Is online poker legal in my state?

[lawstudent11]

Hi. I looked around on the internet for a while and found nothing conclusive...so I thought I'd ask this forum:

How can I find if online poker is legal in my state? I've made a little money online and it occurred to me that when I cash out or pay taxes on it there might be some red flags raised (worst case, the money will be seized). I'm actually not too concerned about the amount I've made thus far - rather I'm trying to prepare in the event I keep at this and make a significant sum.

I live in Virginia, by the way.

And yes I realize the irony of my screen name but I don't start LS until August.

[TheRonin]

I live in VA and have been playing online for several years now. I have never seen any law/legislation that states that online poker is prohibited. That being said I have never scanned the law books to look but I am pretty sure I would have caught something on the news at some point in time. To the best of my knowledge I think it is only illegal in one state (washington).

[joker122]

i live in VA and have played online for 4 years now.

my understanding is that online gambling is technically illegal on the federal level due to the wire act, making it illegal in all states (VA included obviously). however, from what i've read it's up to the states to police this, and thus the lawfullness of online gambling becomes a state-level issue. i guess what really matters is that VA does very little, if anything, to police it.

i could be totally wrong though.

[cowboy.up]

Illegal or not, I have not heard of one case of the "23 million" that play online poker that have ever had their money seized, fined, or spent a day in jail for playing online poker. Pay your taxes, you owe them whether the money came from legitimate or illegitimate sources. I wouldn't sweat the legality at this point because I'm not sure the federal government is 100% sure about poker themselves - and if they are, they aren't sure how to give it its day in court.

[Skallagrim]

There is no Federal Law against online poker (the Wire act only covers sportsbetting).

You can find Virginia's gambling laws here:
http://www.gambling-law-us.com/State-Laws/Virginia/

The long and short of it is that whether online poker is illegal in Virginia depends on whether A) poker is a game of chance and B) if it is a game of chance, whether the exception for play in private residences indicates that the internet is not covered by this law. Both points have been discussed extensively in these forums. There is a search function here you know....

Skallagrim

[MiltonFriedman]

The Commonwealth actually has 2 express carveouts for birds:

1. Contests of .... skill among .....fowl.

2. Duck racing, with a permit of course.

How many Virginians does it take to screw in a light bulb ?

Seven. One to screw in the light bulb and six to extoll the virtues of the Grand and Glorious Old Bulb.