Ultimate Poker Bonus News

In recent weeks we have since a lot change in the online poker industry. The executives of the biggest operators have found themselves indicted by the United States Department of Justice after enforcement of the Unlawful Internet Gaming Enforcement Act (UIGEA) and the sites they operate no longer allow USA players.

So what does all this mean and where do we go from here? Before we answer those questions we wanted to take some time to explain the full ramifications and state facts as it relates to the UIGEA.

The UIGEA was passed in September 2006 and signed by then President George W. Bush. The law basically made it illegal for banks and credit cards to knowingly process transactions for Internet gaming purposes.

The law was passed as part of the “Safe Ports Act” which was passed to basically protect US ports from falling into the hands of foreign owners. In true American Political form, the UIGEA was added to the bill last minute to a completely unrelated piece of legislation. Parties voting on the “Safe Ports Act” really had no idea what they voting for when the UIGEA was added to the bill last minute. The Safe Ports Act was something that would pass easily (and did), and some ambitious representatives added the UIGEA last minute. Reps. Leach and Goodlatte authored the UIGEA and snuck it in.

The law came into effect January 19, 2009, but compliance was not required until December 1, 2009. In May 2009, Chair of the House Committee on Financial Services Barney Frank introduced 2 bills. The first to overturn the implementation of the UIGEA and the second to delay the implementation of the UIGEA for one year. The second bill was enacted but only extended the implementation until June 1, 2010.

At this time we saw many, if not all publicly traded poker, casino and sportsbook operators leave the US market. The biggest and most regulated poker sites and casinos could no longer accept USA players.

This leaves us where we are today, with FullTilt Poker, Poker Stars, Absolute Poker and UB.com no longer allowing USA players. Americans can no longer enjoy a pass time at the most respected online poker sites that were available to them.

So I thought this was the United States of America, home of the free? Well maybe home of the tax paying free. The United States government did not receive a cent in revenue from taxes from online poker and gaming sites. In fact, the United States now has to give the island nation of Antigua concessions in trade after a World Trade Organization (WTO) ruling.

A major employer and revenue generator for Antigua is/was gaming. Antigua went to the WTO with a complaint that the US was in violation of treaty obligations by not allowing Market Access to its residents and the WTO agreed. Antigua then made a 3.4 billion dollar claim against the US which they have not received a cent. Instead the US granted concessions in other sectors. The US is actually losing money by offering such concessions rather than allow its citizens access to online gaming.

The concessions were never made public in the interest of “National Security” even after Barney Frank and Ron Paul stated the concessions “could cost the United States billions of dollars in compensation” and demanded the agreements to made public. To date we are not aware these agreements have ever been made public.

Now the government is charging executives with Money Laundering and making accusations that online gaming funds terrorism globally. Well I ask this question, if a company is publically traded on the London Stock Exchange, and their financial records are public knowledge, how could they be funneling money to terrorists. Not saying it couldn’t happen, but it would be difficult.

Now US residents must play at casinos and poker sites that are not publicly traded, and their financials do not need to be public. The legal, profitable, respected sites can no longer allow US players.

So what do we know and gain from the UIGEA?

1. We know it was passed at the last minute without proper research by regulators.
2. USA residents can no longer play at licensed, publicly traded gaming sites.
3. It has cost the United States millions if not billions in trade concessions to Antigua.
4. It fosters an illegal enterprise without regulation.
5. It puts US citizens in harms way by not allowing them to play at the best poker and casino sites.

So what is the answer? The easy answer is for the United States to legalize and regulate online gaming. It would produce revenue in the form of taxes and players funds were surely be safer. While we think this will happen, it will most likely be quite some time before we see legalized online poker and casino gaming in the US.

In the meantime, US players must continue to play at unregulated (by the US government or stock exchange) online poker and casino sites.

For a full description of the UIGEA and its provisions check out this Wikipedia UIGEA link.

The Bad Beat Jackpot on the Merge Poker Network is once again getting pretty big. At the time of this post the bad beat jackpot is over $270,000! If your playing cash ring games, play at a Merge Site and take a shot at winning some serious cash.

Get beat holding quad 8′s or better and receive 35% of the jackpot. The rest of the jackpot is distributed out to the remaining players at the table. If you win the hand you receive 17.5%, 17.5% is distributed to all other players at the table, 20% is taken to reseed the next jackpot and the house gets 10%. For complete information see our Bad Beat Jackpots page.

