Will US Online Poker Players Ever Join the Global Pool?

Online poker in the US has come a long way since Black Friday . It took over a decade, but today, there are several states with live, regulated, and completely legal poker sites, and more are on the horizon.

While the progression of regulated poker sites could certainly be faster, there are positive developments, and with agreements like the MSIGA, US online poker players are increasingly able to play with players in other states.

However, one question that’s sometimes asked is whether US poker players will ever again have the opportunity to play against players outside the country. Of course, this is already possible on many offshore sites like ACR and CoinPoker , but not on any of the operators licensed in the United States.

Agreements like the MSIGA allow sites to cross state borders and combine player pools. However, they do not allow players outside the US to join. And, as much as we’d all love to see, it doesn’t look like that option is in the cards for the foreseeable future.

The UIGEA Isn’t Going Away

The Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) of 2006 led to Black Friday and forced international operators out of the United States in the first place.

Today, two decades later, most people even remotely interested in online poker are at least superficially familiar with the contents of the act. Instead of going after operators alone, the UIGEA made it illegal for financial institutions to process any and all transactions that could be connected to online gambling activities.

The act carved out exemptions for gambling activities confined to any particular state territory, but that’s where it drew the line. In fact, the Department of Justice went so far as to issue an opinion that the UIGEA applies to interstate poker, slowing down the expansion of the Multi-State Internet Gaming Agreement (MSIGA).

Eventually, that opinion was deemed unconstitutional in two separate court cases, which was a big win for US online poker. But the act itself remains in place.

This means there is no legal way for any US bank or similar institution to process a single deposit or withdrawal originating from or going to any country or territory outside the United States.

Even state-licensed sites that combine player pools have to navigate a lot of red tape. For example, you can play on WSOP Online from several different states. However, if you’re in Nevada, you have to download the WSOP Nevada client or app, register for an account, and play with that account.

When you move to New Jersey, you have to go through the whole process again. Yes, you’ll get to play with other players in the network (Nevada, New Jersey, Michigan, Pennsylvania), but each state has its own software and player registration process.

It works, but the background mechanics of the whole process are very burdensome, and the system is often glitchy. Things have gotten better over time, but they are still far from perfect.

What Would It Take for US Players to Join the International Pool?

Let’s take things to the next level and consider whether US poker players could somehow join the international combined player pool . What are some of the main obstacles on that road?

Licensing

First, there is the issue of licensing. As we’ve explained here and in many other places, US online poker licenses are issued strictly on a state-by-state basis.

This means that an international operator would have to obtain a license in each state separately. Then, they would need to bring players from those individual states into their international player pool.

The problem here is on the US side. Players on a New Jersey platform, for example, must be physically located in New Jersey. Where there is pooling of players from other states, this is only allowed provided these other sites are licensed in other US states and follow very strict rules.

Thus, it’s impossible to obtain a license that would make it possible for someone in Europe to play on one of these platforms. Even if they can register an account for a new US + ROW site, they will only be able to play while physically located in the state where they registered.

We’ve already seen this with sites like WSOP Online, where non-US players can register and play while they’re visiting the World Series of Poker in Nevada. They are welcome to participate as international players, but only while they are in Nevada and can’t access real-money games when they go back home.

Taxation

Let’s not forget the main reason states are regulating online gambling. It is to drive revenue through taxation, fees, and other charges that can help fill gaps in their budgets.

If international players were somehow brought into the fold, taxation would become complicated. Naturally, someone from Germany doesn’t need to pay tax in the US, but then, what’s the motivation for a state to allow such a setup?

By default, international players will win some money. Without going into a discussion about the poker skills of any particular nation, it is 100% guaranteed that players from outside of the US online poker field will end up winning some money, taking funds out of the pool, and not paying a single dime back to the US.

The math doesn’t work. It is in every state’s best interest to keep as much money as possible in its coffers. With multi-state poker, this is easy enough, as every player plays on a state platform, so everyone knows what goes where. With international players in the mix, this doesn’t work.

Financial Transactions

Now we get to the biggest elephant in the room. As mentioned, the UIGEA has pretty much made it impossible for financial institutions to process gambling transactions involving sources outside the US.

The UIGEA is a federal act. US online poker regulations and licenses are handled at the state level. So, no individual state can bypass the UIGEA. They can’t simply decide it doesn’t apply to them, and they’d like to give international poker a try.

While the question of multi-state poker was murky, nothing about the UIGEA is unclear as it pertains to offshore gambling transactions. These are strictly illegal, and no amount of state-level legislation can change that.

This means that even if a certain state was inclined to try this as an experiment, lawmakers pushing for it would quickly find themselves in hot water. Such blatant disregard for federal law would not go unnoticed.

Additionally, even the operators themselves would have to think twice about it. If such an experiment failed, and the odds are it would, they could face hefty penalties, have their licenses in regulated markets revoked, and, push comes to shove, even criminal charges for people responsible.

ROW Player Pool Remains a Distant Dream

There are other reasons why regulated US online poker sites won’t be combining with operators from the rest of the world poker scene any time soon, but these are some of the main ones. And they paint a very clear picture that this development, as much as the poker community would like to see it transpire, is simply not in the cards.

If this type of regulation were something lawmakers were interested in, the whole Black Friday ordeal wouldn’t have happened in the first place. There were other ways to go about it and make operators play ball.

For states and lawmakers, online gambling is too big a golden goose to let go of. Allowing international players inside would mean losing a great degree of control (and money), all for the sake of a relatively small number of poker players. Because, for other types of gambling, none of this really matters.

You can play slots, blackjack, or whatever else it is that you enjoy on a ring-fenced site just as well as you can on an international one. Your odds of winning are the same, and the entertainment is the same.

Unfortunately, US online poker in 2026 remains in the same bucket as those games. There are no special laws to treat it differently, and no particular interest in changing this.

So, if you’re not comfortable playing at offshore US-friendly sites, the reality is that it will be a long time before US players can play against their counterparts in other countries.

The best we can realistically hope for in the next few years is for licensed states to maybe reach an agreement with Ontario and Alberta (that is looking to create a regulated market). This would add some Canadian players into the mix, allowing regulated operators to cross the US border for the first time. This common player pool would still be better than an isolated one, but it is far from joining the rest of the world poker pool.

Even odds of this happening are quite slim, but the possibility exists. Beyond that, you really shouldn’t hold your breath.