Simon’s Guide to Online Gambling in the USA

Online casino gambling is prohibited in the US, mainly by the UIGEA. The only exceptions are two states, Delaware and New Jersey and an overseas territory; the US Virgin Islands. All three of these passed bills in recent years expressly legalizing various forms of online gambling.

Not many gambling websites accept players from the US. Some foreign online casinos are blocked by ISPs, some voluntarily restrict US access to their sites and some (especially the ones registered in microstates) are afraid of US influence and pressure. However, US players who play in foreign online casinos are not prosecuted by the authorities.

The following online casinos accept players from USA:

Black lotus casino – accepting players from USA

Lotus Asia casino – accepting players from USA

GT Bets accepts players from USA- accepting Bitcoins as well

GT Bets does not accept players from District of Columbia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Missouri, New York, and Washington

In many US states, Bingo games are only allowed to be conducted in support of charitable causes. In others like Nevada, brick & mortar bingo halls are eligible for a license as well. The only legal online bingo platform in the USA at the time of writing is the one offered by New Jersey licensee, VirginCasino.com.

However, players who play on foreign bingo sites that still accept players from the US are not prosecuted (there are not many).

The following bingo websites accept players from the USA:

I can not personally recommend any right now.

Online poker is prohibited in the vast majority of the US states. After the UIGEA was passed in 2006, major online poker sites, like Poker Stars, Full Tilt, and Absolute Poker continued to offer their services on the US market, even with the apparent legal risks involved. It was not until four years later that US authorities took serious legal action against these sites, operating on somewhat of a gray market for 5 years. They were charged with the violation of the UIGEA, bank fraud, and money laundering. After their indictment on April 15, 2011, the day that was quickly dubbed by the poker community as “the Black Friday”, 95% of the US online poker market was destroyed overnight.

However, since then, states that recently passed bills legalizing online poker, but mostly on an intrastate level.

In most of the US, online poker opportunities are limited to unlicensed foreign sites. Although technically illegal, poker players are not prosecuted in the USA. Nevertheless, we do not recommend playing poker online on foreign websites from Washington (strict online poker laws – playing online Poker is considered a class B felony in the sate of Washington).

The following online poker sites accept players from USA:

Not many online poker platforms accept US players. I can not recommend any right now, because the ones I use do not accept US players and the rest, which do are on my rogue casinos & gambling websites list and are not recommended.

The 1992 Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act* or PASP outlawed sports betting nationwide in an attempt to protect professional and amateur sports against “the taint of gambling”. PASPA barred states that didn’t already have legal sports betting from legalizing it ever since. This law effectively gave Nevada a sports gambling monopoly.

Three other states were also exempt from the Act, New Jersey, Oregon and Delaware, due to sports betting regulations already in place. However, only Delaware established any kind of sports betting market, a parlay card game for wagering on NFL matches with no online platform. Nevada remains the only state offering legal online sports betting in the US to date.

Horse racing betting, on the other hand, is a completely different matter. Legal online platforms accepting wagers on horse races are available in the majority of the US states (except for the ones expressly banning it – see the table at the beginning). For some reason, this form of online gambling is exempt from the UIGEA.

A few foreign online bookmakers outside of US jurisdiction still accept players from the US. In some states these websites might be blocked, but bettors are not prosecuted.

The following online sportsbooks accept registrations from USA:

GT Bets online bookmaker – accepts registrations from USA, also accepts Bitcoin

GT Bets does not accept players from District of Columbia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Missouri, New York, and Washington

The lottery is a state monopoly in pretty much every US state (except for the ones that do not have a lottery at all – Alaska, Alabama, Nevada, Hawaii, Utah and Mississippi). Even though the 2011 memo made it possible for states to launch an online version of their lotteries, only four states, Michigan, Minnesota, Illinois, and Georgia lived with the opportunity so far.

Interstate online lotteries are not yet legal in the US, therefore popular interstate lotteries like Powerball do not sell lottery tickets online directly. However, interstate lotteries can partner with state lotteries and the state lotteries can legally sell interstate lottery tickets. This convoluted system is the reason why online lotteries are not very popular in the US.*

Some foreign online lotteries and lottery agents let people from the US purchase lottery tickets online too, and people are not prosecuted for such in the US.

The following websites let people from USA purchase lottery tickets online:

Coming soon!

The legal status of online Bitcoin gambling in the USA is very much undetermined to this date. The fact that the UIGEA does not ban online gambling per se, only prohibits financial transactions related to online gambling leaves Bitcoin in pretty much a gray area, as Bitcoin payments are not financial transactions in the traditional sense.

While many see and use this as a legislative loophole for online gambling in the USA, the reality might seem more complicated if we just consider the reasons for which the Nevada home of professional Poker player Bryan Micon was raided in 2015.  Micon was running a Bitcoin only poker site called Seals with Clubs (and was also notoriously bragging about it on social media). It was the first-ever prosecution of a Poker site that used the digital currency in the US. Initially Micon was looking at a prison sentence, up to 10 years of imprisonment and a $50,000 fine*. Later this was reduced to a gross misdemeanor and he was ordered to pay $25,000. Currently he is on probation.

In an interview he gave to the Las Vegas times last year A.G. Burnett, chairman of the Nevada Gaming Control Board made it clear that it was not only the lack of license that lead to Micon’s prosecution. Burnett told the reporter: “It’s [Bitcoin] absolutely not approved for gaming transactions and no licensee has approached me for considering its use”.

On the other hand, a legal and licensed horse betting operator, DerbyJackpot became the first-ever operator to Bitcoin in the USA*. The startup in New York was permitted by the state regulators to accept bets and wagers in the cryptocurrency earlier this year.

Its seems that interpretations of state and federal laws in relation with individual cases will decide Bitcoin gambling matters, for the time being. In the meantime, some foreign Bitcoin casinos, outside of US jurisdiction continue to accept players from the USA. These sites are not blocked and players are not prosecuted for placing bets with these operators.

The following Bitcoin casinos accept players from USA:

GT Bets accepts players from USA- accepting Bitcoins as well

GT Bets does not accept players from District of Columbia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Missouri, New York, and Washington