Legitimate Online Poker Sites Reddit
It’s reasonable to ask, “Is online poker legit,” because cardplayer pay a lot of money into online poker rooms. This is a two part article, first covering online poker and second examining which sportsbooks are legit. I recommend www.IgnitionPoker.eu (previously known as Bovada) for poker and Bovada.lv for sports betting, and so does everybody else who isn’t paid off. If you only consider a legit site, one run by state or Federal licenses, then you must by physically located in Nevada, Delaware, New Jersey, or Pennsylvania. For those that live there the PokerStars, Borgata, and WSOP are the most active in the 4 licensed states.
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Our purpose is to weed those out and only pass along safe, reliable, legitimate online gambling sites to our readers. History/Reputation – We also consider a site’s past performances when forming our recommendations. Websites with a history of dissatisfied customers or that have previously landed on blacklists are avoided. You know, one of the funny things about breaking this page up into 3 sections is how little the difference is between the best online poker sites for recreational and pro players. And, often times they’re the same room. Few sites really only cater to recreational players, and none we can think of only cater to pros.
I didn’t just pull these sites from nowhere, I’ve been in the gambling business for over 10 years now. I’ve seen and dealt with all sorts of millionaire and billionaire scum bags; people that should be on the TV show “American Greed”. The only legit poker sites I suggest are mentioned on my homepage or on the ‘safe list‘. You’ll notice the list is pretty darn short, and I’ve dealt with approximately 45-60 gambling sites. PokerStars is the largest online poker site there is. Borgata is powered by Party Poker, while WSOP.com uses 888poker software. If you consider a non rigged, legit poker site to be one run from the United States, then you will have to be physically located in Nevada, New Jersey, Delaware, or Pennsylvania to be able to play. But I can point to unregulated poker rooms that which gives
But Aren’t U.S. Licensed Sites Legit?
It’s debatable. In fact, in total I’ve had $147,116 taken from me by the U.S. government. The money was not stolen by offshore poker sites but THE U.S. GOVERNMENT! The process of legalized poker in the U.S. was a complete scam. They attempted to shut down every online poker site that was running for US customers, simply because they wanted zero (0) competition as they launched their own poker sites.
Let me ask you this. How is it that the Ultimate Fight Championship (UFC) – which has nothing to do with online poker – was the first to open up an online poker room in Nevada? How is it that poker sites like Bet365, Paddy Power, Everest Poker – which are traded on the London Stock Exchange and have market value in the billions of dollars – were not given priority in the immediate launch of poker in the US? Those 5-star poker sites never accepted US customers after UIGEA and adhered to all laws both domestic and international.
Yet the UFC gets the first poker license in Nevada. Not only that but the operations at “Ultimate Poker”, UFC’s poker site was light years behind any poker site based offshore that is legit. The Nevada Gaming Commission helped the local business already making them and the state money, because UFC was affiliated with Station Casinos (at the time). That is governmental corruption at its finest. Did I mention UltimatePoker went out of business, because they didn’t know how to operate a poker site?
Legit Poker Sites
Beginners might wonder what a legit poker site needs, so let’s define our terms. Below is a short list of the factor you should consider, always with explanations for why they’re important. Don’t use poker rooms if they don’t check off everything on the following checklist.
- Player Traffic: Without traffic, sites can’t have a selection of high stakes, mid stakes, and low stakes cash games, tournaments, and sit’n go events.
- Good Software: Top software means fewer issues, plus access to features like Bovada’s Zone Poker, which increases your hands per hour.
- Experience: This entails everything from software support to customer service to knowing how to monitor cheaters at the table.
- Banking Options: It often comes down to sensible payment options, including credit cards, web wallets, and crypto-currencies like Bitcoin.
- Other Games: If poker websites offer casino gaming or sports betting, it means lots of casual poker players (soft competition).
Which Poker Site is Not Rigged?
