Online poker is governed by local laws. This can make playing online poker tricky for some people. My friend Hank, for instance, has to travel a lot for his job. After a hard day with the clients he likes to relax in his hotel room by playing a couple hours of poker online. Unfortunately, he can’t always do this. When he is in Seattle he says he has to settle for just watching TV because playing online poker is illegal in the state of Washington.
The law in Washington is actually designed to make it easier to go after the companies that provide online gambling opportunities to Washington State residents. While the state has not been active in prosecuting the players, they have made it a class C felony. Hank says it just isn’t worth the risk because he doesn’t want to answer “yes” every time he fills out a form that asks if you have ever been convicted of a felony. Additionally, the law has tied online gambling to the RICO statutes so the police can seize everything you own if they do decide to prosecute you for playing poker online in Washington.
The law is different in each location so you just want to be aware of what the law is where you are. Once you have that knowledge, you can decide whether playing poker online is something you want to do or not. Even in Washington it is pretty safe to play, I haven’t read about anybody being prosecuted there. The laws are mainly aimed at the online companies. So the real difficulty the player faces is finding an online poker site they can deposit and withdraw money from. This problem is not unique to Washington though, it is a hassle all over the US.