Gambling has always been a hot topic for people no matter where you live. Some people are set against gambling and some are quite the opposite. Those conflicting views apply to gambling at home with the internet as well. From a legal perspective, online poker may be viewed differently than online casino gambling. Even so, many of the same legal hurdles apply.

Suffice to say playing poker online is legal in the United States, but at one time it was not. Today it is regulated in many countries such as the United Kingdom. The North Dakota House of Representatives passed a bill that legalized online poker in 2005 that required the entire operations of such a site would have to be physically within the state. However, the state senate denied the bill after receiving a letter from the U.S. Department of Justice stating that online poker “may be illegal, and that the pending legislation might violate the federal Wire Act.”

Many online poker sites stopped advertising their dot-com sites because of the Department of Justice causing havoc over the legality of these sites. Instead, these sites created dot-net versions of themselves that are exactly the same to their counterparts except that there is no real money gambling. These sites let you gamble for free, allowing you to learn the games without risk.

David Carruthers, CEO of Bet On Sports.com, was arrested in Dallas, Texas as we was switching planes. He was traveling from Costa Rica to the United Kingdom where it is legal to place bets online. U.S. federal agents arrested Carruthers under the Wire Act, which prohibits the operation of certain types of betting businesses in the United States. The United States is not the only place arresting people for violating online gaming laws; France has done the same thing to the CEO’s of Bwin. All CEO’s have since been released.

In 2006, President Bush signed the Safe Port Act which included the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act. The UIGEA outlawed anyone from placing, receiving or knowingly transmitting a wager with the use of the internet. Many poker gambling websites closed their doors to Americans.

On April 2007, the Internet Gambling Regulation and Enforcement Act came into effect to adjust the UIGEA by offering a term for licensing of internet gambling facilities. In June of 2007, the House Financial Services Committee held a hearing to prove it was possible to regulate gambling on the internet. Soon after the hearing the Skill Game Protection Act would legalize internet poker, chess and other games of skill.