

All online poker players must be at least 21 years old.Online gaming was a reality, and the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board could now distribute online poker licenses to qualifying retail and online casinos. In 2015, the debate in the statehouse began in earnest, and in 2017, a bill was finally passed that was then signed by Governor Tom Wolf.

A study of the idea in 2014 encouraged advocates of legalization.

In 2013, lawmakers began talking about PA online gambling legislation. It was then that Pennsylvania and other states saw an opportunity to be in charge of their own gambling laws. In 2011, the Justice Department went after the CEOs of major online poker retailers for money laundering and illegal gambling.įollowing that push to make poker illegal, the federal government began to rein in its power via the Federal Wire Act. This was thanks, in no small part, to poker games being broadcast on cable television.īut then the federal government got involved with the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act in 2006. A massive revival in the popularity of online poker began in the early years of the millennium. Online poker in Pennsylvania might be thriving now, but that hasn't always been the case.
