Freedom of Choice (Online Options for U.S. Players)

Recently had a pleasant exchange with a rep from BetUS.com and agreed to sell ’em a link to their site (see under “Shamus Plugs”). Did a little bit of checking to find out that, yes, indeed, they do accept American players. Doing so got me wondering just how many places still do take U.S. customers.

Having pulled my funds off of Absolute Poker and Ultimate Bet, I’m now down to three sites (Stars, Full Tilt, and Bodog) -- plenty, for now, but I may well want to add another somewhere down the road do give myself more options. As an American, what options do I have?

After wasting some time with some fruitless searching on Goggle, I finally got smart and headed over to PokerSiteScout to see if they had an easy-to-scan list of “U.S.-facing” sites. If you aren’t familiar with PokerSiteScout, it is probably the best tracking site out there for seeing how many players are playing at each online poker room. Those monitoring the traffic at Absolute (and/or Ultimate Bet) will be watching PokerSiteScout closely over the next few weeks in order to determine exactly what effect the cheating scandal is going to have.

PokerSiteScout does not have a comprehensive list on its site of online poker rooms currently accepting American players, but they do link to a terrific, updated list over at a site called Compatible Poker. There you will find a detailed, easy-to-navigate page divided into about a dozen sections, including “Most Popular Sites Accepting U.S. Players,” “EWallet Stances on U.S. Market,” “Other Poker Sites Accepting Americans,” and “Notable Poker Sites / Brands NOT Open to U.S.A.”

The page also has a section listing the 11 states that currently have laws against playing online (Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, South Dakota, Washington, Wisconsin). Some sites disallow folks from those states to play; others don’t make a distinction. There are additional sections with various info regarding legal news, all of which appears to have been updated regularly. For Americans (or anyone) interested in tracking specifics regarding how the UIGEA is affecting our ability to play poker online, the page is probably a good one to bookmark.

Scanning through, I was surprised too see just how many online poker sites are currently accepting U.S. customers. According to Compatible Poker, Americans looking for alternatives to Absolute or UB have the following sites from which to choose:

7sultanspoker, Allinpoker, Aceflush Poker, Bodog, Bugsysclub, BetedPoker, BetonUSA, BetUS Poker, Bookmaker, Butcher Poker, Cake Poker, Captain Cook, Carbon Poker, Crazy Poker, Century Poker, Colosseum Poker, Dobrosoft, Doyle’s Room, Duplicate Poker, EuroLinx, Full Tilt Poker, Gamesgrid, GamingClub Poker, GoldenTigerPoker, GoldenRiviera, Interchamps, Intertops, Ironduke, Jungle Poker, Microgaming, NakedPoker, OkUSApoker, OPT Room, PharaohsPokerPalace, PitbullPoker, Poker.com, Poker4Ever, PokerHost, Poker Metro, PokerNordica, Poker Rewards, Poker Share, PokerStars, PokerSyndicate, Poker Time, PokerWorld, Poker333, Prima, Red Star Poker, Royal Card Club, Royal Vegas Poker, SportsInteraction, Sportsbook.com, StanleyVippoker.com, StraightFlush, Third Bullet Poker, Thunderluck Poker, Tigergamingpoker, Tradesports, Trident Poker, True Poker, Tropical Poker, United Poker Network, USAPoker, Virtual City Poker, Wild Jack Poker, Wingows Poker, and World Poker Exchange.

A few of these do have the 11-state ban (including Doyle’s Room, by the way). (See the Compatible Poker page for details.) And some are skins of each other and/or part of each other’s networks, so the actual number of available sites is probably somewhat below the 70 or so listed here.

Of course, a good number of these rooms most certainly have very low traffic and/or have yet to establish themselves the way Stars or Full Tilt has, so one must obviously use caution when trying out someplace new. Personally, I ain’t rushing to join up anywhere at the moment. Nice to know, though, that -- for now, anyway -- us Yanks do have some options available to us.