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The gravy train came to an end in 2011 when the Department of Justice seized the.com addresses of three online poker sites: PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker and Absolute/UltimateBet. Online poker players referred to the day as “Black Friday”. It would be years before PokerStars would be allowed to re-enter the US market. Full Tilt Poker initially opened as an online poker card room with the involvement of poker professionals Howard Lederer, Phil Ivey, Andy Bloch, Mike Matusow, Jennifer Harman and Chris Ferguson. Full Tilt Poker was launched by parent company TiltWare, LLC in June 2004 and began full operation on July 10, 2004.

Why did Full Tilt Poker stop accepting Americans?

The DOJ seized the .com domains of Full Tilt Poker, PokerStars, Absolute Poker and Ultimate Bet on April 15th, 2011. Not only did they stop all Full Tilt US traffic -- Full Tilt Poker was shut down entirely and the company's assets were frozen.

11 individuals were charged for some combinations of money-laundering, bank fraud and online gambling offenses, including individuals from all the mentioned poker sites and some other individuals that helped these companies to process US poker deposits.

But that was not all. As the investigation continued, the US authorities found out that Full Tilt had allegedly used more money than it could afford to; in other words, they had taken customer deposits and spent more money than they made from rake. At the time of the investigation, they were unable to pay customers back. At first, the shortfall was rumoured to be around $60 million but later they discovered that it was much more - around $128 million, in fact.

It seems like the online poker room made money but the founders and stakeholders were greedy. According to reports, their stakeholder star players - namely Chris Ferguson, Howard Lederer and Phil Ivey - had taken home more than $1 billion from the time Full Tilt started until it was shut down.

But they found all of that out after the initial charges had been made, so what brought them around?

Since it's illegal for financial institutions to facitiliate unlawful online gambling transactions (because of the UIGEA), Full Tilt used intermediaries to process player deposits - for example, some of them set-up several retail sites and processed 'purchases' as player deposits.

Here's a quote from the actual indictment:

The principals of the Poker Companies... ... deceived or directed others to deceive United States banks and financial institutions into processing billions of dollars in payments for the Poker Companies, by, among other things, arranging for the money received from United States gamblers to be disguised as payments to hundreds of non-existent online merchants and other non-gambling businesses.
... relied on highly compensated third party payment processors (the 'Poker Processors') who lied to United States banks about the nature of the financial transactions they were processing and covered up those lies through the creation of phony corporations and websites to disguise payments to Poker Companies.

There's no clear definition for 'unlawful gambling' though. The UIGEA is an enforcement act, which means you have to break some other federal or state law in order to make it a crime, and there's no federal definition for 'unlawful gambling' - only state laws that have different ways of defining the term or fail to define it at all.

The DOJ, however, seems convinced that online poker transactions are categorized as 'unlawful gambling transactions.'

How was the Full Tilt Poker US situation resolved?

Full Tilt Poker (along with PokerStars) entered into a domain-name use agreement where they gained back their control of .com domains after agreeing to restrict their real-money online poker games for USA players. As per the agreement, both sites were allowed to continue operating real-money online poker games outside of the USA with no problems.

Full Tilt Poker, however, was still out of money, and couldn't run their poker site because they already owed players about $184 million (and, as mentioned, had a shortfall of about $128 million). How were they ever going to pay back that money when they were unable to make new money from online poker?

Enter PokerStars.

As the biggest online poker room in the world, PokerStars was able to provide the money needed to acquire the assets of Full Tilt Poker from the US government and pay back Full Tilt Poker US players simultaneously. PokerStars now owns both PokerStars and Fulltiltpoker (both which currently operate on .eu domains).

Read more about PokerStars US history.

More about Full Tilt in the USA:

Back in New Jersey & More States to Come in 2021?

Currently, PokerStars is only available in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

Updated Jan. 3, 2021 – PokerStars launched in Pennsylvania and has the highest traffic of all regulated poker sites in America. It also hosted the Pennsylvania Online Championship of Poker. This was a huge series with more than $1 million in guaranteed prizes. It took years, but it looks like it was worth the wait for Pennsylvania players.

