Official language: English
Population: 306,189,000
Currency: United States Dollar (USD)

Current Exchange Rate
1 EUR = USD
1 GBP = USD

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Poker in United States
Poker has been a big part of American culture for over two hundred years. It is thought to have come from a French card game called Poque, which was popular in the early 1800s in the French quarter of New Orleans. The game evolved over the years, often played on River Boats along the Mississippi. By the time of the Gold Rush, poker was being played in saloons across the Wild West. Then in the early 1900s, playing poker for money was made illegal, and it stayed that way until gambling was allowed in Nevada in 1931. The popularity of US poker has grown steadily since then, played using a wide variety of rules. Ever since the World Series of Poker began in 1970, the game has really exploded.

Online Poker in United States
Online poker in the US is equally popular, but there are no domestic poker rooms on the internet just yet. The federal government actively discourages the use of foreign sites, though they are unable to actually keep players from using internet poker rooms located in other countries. Instead, they try to block payments going to these poker sites. But there are always ways around the system, and playing US internet poker is still possible.

There were federal legislative efforts in 2011 and 2012 aimed at setting the rules for legalized online poker while explicitly banning other online casino games. These efforts failed and online poker remains unregulated on a federal level.

At the same time, US Department of Justice communication at the end of 2011 made it clear that existing federal laws do not prevent states from legalizing online poker for their own inhabitants. Nevada, New Jersey and Delaware have since passed legislation authorizing it as a result. Hawaii, Texas, California and Pennsylvania are among the states, which may follow suit in 2013-2015.

Delaware plans to launch online poker by the 30th of September 2013, making it the first US state to do so. Shared player liquidity is a big issue and poker-legal states are expected to allow the sharing of their player pools soon.