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Gambling911.com last month told its readers about a pair of online poker rooms that are operating legally from the U.S.
The rooms, Pure Play (www.pureplay.com), in San Francisco, and Triple Jack (www.triplejack.com), in Florida, operate within the law because technically, they don't offer gambling.
They charge a monthly membership fee to join the rooms, then offer free poker tournaments that have cash prizes for winners.
It's a loophole in the law that could easily collapse if it were ever challenged in court, but so far the U.S. government hasn't bothered these and similar U.S.-based Internet poker rooms.
After profiling Pure Play and Triple Jack, Gambling911.com heard about a bunch of similar operations that are U.S.-based.
In order to give Gambling911.com readers the most information possible about this controversial subject, here are brief profiles of other U.S.-based online poker rooms operating legally:
Club Bluff (www.clubbluff.com) operates from Las Vegas. It charges $20 a month to become a member of the site. In addition to poker tournaments, this site also offer "legal" blackjack.
Club WPT (www.clubwpt.com) also operates from the world's gambling capital, Las Vegas. The membership fee is $20 a month, or if you want to sign up for a year, it's $180, saving you three months' fee or $60. The site is run by the World Poker Tour (WPT), a professional poker tour, and also offers blackjack.
Spade Club (www.spadeclub.com) also operates from Las Vegas. The membership fee to join the site is $20 a month. The site is run by Card Player magazine, a poker mag published in Las Vegas.
Non-rigged Poker (www.nonriggedpoker.com) operates from Framingham, Massachusetts, a ritzy suburb of Boston. The site is run by something called the National League of Poker (NLOP). Information about membership fees could not be found on the room's website, so e-mail them for that and any other info required.
Thwart Poker (www.thwartpoker.com) operates from San Francisco and is owned and run by a father-and-son software engineering team that specializes in U.S.-legal online gambling. Information about membership could not be found on the room's website, so e-mail them for that and any other info required.
Two other U.S.-based online poker rooms have recently gone out of business.
Zosoz (www.zosoz.com) operated from a small town in Minnesota and Duplicate Poker (www.duplicatepoker.com) operated from Los Angeles.
Duplicate Poker used a slightly different business model--its way around gambling was to offer a form of poker similar to the concept of duplicate bridge.
By Tom Somach
Gambling911.com Staff Writer
