Safe poker in the old days of Maverick and the Wild West meant guns, fast horses, and a good lookout. Today, the importance of safety when playing poker is still high, but it looks a little different. The safest online poker sites may not require a speedy horse, but they do require things of equal importance. Safe poker sites require high levels of encryption, secure banking integrations, and third-party auditing. If you’re looking for the safest online poker rooms available, you can relax, because you’ve come to the right spot.
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Eight Traits of the Safest Online Poker Sites
In the age of technology, society gets to experience a whole host of new conveniences. The problem, though, is that those conveniences sometimes open up the door to threats and dangers that could put you or your money at risk. Luckily, the safest poker sites for real money are on the leading edge of the technology and have things in place to mitigate the risks.
What does that look like? So glad you asked! Here are eight common traits found in the safest online poker sites.
1. A Proactive Stance Towards Bots and Collusion
The plagues against online poker sites that payout real money come in the form of bots and collusion. A bot is a computer player that is used to make money by leveraging technology to beat real players. Collusion is when two or more players work together at the table to gain an unfair advantage over the other players at the table.
Both of these things are no good for the poker industry. Thankfully, the safest US poker sites work hard to eliminate bots and combat collusion.
2. Third-Party Auditing
Trusting United States online poker sites because “they tell you to” is nothing short of silly. Ask any poker site if its software is safe, and you will get a resounding yes. Anything less than that is bad for business. What you can trust, though, are online poker rooms that use third-party auditors. The sites will have outside companies come through and assess the current level of security. It’s the only way to get an accurate look at the security levels.
3. Regularly Scheduled Internal Security Audits
Not only should the poker sites have outside people looking at their security processes, but they should be regularly auditing internally. This means constantly checking technology, servers, programs, procedures, and processes to make sure they’re offering you the safest way to play online poker for real money. Usually, this necessitates the use of a dedicated security team.
4. Proper Data Encryption
The biggest threat to United States online poker sites and players is in the data. When the data leaves the real money poker site and travels to you, it’s “out in the open.” The same is true when the data goes back to the poker site. If the roadways that the data travels on are not properly protected and encrypted, there may be issues.
Luckily, the safest online casinos with real money online poker utilize encryption levels on par with banks, credit unions, and financial institutions.
5. A Trusted Management Team With Experience
The software and the banking integrations can be safe, but that all becomes pointless if the poker room is run by untrustworthy individuals. When we are assessing our list of secure poker sites, we look at the management and ownership teams behind the scenes. Thanks to industry contacts and unique resources, we’re able to find out who is running the show and what their pasts look like.
6. Positive Industry Reputation
The best way to judge the safety and reliability of online real money poker sites is by looking at its history, track record, and industry reputation. While there are always going to be some haters, negative trends should raise concern. Before we give a poker room the title of one of the safest online poker rooms, it must pass the sniff test with industry reputation.
7. Secure Banking Integrations
While keeping your information safe and maintaining the integrity of the games are both important, the real security needs come with the money. We live in a world where hackers and online thieves want to get their grimy hands on every last dollar that isn’t rightfully theirs.
The safest online poker sites must keep your money safe while it’s on the site but also while it is in transit to and from your bank and the site. This means that the poker rooms need to choose high-quality banking partners and integrate the banks into the software securely.
8. Adequate Contact and Customer Support
Safety is an active process. US poker sites need to have adequate customer service in place to handle security concerns in real-time. If you bring something to the attention of the poker room and they don’t have the time to handle it, it can become dangerous.
Tips to Keep Safe Playing Online Poker
The burden of online poker safety falls heavily on the poker site operators. However, that does not mean that you don’t have a role to play in the process. There are several things you can do to make your online poker playing time much safer. Here are the top five things you can do starting right now.
Don’t Engage in Collusion
You may be tempted at some point during your online poker career to make some easy money colluding at safe online poker sites. If you don’t think so, that’s great! But do remember that “taking it easy” on a buddy at the tables is a form of collusion at US poker sites.
What does this have to do with safety? If you’re caught or even suspected of colluding, you could see your real money poker funds disappear. While this is done to keep the other players safe, it won’t be a happy day for you. Make sure you play against other opponents fairly and stay away from the allure of easy money.
If You See Something, Say Something
This phrase has been touted by police departments and safety officials for years. It fully applies to the online poker world as well. If you see something that seems unsafe, say something. It’s up to us as poker players to protect our ecosystem and keep things as safe as possible.
Who do you say it to? Contact the site’s customer service department. If it’s one of the safest online poker rooms, the staff will take care of it immediately.
Keep Your Antivirus Software Up to Date
You have got to ensure your computer software and antivirus software are completely up to date to safely play online poker. Why? Anything you do on your computer may become vulnerable if unwanted software is able to make its way onto your hard drive. This can happen by visiting questionable poker sites, opening an email attachment, or by someone deliberately putting it on there. While antivirus isn’t perfect, it can go a long way to catch threats before they cause major problems when you are trying to play poker safely online.
Use Proper Password Safety
Your password is the first and last line of defense between the world and your account at poker sites accepting US customers. Because of this fact, it’s imperative that you practice proper password safety. Here are a few of the most important and must-follow tips when making your password at reliable online poker sites.
- Always use a strong password.
- Never store your password to real money poker sites on any of your devices.