PokerStars has been running strong in New Jersey since 2016, but it hasn’t reached the size Pennsylvania has. A shared player pool could really kick things up a notch though. We’ll see if success in Pennsylvania leads to PokerStars in more states.

Online Poker in the USA

Six states have legalized poker. Out of those, four currently have sites up-and-running. Nevada, New Jersey, Delaware and Pennsylvania. Two more states legalized poker but are still working on setting sites up. West Virginia, legalized it in 2019, but poker sites there aren’t expected to launch until 2021. The same goes for Michigan.

When it comes to PokerStars, only two states have Poker Stars software. PokerStars gained approval to operate in New Jersey in 2015. Their site, pokerstarsnj.com, went live on March 21, 2016. Of course, you have to be physically located in New Jersey to play. It’s play money for all other states. PokerStars NJ also offers casino games like slots, blackjack, roulette and more.

PokerStars then launched in Pennsylvania in late 2019. They kicked things off with the Pennsylvania Championship of Online Poker that drew thousands of players and culminated in a $300 buy-in main event with a $100,000-guaranteed prize pool.

If you’re not in Pennsylvania or New Jersey, PokerStars could still come to your state further down the line. If you want to play today though, there are still plenty of great alternatives.

Best PokerStars Alternatives for US Players

We recommend Ignition Poker as the best alternative. A lot of people prefer it to non-state run sites since they accept players from all 50 states. Bovada, BetOnline, SportsBetting, ACR, Black Chip Poker and Intertops also rank highly. As state by state rollouts occur, we will continue to keep you updated on when PokerStars makes it to your state.

Can You Play PokerStars in the USA?

PokerStars is only available if you are physically in New Jersey or Pennsylvania. PokerStars will be in more US states soon though. West Virginia and Michigan are the current front-runners to join the party.

PokerStars, which also owns Full Tilt Poker, is currently owned by The Stars Group, formerly called Amaya Gaming Group and is headquartered in Toronto, Canada. PokerStars is partnered with Resorts Casino Hotel in Atlantic City, and their main competition in the state is WSOP/888 and Borgata/PartyPoker. In Pennsylvania, they teamed up with FoxBet, which is the real-money wagering provided by FOX Sports.

While there are poker sits in Delaware and Nevada, but PokerStars has yet to get a license in either state. If you do not live in either New Jersey or Pennsylvania, we recommend Ignition Poker or Betonline.ag. They are safe and trusted sites that service all 50 states. Check out our reviews for a comprehensive look at each poker site. We detail the most important factors to look at when picking a poker site.

Make no mistake. Online poker is legal in the USA. It’s 100% legal for you to play. Don’t have to worry about getting arrested.

How Many Players on Pokerstars?

PokerStars remains the largest poker site on the internet with tens of thousands of players logging in weekly. PokerStars traffic is far superior to any other poker website and it controls over 50% of the market.

The sale of PokerStars has now changed the game in the US market. It is a prerequisite for any online casino that operates with a US license to also have or be partners with a US operated “land-based” casino. PokerStars partnered with Resorts Casino Hotel in Atlantic City, NJ. Unfortunately, PokerStars has struggled with its NJ-based traffic. On the bright side, Pennsylvania has been a traffic bonanza for PokerStars since it launched in late 2019.

PokerStars also made a massive deal with gigantic casino conglomerate Eldorado Resorts, which operates properties across 12 different states. The US government has to be pleased that PokerStars is playing ball and infusing the US market with plenty of cash.

When Will PokerStars Return to the USA?

It kind of already is. If you’re in New Jersey or Pennsylvania, just download the software. If you’re in another state, then you’ll have to wait. Regulated poker has been moving pretty slow. Even then, some states that have legalized it haven’t let PokerStars in. That’s because they have another obstacle. Some important gaming groups in the USA see the brand as a bad actor because it operated without a license in the USA for years.

