Many countries consider online poker to be perfectly legal, while a few don’t. So it’s ultimately up to each player to know their own local laws, and whether or not the jurisdiction they live in considers Internet poker to be legal or illegal.

Should online players worry, if they live in a country where the government is opposed to playing poker online and considers it illegal? While conditions may always change in the future, the current answer is a resounding “no”, and that they shouldn’t worry at all.

Despite the fact that the US government has publicly stated that it considers playing online poker for real money illegal, millions of US citizens log on every day and play poker. And not a single person has ever been charged or prosecuted for the crime of playing poker online, despite the fact that a majority of online players are based in the US.

The reality is that the current legal status of online poker is hazy at best, both in the US and elsewhere. It’s a relatively new phenomenon and there are simply no legal cases to use as precedents. Aside from those issues, there’s simply no existing department or organization in charge of policing online poker and cracking down on citizens that play.

Not only has no one ever been charged with the crime of playing online poker, but there’s currently no one to even make the charge or enforce it.

All of which should leave poker players in countries that currently frown upon online poker feeling pretty comfortable about logging on to their favorite site.