Online poker for US players

With the passing of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) in 2006, the US Government effectively left American poker players in a lurch. The Act itself was aimed at financial institutions and called for a restriction on deposits and withdrawals to and from US online poker sites. Due to the legal tangles and ambiguity that surrounded the UIGEA, many online poker sites pulled out of the US markets.

However, American poker players still had some reputed and safest US poker sites for real money poker, which included such names as PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker. The events of Black Friday on April 15th 2011 however took away these options as well. PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker, UB Poker and Absolute Poker and were shut down by the US department of Justice charging the owners of these sites with money laundering and fraud.

When these big names in the online poker world shut their doors to American players, there were few safest US poker sites for real money poker available to them. However online poker sites like Carbon Poker, still accept American poker players and are considered amongst safest US poker sites for real money poker. The few safe US poker sites for real money poker were soon inundated with new signups. Carbon Poker was the biggest beneficiary, with its customer base increasing by almost 75%.

So now, the question before American poker players is: Which are the safest US poker sites for real money poker? Although there may not be many US friendly sites around, there are still a handful of them that are reliable and considered safest US poker sites for real money poker.

Currently, asides from Carbon Poker, BetOnline Poker is the leading US friendly poker site for Americans. BetOnline has been in operation since 1991 and as such is a well established site. They offer 25% bonus on every deposit. All major US credit cards are accepted so you shouldn't have any problems funding your account.

At BetOnline, you can expect a good amount of traffic for no limit cash games, but the competition is weak. The software runs smoothly and fast, but the graphics might be a little dated as compared to some of the other sleeker poker sites. However, it has earned the reputation of being one of the safest and trustworthy sites in accepting US players today.