Gov. Gavin Newsom Signs California Sweepstakes Casino Ban Into Law

Gaming Law, Gambling Legislation Mid Year Update

In January, PokerNews spoke with New York State Senator Joseph Addabbo Jr. about his efforts to bring online poker to the state’s 20 million residents. “First, FanDuel is supportive of the provision authorizing the Governor to enter into agreements with other states for multi-jurisdictional Internet games such as poker,” Ventre told Connecticut lawmakers on Wednesday. While a firm launch date has not been set, industry experts anticipate that the first legal poker hands could be dealt later in 2026 or early 2027. In any case, players must still wait for regulation to be drafted, with the Maine Gambling Control Unit responsible for drafting the specific rules and licensing requirements. Other states with bills put forward for online gaming and poker so far this year include Massachusetts, Indiana, and Wyoming. There are 34 New York casinos overall, 21 tribal and 13 commercial, which employed nearly 70,000 as of 2023 and brought in $4.72 billion in gross gaming revenue.

It’s not uncommon for poker enthusiasts from nearby states to drive to Nevada just to play poker online! However, state-regulated US poker sites aren’t yet available in these two states. If you play for real money, make sure that you do not play for more than you can afford losing, and that you only play at safe and regulated operators. If even one or two of these new bills pass in 2025, the landscape for US online poker could look very different a year from now.

Bet MGM then hopped on board less than two months later, and the state of Michigan is now pulling in massive online poker revenue. Poker players in the state get to compete on the WSOP.com platform, as part of the NV/NJ shared liquidity deal. This is the ability to share player pools for tournaments and cash games across state lines in other jurisdictions, which improves revenue opportunities greatly.

Live poker rooms are limited to Indian reservations in a few areas, with Black Hawk being the most notable and top place to play in Colorado. Alaska hasn’t passed any sort of legislation that is pro-poker, and there’s no reason to expect a bill to be brought forth near to hand, although stranger things have happened. If you’re still wanting to play poker in the state, there is an alternative. Major poker sites such as PokerStars haven’t been accessible from Alabama since Black Friday on April 15, 2011, when the US Department of Justice (DOJ) forced the top sites to cease operations in the United States.

To alleviate cannibalization concerns, gaming law and sports betting attorney Daniel Wallach has said any iGaming legislation in union-friendly states like Maryland should offer some kind of job guarantees. It is the responsibility of consumers to be aware of & comply with any state and national laws that apply to them regarding online poker and online gaming in general. Editorial team curates and publishes in-depth reviews and ratings of online poker sites by using their extensive industry experience. While having access to a regulated online poker site is currently possible only in four states, live poker is accessible in almost all US states. WSOP.com is legally available to US players in New Jersey, Nevada, and Delaware. By using this model on their online poker site, Global Poker is not considered real money online gambling.

Pennsylvania and New Jersey each generate tens of millions annually, funding budgets and responsible-gaming programs. Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, and New York are next in line, with legislation or hearings already advancing. Tribal compacts remain central to these disputes and often delay the introduction of new legislation. Each region’s political culture, tribal agreements, and market priorities shape the pace of legalization and the structure of oversight. Delaware, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania participate in MSIGA. Meeting federal banking standards allows legal processing of deposits and withdrawals much more easily.

Online poker players will find no specific mention of their game on the books, but other rules may still apply regardless. State does allow some regulated forms of real-money poker, but all unregulated forms are potentially subject to New Mexico’s anti-gambling laws. A pioneer of regulated online gaming in the US, New Jersey long ago eclipsed $1B in igaming revenue. Online poker seems unlikely in coming years, but Nebraska lawmaker proposed legal live poker in 2021 as a skill game. The Show Me State has been willing to examine sports betting bills in the last few years and is likely to join the ranks of legal online betting for sports soon.