Their are several great poker sites that operate on the Merge Poker Network and still accept USA players. PokerHost is our top recommended poker site because they offer a great bonus of 150% match of your first deposit, have outstanding customer service and get credit card deposits approved. PokerHost also offers a monthly reload bonus, so you will always be earning bonus cash while you play. Check out our PokerHost review for more details on this great site.

Start playing at any Merge Site and have a chance to win some serious cash by hoping for that bad beat. It’s not often you want to lose, but when there is a few hundred thousand dollars as a consolation prize a bad beat is always welcome!

With all the turmoil surrounding the USA online poker as of late, we have put together a list of what we feel are the best USA online poker sites for the month of May. We will update this list monthly based on various promotions at the various USA online poker sites we recommend.

Our Best Poker Sites for May 2011.

PokerHost- Receive a 150% match bonus on your first deposit up to $750. PokerHost operates on the Merge Poker Network and has great site features and great banking options. See the PokerHost Review for more details.

BodogPoker- Bodog is offering a huge 110% match bonus up to $1100. Get 10% of your deposit in CASH deposited directly into your real money account! BodogPoker has quickly become a top destination for USA poker players. See the BodogPoker Review for full details.

Lock Poker - Receive a 150% match bonus up to $750 at Lock Poker. Also part of the Merge Poker Network the poker site is very functional. Play in the Bad Beat Jackpot and score some serious cash if you get a bad beat. See the Lock Poker Review for full details on this highly recommended USA poker site.

Choose from any of our best USA online poker sites for May. All offer a great online poker experience, and all offer our visitors the best bonuses available. These sites receive our “Best” reward for May not only for their bonuses and site features, but because they also offer great deposit options for USA residents. Deposits have been harder to get processed as of late and these sites do a great job of getting transactions approved.

Good Luck at the tables!

Doyles Room has launched a new version of their software and now has some great features including a bad beat jackpot.

If you already have a Dolyles Room account, the software will update automatically. I you do not have an account use our link to download the software and receive a 100% match bonus up to $500.

With this upgrade Doyles Room now offers many of the best online poker features that players look for. beside the bad beat jackpot, tables are now re-sizeable, you can straddle, chop pots and they have added a lot of new guaranteed tournaments.

With this new upgrade the player base is sure to grow, and Doyles Room will become a very popular USA online poker site. Check out the Doyles Room Review for more details and to claim your bonus.

If you are looking for an easy bonus to earn, we have you covered. We have compiled a list of the easiest poker bonuses to earn for USA friendly poker sites.

The easiest poker bonus to clear is at Poker4ever. Earn $1 of your bonus for just $1.20 paid in fee’s. There is not an easier bonus in the industry. Poker4ever operates on the Everleaf Gaming Network and offers some juicy games. The player base is not huge here, but the inexperience of the competition can put some easy cash in your pockets. Add that to a $500 bonus and watch your bankroll grow.

Landshark Poker has the next easiest bonus to clear and also operates on the Everleaf Network. Landshark offers a $200 bonus, and you earn $1 of your bonus for every $1.50 paid in fee’s. Landshark also offers an ongoing reload bonus so you can continue to add to your bankroll every time you play poker. Check out the Landshark Poker Review for full details.

The poker sites that operate on the Cake Poker Network are the next easiest to clear. All the sites that operate on the Cake Network offer the same bonus terms. Earn $1 of your bonus for every $2.38 paid in fee’s. Site traffic is a little better at Cake than Everleaf, and they offer some nice tournaments as well. However, if you play NL Hold’em cash games we recommend you take advantage of the loose play and easy bonus on the Everleaf Gaming Network sites.

For a ranking of all bonuses, see the complete listing of the easiest poker bonus to clear for USA online poker sites. We believe in taking advantage of as many bonuses as possible. Its free money and needs to be advantage of!

BetUs Poker is the latest to leave the US poker market. BetUs has announced that effective immediately they will no longer accept any new USA players.

Current US players can continue to play as usual at BetUs, and continue to make deposits and withdraws. We hope this is a temporary situation, and BetUs will once again accept new US players in the near future. This is the third USA friendly poker site to make such a move. PlayersOnlyPoker and SportsbookPoker made this same announcement at the beginning of this month.

Funds are safe at BetUs, and US residents can make a withdraw if they wish.

If you are looking for a USA online poker site to play at, we recommend PokerHost and Bodog Poker. Both still accept new USA players and offer a great bonus. See the PokerHost Review or BodogPoker Review for more information on these great US poker sites.

