New York Once Again Has iGaming, Online Poker Bills
In 2024, New York set a record by collecting more than $1 billion in sports betting tax revenue. Addabbo chairs the state’s Senate Racing, Gaming, and Wagering Committee, and was a backer of mobile sports betting in the state. Together, these examples show that when it’s done right, regulation can move beyond legality to legitimacy, cementing poker’s place as mainstream digital entertainment.
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Gov. Gavin Newsom Signs California Sweepstakes Casino Ban Into Law
He was able to work with another lawmaker representing Whitmer’s views to work out a compromise-laden bill to amend the original one. Governor Tom Wolf signed it into law in the first week of November. The industry was authorized to operate for a 10-year period, at which point it will be examined for a possible extension.
I think this was a time where there was a very narrow idea of what women in poker could really do. A lot of people would say poker was pretty nasty with misogyny during that period. I always thought it was an advantage to be a woman in the tournament reporting space because poker tournaments are very boring and these guys are stuck in their seats and just want someone to talk to. It wasn’t I was an amazing writer or that I had some elite level of poker acumen. As a poker fan, I got behind the ropes access to everything and made money to boot, so it always felt like a blessing.
In addition to allowing Connecticut to enter an online poker compact like the Multi-State Internet Gaming Agreement (MSIGA), SB 1464 would make a number of revisions to sports betting and online gambling in the Constitution State. Such an omission and later reconsideration of player pooling would likely add two to three years to a timeline for when New York’s online poker players could fully and legally compete against players from other states. New York will again consider online gambling during 2025, as legislation authorizing casino-style iGaming, including online poker, has again been submitted to the state’s Senate. The online gambling world has witnessed significant transformations over the past decade, particularly in how casinos streamline player onboarding.
While live poker is permitted in the state of Minnesota, there is no legislation that permits online poker. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed the internet gaming and sports betting bill into law in December 2019, thanks to bipartisan lawmakers who carefully walked it over the finish line. Maryland does not permit online poker, although live poker is legal. While live poker is legal, Maine does not permit online poker.
In other words, operators would need to clear $66 million in gross gaming revenue for the first five years (about $13 million per year). Online poker would be taxed at a 15% rate, but operators would have to pay a whopping $10 million one-time fee for licensing. If a repeal isn’t in the works, it could spell trouble for the entire poker industry.
In the same year Yahoo Games launched Texas Hold’em games for play money which was a very popular portal and instrumental in introducing this new poker variant to the mass market. Connecticut, for instance, still doesn’t have any online poker, largely because it hasn’t yet joined the Multistate Internet Gaming Agreement (MSIGA). To bring online poker to a state with fewer than five million residents requires shared liquidity, for one thing. Online poker for the cardrooms and sports betting for the tribes is a deal that would make sense on paper. That state’s gaming tribes are coming around on the issue of sports betting, but cardrooms wouldn’t support any gaming expansion that doesn’t have anything in it for them.
“I think it could affect gambling big time, in all gambling. If approved, the plan would go into effect immediately as an emergency law. Another bill, SD 2428, filed in the state senate by Sen. Jacob Oliveira (D) would also ban wagering on elections.
Residents won’t have access to any authorized U.S. poker sites until then. Poker has not been included in proposed amendments, despite lawmakers’ occasional discussions about increasing the availability of digital gaming options. Lawmakers have not yet discussed the addition of casino or poker provisions. Currently, there are no bills that would legalize Internet poker.
The laws are almost always in a state of flux, and as of 2026, only a handful of states have fully legalized online poker. Use this US legal poker tracker to quickly check whether your state allows regulated online poker, prohibits it, or sits in a gray area. To date, there are no recorded cases of U.S. players prosecuted solely for using offshore poker sites. The Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) primarily applies to operators and payment processors, rather than players. These sites are not regulated by U.S. authorities but often continue to accept American players, depending on state restrictions. Some U.S. players access poker through offshore online platforms licensed in jurisdictions such as Curaçao, Malta, or the Isle of Man.