• Enforcement remains active, and residents risk penalties for playing on unlicensed sites.
• While live poker is permitted in the state of New Mexico, there is no legislation that considers online poker.
• Liberalization in B&M, with a new jointly owned Mohegan/Foxwoods Casino opening soon, means there is need for incremental revenue – which online brings.
• PokerStars opened its online poker site in PA in late 2019 and remained the only operator for more than a year.
• This state is frequently mentioned as a possible place where regulated online poker could both come to pass and thrive.

Should the market launch, major operators like BetMGM, PokerStars, WSOP, and BetRivers are expected to enter the fray. The absence of such language is especially surprising given that similar bills introduced by other state lawmakers this year include provisions for joining interstate compacts. Each interactive gaming licensee would be limited to offering a single branded skin, consistent with previous proposals. In related news, the House is considering a bill to create a gaming commission. Along with this bill, the Senate also approved three other gambling-related measures.

Yet the consistent push for legalization highlights growing public demand and a shifting political climate. AN ACT TO AMEND TITLES 4 AND 29 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO THE STATE LOTTERY (Legis Delaware) Always conduct your own research to ensure legality from your location before placing a wager.

In a world where digital overload is real, these built-in features help reduce the risks and could become essential for any state hoping to win public trust in future poker legislation. He’s currently a Pro with Americas Cardroom, a site operating in the legal gray zone that many offshore sites occupy. Many major operators pulled out of the US market, while others tried to navigate loopholes, arguing that poker was a game of skill, not chance.

Currently, the only legal gambling in Georgia is the… Read more » Since 2018, sports betting has taken off across the States of America. New Jersey also approved a law banning these operators in August. Sweeps companies have also noted that users aren’t required to buy anything and that their games should be treated more like traditional mobile gaming.

Gov. Gavin Newsom Signs California Sweepstakes Casino Ban Into Law

The aim of UIGEA is to make it a criminal offense for banks and financial firms in the US to process deposits or withdrawals to or from non-regulated online gambling sites. Outside of these legal sports books, it’s not legal to play real money games online. Both West Virginia and Michigan passed the gambling legislation for regulated real money internet poker in 2019. Unfortunately, these poker platforms don’t grant access to WSOP Online events for players in Delaware. From the US states with regulated online poker, Delaware is the smallest one.

Is Poker Legal in New Jersey?

The DOJ also engaged in a far reaching fishing expedition which was widely panned in Europe considering that US authorities were well out of their jurisdiction and ultimately had no authority to enforce their laws across the Atlantic. In addition, it clarified that betting takes place where the user is located and not on the remote server (an argument sometimes made by operators). The language of the Act focused on payments, essentially placing liability on financial institutions and banks and forcing them to proactively restrict all transactions that could be gambling related. It was an amendment to an unrelated legislation (the Port SAFE Act) pushed through the senate floor on the last day before the session closed for the summer. This all changed in September 14, 2006 when the senate passed the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) in a hurriedly fashion and without any traditional discussion or vote.

Poker players who want to play online have no ‘legal’ option – and must play on one of the US-Friendly offshore poker sites. There is, perhaps, an alternate universe where online poker advocates attempted to piggyback on sports betting, instead of online casinos. With its population of over 13 million and over 150,000 online poker players, Pennsylvania brings much-anticipated shared liquidity to a player pool that includes players from New Jersey, Nevada, Delaware, West Virginia, and Michigan. Again we emphasize some of this is little better than guesswork, but we have incorporated as much information as possible, including state law regarding land-based gaming and gambling, as well as any recent history of legislation pertinent to online poker. While poker players and the fledgling state online poker sites were delighted by this development, nobody was particularly surprised given that the original wording of the Wire Act seemed perfectly transparent on the matter. Addabbo introduced legislation in 2024 to legalize online poker and casinos, but the measure faltered.

The Kentucky Horse Racing and Gaming Corporation would be in charge of regulating riverboat and land-based casinos as well as fantasy sports. State Delegate Vanessa Atterbeary (D) has already filed a bill to legalize online gaming. The Old Line State has flirted with online gaming legalization in the past.