My buddies ask me all the time about this because it’s my job and one of the sites I most often recommend is Ignition Poker (previously known as Bovada). Having met the owner personally, he is an honest person and puts himself in the public spotlight when others hide under rocks. His previous ownership, now owned by Morris Mohawk is probably worth about 1-2 billion USD. In a closed meeting, he discussed how if anything ever went bad, he would personally make sure all his players and employees got paid from his own checkbook. On top of that the site has the most player traffic going by PokerScout and has an Alexa rank of 9,730. For a comparison, HBO has about a 4,600 Alexa rank which means millions of people use it. Most sites are in the million number ranks – which is terrible.
If you are in Nevada, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, or Delaware, then the answer might be different in 3 or 4 years from now as the WSOP grows its player base. The WSOP is now forced to be legitimate and all licensed poker sites in the U.S. look like the saviors of safe poker sites. In truth, the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) was an unnecessary federal law which shut down poker sites, drove out legit online cardrooms, and dismantled a perfectly well run market. If lawmakers had not stepped in we would still be playing at Party Poker and making money would be just as easy as it was all those years ago. But lawmakers must justify their jobs and business owners must deal with the fallout the best they can.
Be Careful of Scamming Affiliates
I could go on for hours about how people to this day are crummy affiliates who are touting poker sites to play. They are getting large up-front chunks of cash in the $100,000+ range to mention their poker rooms because they rank high for popular terms in Google and Yahoo by using spammy search engine optimization techniques over and over again to maintain rankings and visitors. I have email chains proving certain companies insolvency and forthcoming bankruptcy, yet they continue to operate. The most recent mass scale offenders were Lock Poker. This was one of the longest running scams, but U.S. law enforcement agencies never took action. Eventually, journalist John Mehaffey brought Lock Poker’s abuses to light. Players left the platform and the site shut down in 2015.
Thus, poker review sites serve a useful purpose. With honest reporting and the facts on their side, card players can make informed decisions about online poker rooms. US Poker Sites continues to monitor legit sites here, so players have the info they need. We are pretty straight forward, so we hope this site helps.
For what it’s worth, I do not believe any poker sites are ‘rigged’m but cheating and collusion goes on regularly and will never stop. Legit poker sites takes steps to eliminate collusion, but cheaters find new and inventive ways to collude. It’s a cat-and-mouse game that will never end entirely. It’s better just to play for small amounts of money – however you define “small amounts” – you don’t mind losing one way or the other.
Is Ignition Poker Legit?
So if legitimate poker sites try to make games safer, then you might ask which card rooms you should trust. Ignition Poker is the top option for American online poker players, so I’ll use it as an example. Ignition Casino launched in the spring of 2016. A few months later, Ignition bought Bovada Poker’s player pool, instantly establishing itself as the second largest online gambling site which accepted US poker players. Since then, Ignition Poker vaulted to the number one spot.
Ignition Poker therefore has all of the elements of a world class online poker site. It’s linked to an online casino, so many soft players or fish join its cash games and tournament events. The gaming platform uses Bovada proprietary software, so Ignition uses trusted and well-tested technology. It has the most player traffic of any poker site which accepts US players.
The Bovada-powered poker room includes several features that make it popular with players. Here’s a few of those features:
- Quick Seat: Choose a poker game like Texas Hold’em, Omaha, or Omaha Hi/Lo and the stakes and Quick Seat automatically puts you at a table.
- Anonymous Tables: Players can’t use Heads-Up Displays (HUDs) to track your hand history. Instead, you use your skills and perceptions to get a read on opponents the old-fashioned way.
- Zone Poker: A fast-fold feature where you’re assigned to a new table once you fold a hand. Players should fold most hands, so you don’t wait on bets and showdowns most of the day.
- In-Software Casino Games: If you prefer to sit through hands, you can play In-Software Casino Games like blackjack, roulette, video poker, or 3D slots.
- Mobile Poker: Play poker anytime, anywhere with the mobile poker apps for Android and iOS. Jackpot Sit-and-Go games cater to mobile poker players with possible 1000x winnings while you’re on the go.
- Softer Opponents: Ignition Poker has a huge community of recreational players. Unlike some sites, it allows expert poker players to play against casual players, so skilled players have high odds of facing lesser opponents.
Deft readers might notice that Ignition Poker is newer, so they might be thinking the site doesn’t meet the criterion of experience. Ignition’s owner has been in the online poker business since the 1990s, so the poker room has more experience than the other online poker rooms which accept US players from any state.
