Congrats To The State of Maine For Becoming The 9th State To Legalize Online Poker
PokerNews - Maine has officially joined the ranks of U.S. states offering legal online poker, becoming the ninth state in the nation to authorize online poker. The move comes after LD 1164, titled “An Act to Create Economic Opportunity for the Wabanaki Nations Through Internet Gaming,” became law at midnight on Saturday, January 10, 2026.
Governor Janet Mills, who had previously expressed reservations about the expansion of gambling, opted neither to sign nor veto the bill. Under Maine law, this allowed the bill to become law automatically after the expiration of a ten-day review period.
Maine joins Nevada, New Jersey, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Michigan, West Virginia, and Rhode Island and Connecticut as the only states to have cleared the path for legal, regulated online poker.
You know the phrase "slow and steady wins the race."? Well that phrase is bullshit. I'm tired of slow and steady. I want fast and immediately. I want pronto and ASAP. Online poker was federally banned in the United States on April 15, 2011 and 15 years later we have only NINE states where you can legally play. NINE IN FIFTEEN YEARS! That's the worst pace imaginable. And out of those 9, you can't even play in Rhode Island or Connecticut because no operators have set up shop because they have small populations and they aren't part of the Multi-State Internet Gaming Agreement, which allows combined player pools amongst states, currently with Michigan, Delaware, Nevada, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia.
It will always baffle me that DFS was legalized overnight, and then sports betting was legalized overnight, but lil' ol' online poker was left out in the cold for some reason. There is no logical reason iPoker wasn't included in this gambling renaissance, especially because online poker is a skill game. All the infrastructure is in place to have online poker live in all 50 states, playing against each other, but for some stupid reason they won't or can't do it. It drives me up the wall. If one operator did it correctly it could get massive again. Not like the glory days, sure, where you played against everyone from around the world, but all 50 states playing would be ginormous, and very profitable for the states as well.
And poker is in a mini-boom right now, so the iron is hot. Field sizes across the globe are huge, especially at the WSOP. People are clamoring for more poker. I don't know what it'll take for someone to tack "legalize online poker" onto a bill in Washington, but I'll vote for whoever does that for president.