- Change your password regularly (minimum every 90 days).
Follow All the Safe Poker Sites Guidelines to a T
If the poker room staff gives you a directive regarding safe play, you should follow it to a T. Failure to do so could open up your account to an unknown threat, or it could open your account up to potential termination.
Get Started Playing Poker Online Now!
Now that you know where to find the safest online poker sites and what you need to do to keep safe, it’s time to get the cards in the air. Head back to the top of the guide and select one of the options we’ve picked out for you. You’re only about five minutes away from safe and secure real money online poker action right from home.
By
Safe Free Online Poker
April 30th, 2018 | Last updated on March 17th, 2020
Perhaps no consideration is more important to poker players when choosing an online poker site than safety. Given the huge amount of trust players must place in online poker sites when playing for real money, safety is rightfully a critical concern, but how are players meant to tell which sites place a high priority on safety and which sites are cutting corners?
Our experts only recommend the safest poker sites online for players. Our reviews are written by longtime experts in the industry to help players choose the one that suits them most appropriately. We monitor online poker forums and activities to ensure that any site with significant complaints or issues are confronted and removed from out list of recommended sites.
The following list is our most up-to-date ranking of the safest online poker options for American players.
#US Poker SiteLicensedStates Not AcceptedBonusVisit Site
NY, MD, and WA
NY, MD, and WA
No Banned States! Accepts Everyone!
No Banned States! Accepts Everyone!
LA, NJ, ML, NY, KY, MO, WA
Delaware, Washington, Nevada
LA, KY, MI, NJ, NV, DW, WA
The Safest United States Online Poker Site
Without any doubt, the safest online poker sites are the ones available to players in Nevada, New Jersey, Delaware, and Pennsylvania. These are regulated by state entities that have created extremely tough rules for operators to follow, including financial regulations that mandate the separation of player funds from operating money.
The primary sites upon which all skins operate are PartyPoker, PokerStars, and 888poker. All of these have extensive histories in the online poker business and are the most trusted sites in the world. They are the poker options available only to players in the states listed above.
As for the sites that we recommend to almost every state in America, all of them have security measures in place that have been proven solid. Ignition and Bovada have never suffered from complaints about the safety of player funds or the security of their data. Americas Cardroom has improved over the past few years to build its reputation and ensure that players feel the site is fair.
Needless to say, there are more than a handful of safe poker sites, not just one.
How Do Sites Protect You Against Cheating?
Most of the security measures taken by online poker operators happen behind the scenes. They ensure that player funds are safe, player data and account information are protected from hackers, and personal data will not be sold to third parties.
Sites take different measures, however, with regard to cheating. But in recent years, more operators have become more transparent and detailed in the prevention of cheating.
As operators have become more concerned about a fair playing environment and the desire to attract more recreational players, most have decided to be more vigilant with respect to cheating and bots. Players have also demanded it. This has prompted many sites to clarify and report their policies.
PartyPoker has been the most transparent in this regard. They have not only dedicated a section of their website to their “Fair Play” initiative, they put together a fraud detection team of former professional poker players to monitor the site for bots and other cheating tools. The team also investigates all reports of fraud or cheating, and they work together to implement technological tools that will automatically detect any unethical behavior.
Via social media and the site itself, PartyPoker is now very transparent about all cheating-related activity, including the number of bots detected and closed, and how much money is confiscated from those accounts and redistributed to players. In the first 12 months of doing this, the team closed 768 bots and refunded nearly $1.4 million to players.
Safe Online Poker Sites For Us Players
Other sites have chosen to follow PartyPoker’s lead. PokerStars has become more transparent in its policies regarding cheating. Americas Cardroom attempted the same but has not been nearly as consistent as players hoped it would be.
This doesn’t mean the sites are not safe. They all work to prevent cheating so as to maintain their reputations in the poker community and keep a fair playing environment for all players. Some sites have simply taken a more public and proactive stance with regard to cheating than others.
How Can You Tell That the Games Are Fair?
Safe Online Poker Sites
One easy way to tell if a poker site ensures fair games is to look for its RNG (Random Number Generator) information. The software used for RNG must be cleared by any regulator issuing a license to an operator and is checked regularly. Sites also provide certification of the RNG.
All of the sites we recommend have provided RNG certification.
Another fairness test can be found in the privacy policy of a poker operator. All reputable poker sites use encryption methods to ensure the safety of player data. With more frequent hacking attempts and DDOS attacks on poker sites in the past several years, poker operators have upgraded their encryption methods. At one point, all sites used 128-bit SSL, but many increased that to 448-bit or 1024-bit RSA.
Employ Two-Factor Authentication for Your Accounts
No guide to the safest online poker sites would be complete without an appeal to players to take safety into their own hands. While players certainly can expect that rooms will provide them with a secure environment for online poker, a poker room can only do so much. If you’re not protecting your personal information on your end, then no amount of security in the world on the room’s end can offer you protection.
Given that money – often substantial sums – is in play, online poker accounts are especially attractive targets for hackers. As a result, anyone playing online poker for real money should use two-factor authentication whenever possible – certainly for the email attached to your poker site accounts, and certainly for the room itself if offered. While rooms play a part, the responsibility for a safe online poker experience is ultimately in the hands of the player, so make the smart bet and do everything in your power to secure your accounts before you play another hand.