The nation is known by the laws they own. These laws act as builders of the country and the other times; these laws result in significant distress amongst the masses.
The U.S., known as the superpower all over the world, who leads the world in technological development for artificial intelligence, robotics and for introducing various leading online platforms, has banned playing poker online. In here, the article will explain to you what are reasons or grounds on which the States has banned online poker and why this made many people start playing at offshore websites such as 918kiss online casino.
Reason Why Poker Is Banned In The U.S.
Here are some facets that answer the question of why:
- Federal Wire Act:
Like all the other leisure activities, poker held a place on land with casinos. Until 2005 when the secretory of North Dakota sent a bill seeking permission to validate an online poker platform. In response to the bill, the Department of Justice refused the proposal stating that poker ‘maybe’ illegal as it is gambling itself and ‘might’ violate the Federal Wire Act. The Federal Wire Act of 1961, restraints acts of betting in various types by stating,
Anyone who is involved in the process of betting or gambling, or anyone found to be part of sports betting should be liable to get fined under the act and will have to face imprisonment of two more years. This involves credit as well as a debit of money through the account of a person from any betting source.
It was from 2005 that poker seeking legality online became an issue in America.
- UIGEA:
On 13th October 2006, the then-President George Bush, officially signed bill SAFE Port Act, regarding the U.S. security which had a provision known as Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA). This law stated that any sort of betting or involvement of money as wages or receiving or transmission of funds through any online portal was unlawful and doing so will be a violation of the law, thus illegal in the states. Under the law, all the online poker sites were banned, and the founder/owner of the sites was made to pay a fine and imprisoned. Some poker sites could sail through the law like Poker Stars, Full Tilt Poker by working within America, whereas places like Party Poker had to shut down.
- Taxation:
The online poker platforms allowed the players from the states and also outside the rules to try their hand. Since the transaction wasn’t done on the land of the united states, the government could not impose any taxation on the currency being earned by the poker player online.
- Invasion of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI):
Poker Party Alliance (PPA) sheltered millions of poker players under their alliance, making it difficult for the laws to be followed. Thus, in September 2010, the Washington Supreme Court passed a law which said playing poker online is a serious crime. Following the ordinance passed the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in April 2011, shut down major poker sites Poker Stars, Full Tilt Poker and Absolute Poker and seized their bank accounts. They were accused of being a violation the UIGEA by involving financial transactions with the U.S. banks and making a profit out of the money invested.
In the year 2011, the PPA alliance brought defences stating the online buying and selling of lottery tickets is not a violation of the Federal Wire Act. Thus, declaring online poker does not disobey the terms in the Wire Act of betting on any sporting event.
Current status:
With no defences against the PPA representation, in the year 2012, the federal judge in New York stated that poker is not gambling as it is a matter of skill not of chance. Currently, three states in the United States allow online poker, which includes; Nevada, Delaware and New Jersey. Because of this, many gamblers from US tend to play at Asian online casinos such as Gclub Grand. If you want to see more websites accepting US players, visit this list of Asian casinos.
Conclusion:
The United States still fails to consider poker online being just a transaction of lottery tickets, and thus the legality of online poker is still a ban in most of the states. There has been seen a transition of websites that were used to play poker for money which is now used as a school of gambling, i.e., only for practise or to learn.
