It's fair to say that American online poker players have been through it all over recent years.

First came the advent of online poker, the Internet boom and the 'Moneymaker Effect' that followed after, before Congress put it all asunder with the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) in 2006.

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2. High-stakes poker games were set up at a building on Coney Island Ave. Which from the outside appeared to be an auto leasing and private security business. One defendant, Aleksey Tsvetkov, was.

Igor Federal Poker Games

NYPD Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly said, “The subjects in this case ran high-stakes illegal poker games and online gambling, proceeds from which are alleged to have been funneled to organized crime overseas. The one thing they didn’t bet on was the New York City police and federal investigators’ attention.

Igor Federal Poker Game

In April 2011, the Department of Justice (DoJ) made raids on sites they felt were breaking the law (AKA Black Friday), before dramatically making a U-turn and declaring online poker DIDN'T contradict any current law in December of that same year.

Igor Federal Poker Rules

So, in 2020 we have arrived at a stage where some states have legalized and regulated online poker, others have outlawed it entirely, and some continue sitting on a rather large fence waiting to see how the dust settles.