Can You Play Online Poker in West Virginia
Since gambling is technically illegal except on Native American reservations, there are no traditional brick-and-mortar casinos in the Lone Star State. However, live poker is available via a legal gray area that allows poker rooms to operate within the law. South Dakota does allow casinos and poker on tribal lands and the city of Deadwood is a historically important poker site as it is where James Butler “Wild Bill” Hickok played the “dead man’s hand” before being killed in 1876. There is no online poker in South Dakota and it isn’t something lawmakers have considered in recent years. The first legal poker site in the state, PokerStars PA, went live in 2019 and other sites followed suit in 2021, including WSOP PA and BetMGM Poker PA.
- However, some non-gaming tribes opposed the ban, arguing that partnerships with the platforms could benefit their citizens.
- On the other end, the UK’s Gambling Commission (UKGC) sets the gold standard with unified, player-first rules.
- As you might expect, the law comes down much harder on those who run illegal gambling activities than it does on the individual player as we see in section
- New Jersey Governor Chris Christie was next to formally legalize Internet gaming in the Garden State, and the home of Atlantic City’s land gaming casinos opened up legit online gambling sites in the Fall of 2013.
Is Online Poker Legal in the U.S. in 2026?
With consistent pressure from advocates, ambassadors, and lawmakers, that goal may finally be within reach. Americas Cardroom, despite its offshore status, shows what’s possible when platforms invest in technology, security, and responsible gaming tools. They want platforms with strong consumer protections and fair gameplay.
As a result, DraftKings Casino and FanDuel Casino are the only two sports betting and online casino options in the state. Entering into agreements with foreign jurisdictions would be barred under the bill and only allow one account per player on a platform – putting the industry standard of banning multi-accounting into law in the state. The bill allows for tribal and commercial operators to run online poker in the state and sets a date of July 1 to go into effect.
House Bill 106 (2023), a recent legislative effort that attempted to add Kentucky to the list of states with legal poker, was unsuccessful. Without legislative momentum, Idaho will likely remain closed to poker sites for the foreseeable future. Legislative efforts to legalize or regulate poker have been nonexistent in recent years. Hawaii maintains a total prohibition on gambling, both online and offline.
Live poker is only permitted at the state’s two racinos in table-game form, not as traditional live poker cash games or tournaments. Here’s a state-by-state look at the current state of online poker across the United States. Some will likely never offer online poker, while others may very well may launch operations in the years to come.
But most states, more than 10 years following “Black Friday,” still don’t have any legal poker sites in operation. The push to legalize iGaming is not just about expanding gaming options but also about fostering a safer gambling environment. For you, as an avid participant in online gambling, these legislative shifts carry several implications. These states’ interest in regulating online gambling illustrates a growing acknowledgment of its potential economic benefits.
After legalizing igaming and sports betting in 2017, igaming didn’t launch until 2019. Unclear whether poker players are included under the scope of the law. Existing laws aimed at cracking down on sports betting may apply to wagering over the internet, but that is one of many conclusions you might reach after reviewing the law regarding gambling in Oklahoma. In 2023 and 2024, State Senator Addabbo encouraged full igaming instead of just online poker, but both bills appear to have failed again. No surprise that the nation’s gambling capital was the first to offer regulated online poker. Gambling-friendly state started seriously considering online poker and casino games in 2017, opening its first land-based casino in 2018.
For a few, that has meant the filing of gambling-related bills. “We thank the committee on moving on this provision, with one ask that language be put into place to include territories outside the United States, like Canada, which is seeking to join the gaming compact.” “It is our hope that Connecticut will join the other members of the Multi-State Internet Gaming Agreement to provide better gaming options for Connecticut residents and increase gaming revenue for the state.”
In April 2025, Pennsylvania officially joined the MSIGA, with BetMGM and Borgata becoming the first operators to share liquidity. Poker sites first launched statewide in 2019, licensed under the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board. Attempts have been made to let voters decide on expanded gambling, but the 2021 proposal was rejected. Lawmakers may revisit broader iGaming once the sports-betting framework stabilizes, but there is no formal proposal at present.