The brand is still incredibly popular around the world though. The site also paid over an estimated $850 million in fines because of Black Friday. It might take some time, but PokerStars will make its way back to the USA on a broader scale.

Good Faith Will Not Prevail?

While some US states have been reluctant to allow PokerStars back, it should be noted that the company bailed out tens of thousands of American poker players. Full Tilt famously didn’t have funds on hand to repay its players after Black Friday. PokerStars then bought Full Tilt and repaid all its players for millions and millions of dollars.

PokerStars was simply a better-run business and separated their player accounts from operating expenses. It was, therefore, an easy task for PokerStars to immediately pay back its players after they were forced out of the US market in 2011. PokerStars was also better at becoming a global poker business. Most of its player traffic came from outside the USA.

This act of good faith was on top of the hundreds of millions they paid out in penalties to US officials. It was an example of responsible gaming. As more and more casinos based in the USA secure their licenses to operate, PokerStars will likely be entering several of these state-regulated markets.

When Will I Be Able to Play PokerStars in my State?

We have in-depth poker guides for many of the US states that are updated whenever there are changes to state legislation. Unfortunately, there’s no clear-cut guide to when it will be legalized in each US state. For now, it appears that progress will only occur at the state level and a federal online poker bill is still just a pipe dream.

Some states have a higher chance of legalizing and regulating online poker in the near future, however. We keep close track of some of the more progressive states and try to give our readers some insight into which states could be closing in on legalization. You can take a deeper dive into your states specific laws in regards to PokerStars and all poker laws with our state-by-state guides.

Online Poker USA Law State-by-State Guides

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You can refer to the legal status of online poker in every US state here:
Alabama – Arizona – Arkansas – California – Colorado – Connecticut – Georgia – Idaho – Iowa – Kansas – Maine – Maryland – Massachusetts – Michigan – Minnesota – Mississippi – Montana – Nebraska – New Hampshire – New Mexico – North Carolina – North Dakota – Ohio – Oklahoma – Pennsylvania – Rhode Island – South Carolina – Tennessee – Vermont – West Virginia – Wyoming

The Entire History of PokerStars in the USA

PokerStars has a fascinating history in the online poker industry with a substantial portion of it taking place in the USA.

2000s

• Now a billion-dollar, publicly-traded company, PokerStars had rather humble beginnings.
• It began in the early 2000s as a Costa Rican company called Rational Enterprises that was majority-owned by Israeli-Canadian Isai Scheinberg.
• PokerStars was just one of many of the early real-money online poker operators including PartyPoker, Pacific Poker (Now 888poker) and Tropical Poker.

2003 – 2006

• PokerStars’ claim to fame came in 2003 when an accountant named Chris Moneymaker won the WSOP Main Event 2003-2006 Las Vegas after qualifying on the site.
• Moneymaker was the first player to win the Main Event after qualifying online and helped create the so-called “poker boom” of the early 2000s.
• PokerStars quickly became a favorite amongst poker players for its secure deposits, reliable support team and booming cash games.

2006 – 2011

• The poker boom was stifled early on when the US government passed the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 that led to publicly-traded companies like PartyPoker getting forced to leave the US market altogether.
• UIGEA had the opposite effect on PokerStars because it was a privately-held company, it remained in the US market and quickly took the reins as the most popular online poker site in the world.

2011 – 2016

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• The gravy train came to an end in 2011 when the Department of Justice seized the .com addresses of three online poker sites: PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker and Absolute/UltimateBet.
• Online poker players referred to the day as “Black Friday”. It would be years before PokerStars would be allowed to re-enter the US market.

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2016 – Today

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• PokerStars continued to flourish on the international market and was purchased by Amaya Gaming in a massive $4.9 billion deal in 2014. Subsequently the first officially licensed online poker sites in the USA start to pop up in 2014.
• New Jersey became the first state to allow PokerStars back in 2016.
• In late 2019 Pennsylvania follows suit and allows PokerStars to officially open its doors to players in the state.

Unfortunately, many other states remain a pipe dream and it will likely be decades before PokerStars is allowed to operate in the entirety of the USA.