents are sharing information. It’s pretty easy to prevent players from exchanging information verbally in a live game, but there is absolutely no way you can detect a cell phone when you’re in one country and your opponents are somewhere around the globe. Along the same lines, you can’t see a player’s hand shake when they place a bet. You still have to decide whether that shaking means they’re nervous because they’re bluffing or because they flopped a straight flush and are afraid you won’t call, but at least the information is there for you.

Neither of your authors is a lawyer, and the discussion that follows is not legal advice. Every jurisdiction’s laws are different, and court rulings can be superseded by later decisions. The information provided here may not apply to your circumstance. If you have any doubt as to whether online texas holdem is legal where you live, seek competent legal advice from a licensed attorney.

Is it against the law to play online holdem while in the United States ? The United States federal government would like you to think it is, but the only relevant case was decided against it. The Federal District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana found that the Federal Interstate Wire Act, which outlaws sending or receiving sports bets over a wire-based communication medium, didn’t apply. Here’s the part of the Wire Act the court considered most relevant:

The Department of Justice’s argument boiled down to the assertion that the word sporting only modified the word event and not the word contest. Under their interpretation, betting of any sort over a phone line or telegraph service would be illegal. The court disagreed with the Department of Justice’s semantic juggling, however,

The government appealed the ruling to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, which also found against them. With specific regard to the Wire Act, the appeals court wrote:

The appeals court further found that “because the Wire Act does not prohibit non-sports internet gambling, any debts incurred in connection with such gambling are not illegal.”

So don’t think you can get out of your online holdem debts by claiming the credit card companies have no right to collect a gambling debt. As the courts interpret the law, all you’re doing with your credit card is taking out a cash advance. What you do with the money you receive is up to you.

Online Holdem in Individual U.S. States

According to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, there is no national law on the books that prohibits non-sports Internet gambling. However, each state has its own gambling laws.

The laws are too numerous and varied to discuss here, but you can find both a summary and the full text of each state’s gambling laws at www.gambling-law-us.com/. Chuck Humphrey, the lawyer who runs the site, specializes in gaming, business, securities and exchange, and venture capital law.

It’s interesting to note that the laws are all constructed to prevent interstate gambling, but it’s OK for state residents to place a bet on a game run by a legal gambling operation based in that state. For example, it’s only legal for a Nevada resident to place a bet at an online poker room that is hosted by a Nevada corporation. How convenient.

Laws of other Countries

As with individual U.S. states, keeping track of the gaming laws in foreign lands is a fulltime occupation. Even the U.S. government’s General Accounting Office (GAO) had a hard time figuring out where online gambling was legal, as noted in a 2002 GAO report:

Conclusion

Our best guess is that online texas holdem is probably legal in the United States unless your state or locality has a law that prohibits you from placing bets over the Internet. Other countries’ laws depend on each nation’s court and judicial system, so it is your responsibility to check your local laws and, if necessary, get legal advice to aid your decision on whether to play or not.