When it comes to online poker in the United States, no news is not good news. That’s exactly what we have gotten for the majority of the past 2 years … no news. The same three states that legalized and regulated online poker, New Jersey, Nevada and Delaware, still have online poker rooms. However, the number of real money players at these poker rooms is very small.
WSOP/888 New Jersey averages the most poker players with between 200 and 400 real money players. WSOP Nevada averages a little less than 200 players. Party Borgata averages a little less than 150 real money players. That’s the problem with the limited legislation that has been passed. These states not combined the player pools so there are a limited number of legal poker tournaments. These sites cannot grow until there is some kind of federal legislation that decriminalizes online poker and allows the states to band together, kind of like the Powerball and Mega Millions lotteries.
There isn’t going to be many new developments until some other states decide to pass laws that legalize online poker and regulate the websites that offer the games. There are a couple of states that tried to bring up legislation in the past year, but none of the bills have gotten very far. Unfortunately, it seems that the overall perception is that these games aren’t that popular because of the lack of tax revenue that has been created so far. This is the big incentive for states to join in and create new legislation, much like the states that are legalizing marijuana.
Popular Offshore Poker Rooms
Not all of the online poker rooms that allow Americans follow the guidelines set by the federal government. A few of the poker websites still allow USA players from the other states. The lack of payment processing and the various state and local laws means that these poker rooms are also no where near as popular as they once were 5 years ago.
Currently, bovada.lv is the largest poker room that still accepts American players. They average between 1,500 and 5,000 real money ring game players at their tables. Bovada also offers the other types of online gaming such as sports betting and casino games. They have the most reliable sources for funding the account (Visa and Moneygram).
The Winning Poker network now has the second largest number of poker players averaging over 1,000 ring game players. The most well known of the sites that use this poker software is True Poker. They claim to have an average of 5,000 players that play the tournaments, but these number can’t be verified. Aside from Bovada, they do have the best poker tournaments available.
The last of the good poker networks is Chico Poker. The largest poker room in this group is BetOnline. They average between 600 and 1,000 real money players. Like Bovada and Winning Poker, they have been reliable when it comes to payment processing. The tournaments are a little better at the two poker rooms above, but BetOnline and the Chico Poker network are a viable alternative if you don’t like the others.
If you happen to have bitcoin, you can also play at one of the two bitcoin poker rooms: SWCPoker.eu or Betcoin Poker. Both of these sites have limited traffic, but they both have gotten good reviews.
The same can not be said for the Merge Poker Network or the Equity Poker Network. The most popular poker rooms under these networks are Carbon Poker (Merge) and Full Flush Poker (Equity). Both have gotten several negative reviews over the past few month. The problem stem from payment processing and the absurdly long time it takes for customers to collect their winnings. These sites are to be avoided for the time being.
Hopefully, we will receive good news about other states legalizing online poker in the next year so companies like PokerStars and Full Tilt can come back and offer real money poker to Americans. Unfortunately, it doesn’t appear to be promising. Be careful and make sure to keep up with the customer reviews for the poker rooms that you are currently playing at.
Have fun!.