With the passage of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, the United States government has made it extremely clear which side of the argument that they have come down on.  Considering that the law is somewhat ambiguous and unclearly written, it is hard to understand when exactly the online poker and casino player might be breaking the law.  The Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act never actually says that playing in online poker rooms and casinos or competing online is illegal.  In fact, the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act never mentions the legality of playing in online poker rooms and casinos at all.  Instead, the Act focuses on the illegal activities of the online poker room establishment itself.  Technically, it is illegal for online poker room establishments to exist inside the United States, due to the passage of the Wire Act, a law that prohibits any type of gambling over transmission lines, such as phone lines and the broadband backbone that powers the Internet.  With this focus on forbidding the transmission of information for profit involving gambling over phone lines, online poker rooms and casinos were forced to move out of the United States altogether and open up in areas such as Antigua, Aruba and Costa Rica.

Fortunately for the online poker room and casino player, there is no law that states that the player cannot enjoy a game of poker on the Internet.  There is no federal law that prohibits playing in online poker rooms and casinos and participating in the rakeback program as well as other activities.  But promotions at online poker rooms including the rakeback sharing affiliate program, exist in a gray area that includes the administration and facilitation of profits through the establishment of a gaming or gambling focused and oriented website.  While it is true that the law can be interpreted to mean different things, so far the government has not interpreted the law in such a fashion as to be detrimental to online poker room casino players.

All of this discussion might be rendered moot, however, as the government prepares to levy a 2% tax against online poker room and casino players, a move that will very likely drive many players out of the United States altogether.  Considering the amounts that some of these professional Texas Hold'em poker tournament players earn on the Internet, it makes perfect sense to move to an area of the world that permits this type of play