In 2006 Republicans in the House of Representatives wanted to make online poker illegal. The narrative at the time was this would benefit them with evangelical voters and rich casino owning donors. Their strategy with their base was to demonize online poker to stir up fear with their voters and make it a boogie man so their voters would go along with the unpopular legislation.

They attached a bill that no one had a chance to read called the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act to another bill after it was already passed through congress. George Bush signed the legislation into law October 13, 2006. This day is referred to as Black Friday.

The bill that no one had a chance to read, that wasn't attached to the initial bill effectively banned online poker in the United States on the federal level. This is why online poker is illegal in the US and why we can gamble sports, but not play a strategy card game with friends.


TLDR: Online poker in USA was made illegal in 2006 by Republicans.

2010? Or was it 2011? I think 2011. Definitely not 2006.

The UIEGA was in 2006. Black Friday was in 2011. There are probably more than 500 threads across 2+2 devoted to these topics. We don't need another one.

The title of the act is literally: Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006

I searched this sub forum and found zero results for UIEGA before posting. Seems relevant to me. I want it gone.

AI would have killed online poker anyway.

I think we should take this opportunity to discuss what happened at Ultimate Bet, Full Tilt and Lock Poker. What do you say, Roc?

You said its passage is black Friday. You were wrong. Nothing happened to online poker in 2006.

I'm often wrong. The UIEGA happened in 2006 which caused Black Friday in 2011 (12?). Coincidentally, the UIEGA was also passed on a Friday.

I am pretty sure there were two black fridays. A smaller one and then the larger one when things really got going.

Party Poker did leave the US in 2006 after the UIEGA passed. Pokerstars too, but I don't recall exactly when.

Nope, still not illegal.

You might get better results if you search UIGEA, and extend it sitewide. Although obviously this crosses into politics, this subject has been discussed far more frequently in other forums on this site.

I have some writings on the subject and a lot of the relevant references, not at my PC ATM.

IIRC the UIEGA extended the wire act to the online world. So that out of state providers would be subject to state jurisdiction. Legality in this regard I think was still by state I think.

The wire act was a response to put of state betting using wire based betting said to be a response to the mobs black market.

It's interesting imo because the undercutting was probably making the betting more fair.

I need a refresher tho but I used to be somewhat well read on the subject

I'm not sure what you mean that it's not illegal. Why don't we have online poker in USA?

It literally is politics and there's no thread. I'm stunned to see American poker players trolls or not supporting Republicans.

Poker should be free to play online for all American adults. We should discuss this.

We do have online poker in the US fwiw. I have money on three different sites.

I agree of course that the laws should be adjusted so that all of them feel comfortable operating here, but the idea that Americans can't play online just isn't true.

flashback reminds me it has now been over a decade since I've played online poker. Chess is fun but it isn't the same.

I mean that it's not illegal.

Wait, what?

Bovada/Ignition, WPN, BetOnline, Global Poker - you have plenty of online poker in the US.

I'm a little confused by your last sentence as it doesn't make sense, but as a general comment, I think it would be a rare poker player that would choose which party to support solely on the basis of their stance on online poker, if one can even be confident of either party's stance.

No one has an issue with you discussing it, just suggesting there could be more suutable places for it. But I guess the oddest thing about it for me is the timing. Has something come up politically that has motivated you to start this thread now? I don't expect you're going to see this become much of an election issue any time soon.

Even if I really cared much about bringing back online poker it would still be an extremely low priority. It's hard to imagine anyone other than an online pro changing their vote on just this issue. And it's not like either party cares about pokers.

It's not legal. Which of ACR, Ignition, WPN, BetOnline, or Global are regulated by an authority in the United States? There are a handful of US states that have legalized online poker, but it's ring fenced.

Of course it makes sense. If you're a professional poker player, what else could be more relevant? Republicans made your job much harder. If Democrats made online chess illegal, would you expect chess players to love them?

It's exactly what I said. I think it's odd poker players support Republicans, so I wanted to bring up something the GOP did to crush poker. 15+ years later there's no legal interstate online poker, but you can bet sports online (in a regulated environment) anywhere.

It was made illegal by Republican politicians. There's no thread in the politics sub. What's a better forum than politics?

Trying to grind on-line cash games in the modern world sounds like literal torture. From what I've heard, games in the 2-4 to 10-20 range that I used to play are very, very tough now and edges are micro-thin to non-existent. In addition to being no fun, 6 tabling .50-1 for a very small edge doesn't sound like much of a financial plan.

It was a democrat that actually pulled the plug on online poker.

He was fired by Trump ironically.

https://www.casino.org/news/black-fr...using-to-quit/

The UIGEA dealt with gambling transactions from the side of the poker site and did nothing to make it illegal to play online poker which is why, to the best of my knowledge, no player has ever faced consequences for playing online poker. That may seem nitpicky, but it's the reason why it's silly to say that there is no online poker in the US. There is.

I meant your sentence didn't make sense, but no worries, because this post clarified for me.

Budget, security, taxes, military, education, and countless other issues that affect people's lives every day. Online poker may be important to you, but it makes perfect sense that people would consider other issues as well when deciding who to vote for.

I expect that online chess players might choose to vote for them anyway, because they felt other issues were more important.

I would agree with you that Republicans are primarily responsible, and that's not surprising given their fondness for legislating on "moral issues" like this. But that was 17 years ago, Democrats have been in power more than Republicans in the intervening time, and nothing has changed. It's just not a priority for either party, primarily because it also isn't for the vast majority of the population.

If the mods are good with it, it's fine with me. Just know it's a discussion that's been had many times in numerous forums here.

In fairness to OP, if he had taken an overly political stance on this topic in, say, NVG, I strongly suspect he would have been directed by the mods there to air his views in this exact subforum.

Not not picky it's the crux. The nature of the us constitutional framework is that it favors individual liberty such that the natural evolution was for restrictions on sites that serve players. The reason I think it's important is because once Bitcoin sites couldn't be stopped via payment processing rails it effectively became legally accessible again

Black Friday was in 2011 not 2006. When the DOJ shut down Full Tilt and PokerStars