Imagine looking out your oceanfront balcony at the beautiful Pacific Ocean, the palm trees swaying gently in the breeze, the ocean smells reaching you as you stand in shirtsleeves, shorts and flip-flops … while you are working. Such is the life for professional poker player Tyler Forrester, a former Duke University student who says the only reason he is in Costa Rica is because of the anti-online poker stance in the United States. The successful online poker player has two large computer monitors in his bedroom where he plays Texas Hold ‘Em hours a day. The 28-year-old with a degree in Slavik literature from Duke recently remarked in an interview with several other US-born professional poker players who have fled to Costa Rica, “Tough life I’m living,” with a quick grin and laugh. But an underlying element of angst and frustration with United States federal authorities concerning online poker in the United States and its legalities is ever present.

Forrester is one of only about 150 American professional online poker players who streamed to Costa Rica only days after April 15, 2011. Known as Black Friday in the online poker community in the United States and worldwide, that was the day when US federal authorities shut down the three largest online poker companies operating in the United States, thereby shutting off access to many US citizens’ very livelihoods. The poker players who fled to Costa Rica are generally American males in their mid-to-late 20s, and most are very upset with having to leave their US homes to legally pursue their profession. Of those interviewed, the vast majority said they would prefer to be in the United States paying taxes in the country where they were raised. Just South of Forrester, Jimmy Doherty and Jake Wycklendt occupy a wooden house with their two pet pit bulls in Playa Hermosa. Wycklendt spoke in no uncertain terms when& he said, “I definitely resent the (US) government.” He frequently travels to Las Vegas to visit his wife and two children, but he doesn’t want to break any laws, so as a poker player making a good living online he also fled south of his native country.

It is amazing that so many online poker players who can live much more cheaply abroad would lather live in their home country. With the December 23 ruling by the US Department of Justice that online poker play become regulated and legalized, or if legalized on the state level, things are slowly beginning to turn around in the United States. Nevada and Delaware have already legalized online poker, Delaware legalizing a full slate of casino table game wagering online and betting on NFL games as well, but the first virtual hand has yet to be dealt. The poker players interviewed think it is almost comical that US federal authorities will not legalize, regulate, tax and benefit financially from the activities that so many of their citizens already enjoy.

And therein lies the cornerstone of what angers these young online poker players so much. Doherty is 25 and began his poker career while studying engineering at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. He said it didn’t make any sense to him to continue his education when he made as much is an electrical engineer at a full-time job, while only playing 15 hours a week of poker online. He said that he is, “really bitter at the fact that I have to be in another country.” Known as “poker refugees” in the online poker community, that is actually the official name of a relocation service located in Costa Rica’s capital, San Jose. It is almost laughable that in a country which is so technologically junior to the United States, the government actually promotes helping US online poker players get to Central America, open bank accounts, locate housing or accommodations, and begin playing online as fast as possible.

Not surprisingly it was an American, Kristin Wilson, a former pro surfer from Florida, who created the Poker Refugees relocation service. Understanding the problems with infrastructure and housing in Central America, Poker Refugees insures US players have safe, secure accommodations, never a guarantee in less-developed countries. And her company works to ensure that the electric infrastructure where she refers poker players is sound. She noted that, “If the Internet or power goes out for 30 seconds, they can lose thousands of dollars.” Mirroring the remark that poker players have been making for years regarding online poker as a skill and not a game of luck, Wilson called her clients specialists at the craft of poker, and not gamblers. As more and more states in the US legalize online poker play, these disenchanted expatriate Americans may find their way back home. Currently however, their numbers are only growing in Costa Rica and other non-American locales around the world.