On February 2, 2016, the state’s Senate Racing, Gaming and Wagering Committee passed a bill (SB S5302) to legalize and regulate poker over the internet by a unanimous 9-0 vote.

The states asked for clarification regarding the selling of lottery tickets over the internet, and this served as a catalyst for the DOJ to issue its famous change of position statement over Christmas 2011, ruling that the Wire Act only applies to sports betting.

On the other hand, it cannot be ignored that New York was one of two states (the other being Illinois) that asked the Department of Justice for clarification on its position of the 1961 Wire Act. The point we are getting to is that with Bharara at the helm of the Attorney General’s office for the Southern District of New York (and having been named one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World by Time Magazine in 2012), lawmakers may have an uphill battle on their hands getting online poker legalized in the state. “Bharara takes an alleged New York misdemeanor with a maximum penalty of one year in jail and turns it into multiple federal felonies-including UIGEA violations, money laundering, wire fraud, and bank fraud” writes Sullum, indicating that Bharara is, “on a pointless puritanical crusade.” While the indictments were issued by the (federal) Department of Justice, many analysts, including writer Jacob Sullum in his 2011 piece entitled Poker Bars, which appeared in, feel that the US attorney in Manhattan, Preet Bharara, “piggybacks on a New York statute that makes ‘unlawful gambling activity’ a Class A misdemeanor.” The first is New York’s involvement in Black Friday, that fateful day in April 2011 when indictments were made against eleven high-placed executives of online poker rooms such as Full Tilt Poker and Poker Stars (legit sites), predicated that these men violated New York state gambling laws. There are two issues that could see the question of legal online poker go either way in the state of New York. Some believe that Governor Andrew Cuomo’s pro-gambling stand may be the catalyst the state needs for the introduction of online poker.

Many believe that the ground is fertile for the introduction of online poker in New York, especially since Delaware, New Jersey and Nevada have already entered this realm.

Is online poker legal in ny state