Be sure to keep checking our news section, as if any new developments occur you can find them here first.

If your having trouble making a deposit, check out MoneyLineWallet. MoneyLineWallet is an ewallet that allows you to deposit to your account with an eCheck and then transfer the funds to your poker account. The funds are available immediately after deposit to play poker with.

While we have used this deposit option in the past, we never posted about it because so few USA poker sites had this deposit option available. However after recent events, and deposits have become harder to get approved, we felt we should share this information.

You must create a MoneyLineWallet account through the cashier page of the poker site. After doing so you can deposit to your MoneyLineWallet account directly from your checking account and immediately transfer the funds to the poker room. It is very easy to use and always approved if you stay within the deposit limits.

See more information for MoneyLineWallet and the poker sites that offer this deposit method. You can also find all USA Deposit Options including other eWallets and poker sites where USA credit cards really work.

The US poker world has shrunk once again losing PlayersOnly Poker and SportsBook Poker today. This is after losing FullTilt Poker, Poker Stars, Absolute Poker and UB earlier last month.

The good news is, there are still plenty of great USA online poker sites available. We still have the most comprehensive list of poker sites that are still open to USA players.

We highly recommend PokerHost which is still open to USA players. PokerHost offers a great sign up bonus, awesome software and great banking options for USA residents. Check out the PokerHost review for more details.

We also like BetUs Poker. BetUs Poker operates on the Cake Poker Network which is also still open to US players. BetUs Poker offers a $1000 bonus and is one of the easiest bonuses to earn. Also with the exit of the bigger sites, BetUs Poker has seen a huge increase in players making site traffic some of the best. See the BetUs Poker review for more details.

We have also added a few newer sites to our list that are also still open to USA players. Intertops Poker, Lock Poker and PDC Poker are relatively new to our recommended list, but all are established poker sites. We have played all the sites we recommend and these three got our nod to be approved.

Check out all the US poker sites we recommend and that are still open to the US market. There are still some great choices for USA residents to play online poker, and you can find the best listing of them here.

Good luck at the tables!

When FullTilt Poker, Poker Stars and Absolute Poker left the US market, Mac users in the USA were left with just a few US poker sites to choose from. Unfortunately that number is soon to shrink again.

We have confirmed that PlayersOnlyPoker will be no longer be accepting USA poker players effective May 1. This a decision made by the management of PlayersOnlyPoker after the indictments of executives at the larger poker sites. This is completely a voluntary decision made on managements part and not mandated by the US government or any other regulatory body.

The good news is, we have confirmed with management at PlayersOnlyPoker that current players from the USA will not be affected. Current players will still be allowed deposit, withdraw and play as usual even after May 1. If you do not have an account with PlayersOnlyPoker, we highly recommend you open one and make a small deposit before May 1st. This will allow you to continue to play, deposit and withdraw with one of the best USA Mac poker sites.

We have always recommended PlayersOnlyPoker here at UltimatePokerBonus. They have great banking options for USA residents, great software including a bad beat jackpot and good site traffic. If you use a Mac to play online poker, PlayersOnlyPoker is the best site to play at.

Again, be sure to open an account with PlayersOnlyPoker before May 1st. You will then be allowed to continue to play, deposit and withdraw as usual after May 1 as confirmed with management.

We are sad to see PlayersOnly leave the US market, but by acting quickly you will still be able to continue to play there. When you open an account be sure to use our link so you can receive a great sign up bonus up to $650. Go to PlayersOnlyPoker now to download the software and sign up.

Be sure to check back here often, as will continue to update information regarding USA online poker and Mac Poker Sites as it becomes available.

Many of the top USA online poker sites are still accepting USA players and it is business as usual. Still get deposits and withdraws processed at some of the best sites.

Check out our US Poker Sites page for our listing of what we feel are the best sites. We really like PokerHost and Poker4ever. PokerHost offers a massive 200% match bonus up to $2000, and get up to $500 at Poker4ever. Both sites accept credit cards and other ewallets. Check out the PokerHost Review or Poker4ever Review for more information.

If your looking for an easy way to deposit, use an eCheck. We have a full listing of poker sites that accept eChecks. If you like eCheck deposits check out Cake Poker. They accept eChecks and offer a $600 bonus which is very easy to clear. For full details see the Cake Poker Bonus.

Online poker is not dead in the USA, there are still plenty of reputable USA online poker sites to choose from.