Online Casinos United States - for US Casino Players

The recent shutdown of online poker sites inside the USA by the Department of Justice has had a ripple effect on many industries impacted by online poker, TV to live casinos. Reaction to the arrests of leading executives at PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker and Absolute Poker has now also spread to the online casino world, where some gaming site owners are reconsidering their operations in the USA.

One of the largest providers of online casino software is Microgaming. Traditionally, Microgaming casinos overwhelmingly supported USA players, giving gamblers from America the chance to play their favorite games at their sites. However, when the state of Kentucky seized some of the domain names associated with online casinos in 2008, a rift formed at Microgaming casinos. Some casinos pulled out of Kentucky, but others chose to leave the USA entirely.

It appears that the recent actions of the US government may have chased off most – if not all – of the remaining Microgaming casinos. According to a report at CasinoAdvisor.com, players and affiliates have been reporting that many Microgaming casinos have announced that they will no longer be taking play from U.S. gamblers, with the change coming almost immediately. It seems as though the decision is coming from Microgaming itself, meaning that each individual operator was not able to make the decision independently.

While the departure of one of the leading online casino software providers is a blow to the USA market, U.S. gamblers will still have options available to them when it comes to gambling online. Other providers like Real Time Gaming and Vegas Technology appear to currently continue operations in the American market.

Three of the biggest online poker sites operating in the United States, have been shut down by the FBI after it charged 11 people - including the companies' founders - with bank fraud and money laundering.


One of the companies - Full Tilt Poker - has a subsidiary in Ireland.


Pocket Kings, based in the Cherrywood Business Park in Dublin, is a service provider to Full Tilt Poker and employs 700 people.


Hundreds of online poker players stand to lose tens of thousands of pounds after a crackdown on online gambling firms with links to the U.K. by the USA authorities, a leading gambling expert warned. The USA Justice Department froze gambling accounts linked to three of the biggest online poker sites after accusing those running them of money laundering and fraud.


Prosecutors claimed the operators of Poker Stars, Full Tilt Poker and Absolute Poker – three of the most popular online poker sites – tricked US banks into processing billions of dollars from customers. US banks are prohibited from accepting payments from illegal gambling websites.



Online gambling is a fast growing market worth billions of euros, but is illegal in the United States.


The companies themselves have said they believe their activities are legal.

While bricks and mortar gaming remains the bedrock of Las Vegas' revenue stream, moves are afoot to power into the online gaming realm. Online gambling - while illegal in the United States - is responsible for mega-billions of dollars in takings each and every year.

The United States provides a hefty chunk of this revenue to overseas online casinos and now Las Vegas casinos want to keep the money at home.

United States Online Gambling

New Jersey remains at the forefront of these initiatives with a series of moves to try and get their governor to sign into law the intrastate online gambling bill. But it's not NJ alone who is determined to see this through - it's Nevada that's starting to make some noise now.

Federal law disallows online betting to residents outside of Nevada but there is an established framework in place to allow for this to take place. Nevada is charging some $500k for the license fee and an annual $250k in renewal fees. Although NJ Governor Christie nixed legislation to allow Internet Gambling, the Senate voted 32-2 in favour of legalizing blackjack, online poker and other casino games.

The Assembly voted 63-11 in favour too. In spite of Christie's objections, the legislation remains a viable option for people within NJ's borders.

Nevada Leads the way

In late 2010, Nevada developed smart phone betting applications to allow all residents of the state to place sports wagers while they're within state lines. The system allows for instant verification of where the bettor is at the time that the bet is placed. This is all done via mobile phone.