Live poker is available within social clubs, rather than casinos, where fees are generally paid as membership dues and/or seat hire, rather than rake. Given the small population, joining a multi-state compact would be all-but-required for a sustainable online poker room in Rhode Island. The state quickly overtook New Jersey in online poker revenue due to its larger population.
The state does allow poker and gambling at Native American-owned casinos and nonprofit “charitable gaming” casinos. While online poker is not currently legal in North Dakota and the www.pokernewsdaily.com state has traditionally been resistant to gaming expansion, there was a lot of movement in 2021 to legalize online poker. Live poker was only allowed at tribal casinos until 2013, when commercial casinos were made legal and began offering poker games. New York State lawmakers have been attempting to legalize online poker since 2014 but have never had any success in doing so. PokerStars on FanDuel and WSOP NJ lead the pack of several sites to choose from to play online poker in New Jersey.
While the odds of any new bill becoming law remain slim, the start of a new year brings fresh hope that this could finally be the year an igaming bill is successfully enacted. That said, if the current bill is passed, multi-state online poker could still become a reality. Addabbo has also publicly recognized the significance of multi-state online poker compacts in interviews with pokerfuse and Poker Industry PRO. This omission is surprising, as Senator Addabbo had included similar language in previous bills that focused exclusively on online poker. Live dealer games would need to be conducted in a live gaming studio located in New York.
The U.S. poker legislation landscape continues to shift as more states explore regulation and shared player pools. All other states either have legislation against online gambling or don’t yet have a regulatory framework. West Virginia legalized online casino gaming in 2019 through the Interactive Wagering Act (HB 2934).
Nevada is one of the few states in the US that allows for legal, regulated online poker. If sports betting, with a far bigger market than online poker, can’t get any traction, there’s zero hope for online poker at the moment. Mississippi became one of the first states to jump on board the sports betting train, and it would seem online poker would be a natural fit. Minnesota seems unlikely to get anything rolling any time soon, much to the dismay of the many poker players participating in the thriving live scene there. Most of Massachusetts’ gaming sphere might be new, but it’s showing rapid progression with its land-based casinos and sports betting.
That was a frustrating time for the poker community, because it was starting to seem like it could be many years before any other states stepped up to the plate. Poker liquidity is the reason poker is so profitable in the global market. Those states are Delaware, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Connecticut. Navigating these complexities requires nuanced approaches from policymakers who must weigh economic gains against ethical considerations inherent in expanding gambling access. These include measures against problem gambling and initiatives promoting awareness about safe betting practices – elements that contribute to a healthier gambling ecosystem overall. With proper regulation, you can expect enhanced consumer protection measures designed to prevent fraud and promote responsible gambling practices.
Considering this was a nascent industry it is not surprising the legal landscape was not developed and very unclear. That’s a point that I’ve made in the past, and that was borne out when Rhode Island became the only state since 2021 to pass an online casino bill. This year saw the formation of the National Association Against iGaming, aligning the retail industry holdouts with casino workers’ unions and a variety of advocacy groups. While conventional operators like MGM have unequivocally opposed prediction contracts on sports, DraftKings and FanDuel have begun dabbling in predictions as a way of keeping up. DraftKings and FanDuel, which were themselves the disruptors not long ago, had only just begun to make peace with the U.S. brick-and-mortar casino industry. The prediction markets have had a profound effect on the gambling industry, too.
As of January 2026, there are no active bills that propose a method for licensing poker sites. In these jurisdictions, it’s often possible to access offshore poker sites, although it’s up to you to do the necessary research and due diligence before taking to the tables. Six of these states operate under the Multi-State Internet Gaming Agreement (MSIGA), allowing for shared liquidity and larger player pools. Players must be physically located within one of these states to play on licensed sites. Since there is no unified federal law authorizing or prohibiting poker platforms, every state determines for itself whether real-money poker may be offered within its borders.