The most important feature for operators in these states is poker liquidity. Michigan and Pennsylvania are the only states since 2013 to pass legislation and launch sites, with Michigan the most recent in 2019. Additionally, regulatory bodies must carefully balance player freedom with necessary oversight to foster innovation while safeguarding consumers.

The online poker bill, which was introduced this week, mentions both Texas Hold’em and Omaha and cites case law that has determined poker to be a game of skill rather than a game of chance. Meanwhile, fellow Democrat David Weprin’s AB 1580 would allow “any person who holds a license to sell alcoholic beverages for consumption on premises to allow players to engage in certain recreational contests,” including contests involving poker. Assembly Bill 1380, sponsored by Democratic State Assemblyman J. Gary Pretlow, would allow “certain interactive poker games (to) be considered games of skill rather than games of luck,” a crucial distinction that would clear the way for New York entering the online poker market. Supporters of the bill noted that many in the state are already gambling using unregulated sites and giving them a legal option. Finding any real sustainable numbers for online poker would mean joining the Multi-State Internet Gaming Agreement (MSIGA), which includes Nevada, New Jersey, Michigan, West Virginia, and Delaware.

Alex Weldon is a gambling journalist from Nova Scotia, Canada, serving as Managing Editor for PokerScout. Shapiro even accepted an invitation to a poker game for government officials inside the PokerGO Studio in Las Vegas. Shapiro, who made national headlines earlier this month after an arson attack at the Pennsylvania governor’s mansion that caused him and his family to evacuate, said he generally supported personal freedoms like gambling and added that he thought joining MSIGA could encourage other states to follow suit. Use our free fold equity calculator before you shove www.pokernewsdaily.com your next flush draw to make sure your play is +EV. Kentucky may get bumped up to the “possible” category given legislation has been drafted, but our guess is the powerful horse racing lobby will prevent its passage. Our pessimism stems from the fact that multiple attempts to pass legislation have been made, always running into seemingly insurmountable obstacles.

Poker and Gambling Laws by State

Proposals to expand gaming face resistance from conservative lawmakers. Without voter approval, the legal status of poker remains unchanged. Gambling is restricted to Deadwood casinos and tribal facilities under the oversight of the South Dakota Gaming Commission. While poker platforms are still under development and no operator has yet launched, the statute provides a clear legal pathway.

Online poker players in Pennsylvania will have to wait longer before they can see any progress regarding shared liquidity… Sen. Ted Cruz and Democrat Catherine Cortez Masto are now teaming up in hopes of undoing the new clause in Donald Trump’s sweeping tax bill aimed at poker players before it goes into effect in 2026 Legal online poker sites in the United States varies from state to state, but among the biggest are WSOP.com, PokerStars on FanDuel, BetMGM Poker, and BetRivers Poker. In 2013, Nevada and Delaware became the first two states to offer online poker, while New Jersey would join later that year. They skirted the law by disguising player financial transactions as something non-poker related (i.e. showing up as “flowers” on a credit card transaction). While PartyPoker and 888poker respected the UIGEA by no longer offering their services to US players, PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker, and the Cereus Network (UltimateBet & Absolute Poker) continued on.

States with licensing regimes of their own are adding new operators and new poker skins, and more states are considering proposals and bills. Nevertheless, this interstate relationship allows for more liquidity and a larger overall player pool across the two time zones. Some poker sites left the US market at that point, while others waited and fell to the Department of Justice site seizures of April 15, 2011, a date that came to be known as Black Friday. The United States government followed the poker boom closely enough to notice that the global poker sites were not paying taxes in America.