Free Poker Sites
Poker players can find all the information they need with free poker sites. To learn more about online poker, watch live streamed poker games on Twitch and YouTube. Both platforms have a seemingly endless amount of channels which provide all-day coverage of online and live poker events. One of the best is FuryTV.
FuryTV, a YouTube channel with the best compilations, highlights, and hands from poker events all around the world. Fury ETC Ltd is affiliated with the official Twitter page of partypoker, @partypoker, and the official home of partypoker live events, Part@partypokerlive. Watching a YouTube feed like FuryTV improves your knowledge and skills at poker.
Keep reading USPokerSites for the latest advice and trends. Like our recommendations on Ignition Poker or FuryTV, we give honest opinions and detailed reasons to support those attitudes. When the latest trends and updates happen, we reasses the landscape and give our readers the best information available. Our goal is to provide reliable poker advice on the latest topics. You might not always agree with us, but like the opinions above on corrupt politicians and scamming affiliates, you’ll walk away with new ideas and information to consider. Keep studying online poker, and keep reading about the poker sites we recommend.
Online Poker Scams
How the Online Poker Scams Work:
Online poker has become such a popular game that scammers are enjoying a smooth ride when it comes to cashing out on your behalf. There are 5 variations: The Cash Out, Deposit, Poker Affiliate, Poker Room Employee, and Anonymous. Feel free to report in the Comments section any fraudulent names in the industry. Let's take a look.
Watch the video below to see some poker scams exposed or read on:
Variation 1: The Poker Cash Out
The most notorious way a shady poker site pulls the scam is when you request a cash out. Justifying the nature of processing gambling funds to some countries, who have confusing or contradictory online gambling laws, these fake online casinos claim to have sent you your withdrawals, while in reality never did.
They will then have you going nuts contacting your bank forever trying to trace these supposedly missing bank wires.
Variation 2: The Deposit
In this scam you make a deposit into a poker site, your transaction is processed and removed from the balance of your credit or debit card, but never appears in your poker room account.
What will follow is then a long and drawn out procedure where you have to pull your hair to try and get the poker site to listen to your complaint or get the money added to your account.
Variation 3: The Poker Affiliate
Questionable sites promise a commission for each real money player you bring in who joins and makes a deposit. However, when those players join and you try to claim your commission (which could be cash deposit, increase in rake back, or special exclusive tournaments) the poker site will refuse to honour them for ridiculous reasons.
Variation 4: The Online Poker Employee
This scam is huge. It is the most dangerous one out of all these five variations. The scam happens when a group of employees or ex-employees of a poker site join a poker room as normal anonymous players.
Legitimate Online Poker Sites Reddit Online
They are able to see what every other players cards are. Some websites are really build specifically for this reason.
Variation 5: The Anonymous Poker Table:
This goes somehow hand in hand with variation number 4. Certain sites claim that their tables are completely anonymous, meaning it would be impossible for tracking software and the such like to pin point players and would make playing much fairer.
However, it was reported that their tables are far from anonymous, and once you know how to do it, you could see which player was who and use the tracking software which makes spotting weaker players and the such like much easier.
How To Avoid The Online Poker Scams:
Always, always, always research the site before you join. Ask friends, read forum posts, google every single keyword that relates to that site. Look only for reputable services and details, such as this Bet365 information.
On the other hand, do not trust an online poker site whose only available way of funding your account is by wiring money through Western Union, Money Gram, or by depositing money on reloadable cards such as GreenDot, MoneyPak, Vanilla Reload, or Ukash.
Also, be very careful about random emails coming into your inbox revealing insane casino secrets.
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How To Report The Online Poker Scams:
Make your family and friends aware of this scam by sharing it on social media using the buttons provided. You can also officially report the scammers to the Federal Trade Commission using the link below:
How To Protect Yourself More:
If you want to be the first to find out the most notorious scams every week, feel free to subscribe to the Scam Detector newsletter here. You'll receive periodical emails and we promise not to spam. Last but not least, use the Comments section below to expose other scammers.