All the online casinos are registered in jurisdictions outside the United States. However USA players access these sites through the Internet from within the United States and also transfer funds to the online casinos and therefore become subject to U.S. laws. The issue is further complicated because of the existence of both State and federal Laws.
The first law under which the U.S. authorities tried to prevent Online gambling was the Federal Wire Act, which prohibits transmission of information for sports betting across telecommunications lines. However in November 2002 the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled that this Act was not applicable to Internet gambling. Then in 2003 the Deputy Assistant Attorney General raised the issue of money laundering using online casinos. This led to a number of prominent arrests but also created a lot of uncertainty over issues like accepting advertisements from online casinos.
In order to remove the uncertainties the United States government enacted the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act or UIGEA in 2006. This act prohibited the transfer of funds from financial institutions to online casinos mainly to prevent money laundering by terrorist organizations. As a result some online casinos stopped accepting American citizens as clients. The online gambling fraternity within America however came out strongly against the UIGEA. They claim that the UIGEA violates the fundamental rights granted by the U.S. constitution. They also claim that the UIGEA is discriminatory because it allows land based gambling and prohibits Internet gambling. Another argument against the UIGEA is that it is vague and impractical to implement. Cases have been filed against the UIGEA and they are in the judicial process of moving up to the Supreme Court. Bills have been introduced challenging the UIGEA. The House bill HR 6870 if enacted would suspend the implementation of the UIGEA. The Senate bill S 3616 contends that poker is a game of skill and therefore not covered by the UIGEA. There is actually all kinds of new casino deposit methods that accept USA players. Ewallets like Usemywallet and Ewalletxpress allow players to deposit funds using their existing bank accounts. Then they transfer funds into online casinos taking that particular method.
Meanwhile some of the states, like Oregon and Missouri have already declared that online gambling is illegal. Online casinos that accept USA players mostly do not accept players from these states. There is a few software providers like RTG casinos that do still accept USA players from all 50 states. Kentucky is the latest state that is trying to prohibit online gambling. In September 2008 the Governor of Kentucky obtained a court order to seize the domain names of 140 online gambling sites. The states argument was that the domain name is a device used in illegal gambling and therefore can be seized under Kentucky law. This action was taken despite the fact that almost all the domain names were registered outside the United States. The matter has been heard in court and the judgment is awaited. Some of the other issues raised against online gambling are the high incidence of underage gambling and problem gambling.
In most of the other countries online gambling is legal but highly regulated. This is particularly true of many European countries. The regulation takes care of the downsides cited against online gambling and also brings in tax revenue for the state.
Below is a good list of online casinos still taking USA players. Most of them accept players from all 50 states but there is a few that ban players from 13 states. Please see out USA online casinos page for more information.
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