Stones Gambling Hall, the card room at the center of a massive cheating scandal which exploded in September 2019, is seeking to dismiss the pending civil lawsuit against it A long-standing legal saga involving Poker Hall of Famer Phil Ivey and the Borgata Casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey is nearing an end. SCOTUSblog founder Tom Goldstein pleaded not guilty to 22 charges, including tax evasion, after allegedly concealing millions in poker winnings from the IRS.

Given its established gaming infrastructure and readiness to consider online expansion, the state’s poker laws are likely to change soon. Sports betting has been the main focus of previous attempts to legalize online gambling in this state, and it became legal in 2021. Some lawmakers considered regulating poker after Kansas successfully implemented mobile sports betting in 2022, but no specific poker bill has been submitted. The Iowa legislature favors sports betting over casino-style gaming, which is limited to tribes and riverboats. Although it has no authority over poker sites, the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission oversees casinos that hold licenses.

These games must not have wagers of more than $1,000 in a 24-hour period. All of this resulted in quite a few offshore poker providers pulling out of the state as it just didn’t seem worth the trouble. Unfortunately for Kansans, the once wild and free state is now a little more prohibitive when it comes to gambling. Better yet, is the fact that there are several offshore poker providers that allow Georgians to register on their platforms. Gambling liberalisation across the State but no specific interactive gaming moves – yet.

Legislators in Delaware weren’t going to get left in the dust regarding online poker regulation. Revenue numbers and statistics are not available for much of Nevada’s online poker history because regulations stipulate that there are not enough sites to warrant the distribution of that information. Ultimate gaming was the first company to launch online poker for residents of Nevada in April 2013 via a partnership with Station Casinos. WV did sign the multi-state poker agreement in late 2023, though no online poker sites have yet come forth with the intention to launch there. They are the only state to decide to pass a law essentially forbidding any participation in any federal online gambling network.

While state-regulated poker sites remain unavailable, observers see Virginia as a potential mid-term adopter. Virginia permits sports betting but not poker platforms in-state. Without legislative appetite or existing casinos to anchor licenses, digital poker expansion is improbable in the short term. Vermont has no law authorizing poker sites to operate in the state. Utah’s unique legal environment, rooted in religious and cultural opposition to gambling, ensures it will remain outside all forms of Internet poker legalization.

On the flip side, I think poker tours consolidating media in house or to official contractors has really killed the rest of poker content. Working directly for the WSOP did give me a great appreciation for the importance of logistics which were often lost on the larger poker community. The meat of my career was live updates, so I hold a soft spot for those because that remains the best way to really embrace the game itself and break down a hand. Nothing compared to that format of podcast where you heard the news of what was going on in the tournament, what the gossip was, where people ended up after play ended, and, my personal favorite, the table talk. Even after being on camera in various capacities for years, when I worked as the WPT Live Update Hostess in Season X, the larger poker community still pushed back.

The bill would allow the state’s casinos and their online partners to apply for licenses and would tax the industry at 15% of gross gaming revenue. Maryland and Virginia have both seen online gaming bills filed and other stats are considering casino expansion and adding sports betting. Senate Bill 1464, a bipartisan bill sponsored by Republican Rep. Tony Scott, would allow Gov. Ned Lamont “to enter into agreements for the purpose of authorizing online gaming operators to conduct multijurisdictional Internet gaming for peer-to-peer casino games.” Collectively known as the Wabanaki Nations, these tribes have been granted exclusive rights to operate online poker and casino gaming in the state. Under SB S2614, all nine sports betting operators already in the state would be allowed to offer online gaming. Those in the industry believe the Empire State could be the largest online gaming market in the country, potentially adding population of 19.6 million to the country’s online poker shared liquidity agreement.

In many U.S. states, online poker falls into a legal gray area. In early 2026, Maine became the ninth state to legalize online poker. Connecticut and Rhode Island have legal frameworks in place, but don’t yet have regulated sites available to play on. Understanding how this system developed is essential for players who hope to participate safely and legally. It does not constitute legal/financial advice or a recommendation to engage in online gambling.