Poker Real Money Online Legal
- There are currently 5 states that offer legal online poker for real money in the United States – New Jersey, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Delaware. Pennsylvania joined this group when PokerStars went live in the state on Nov. Michigan followed in 2021 when PokerStars went live in January followed shortly by BetMGM in March.
- Play Texas Holdem Poker for Real Money Online Internet gaming in the U.S. Has been legal and has enjoyed ever-widening popularity, since 2002.
All new players who decide to explore the vast universe of real money poker sites should know that federally, online poker sites are illegal. However, on the individual level, online poker is legal in some of the states. Some websites such as Global Poker (which is a sweepstakes poker site) are allowed in 49 out of 50 US states.
Last Updated January 6, 2021
Poker is alive and well in North Carolina, despite the attempts by naysayers and politicians to suppress the game. With few real-money poker options available in the home state, poker players from NC have turned in record numbers to the next-best thing: Online poker.
While hard numbers regarding participation in real-money online poker games in the state are hard to come by, we do know that several new players from North Carolina visit our page and sign up at poker sites every day. To simplify that task, here’s a quick look at everything you need to know in one handy place with our North Carolina Online Poker Guide.
The Top Legal Poker Sites for North Carolina
Once you’ve decided to play online poker, the next step is choosing a site. But what sites best meet the needs of poker players from North Carolina? Based on our direct experience with dozens upon dozens of poker sites online, we’ve selected the following rooms as the best starting points for real money poker:
| Bovada | $500 Bonus | 3-4 Day Payouts | Accepts Visa, Bitcoin, Wires |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ignition | $2000 Bonus | 3-4 Day Payouts | Accepts Visa, Bitcoin, Wires |
| Intertops | $600 Bonus | 5 Day Payouts | Accepts Visa, Wires |
| BetOnline | $2500 Bonus | 5-7 Day Payouts | Accepts Visa, Bitcoin, Litecoin, Wires |
| Sportsbetting | $2500 Bonus | 5-7 Day Payouts | Accepts Visa, Bitcoin, Litecoin, Wires |
Recent Gambling Happenings in North Carolina
There is little gambling to be found in North Carolina. The one fully-functional casino in the state is Harrah’s Cherokee, owned by the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians on their land via a gambling compact with the state. Caesars Entertainment manages the property. Harrah’s Cherokee has become the home of the annual WSOP Global Poker Championship and draws a sizeable poker crowd.
There is also Cherokee Tribal Bingo on the same land, but it does not have a poker room or the range of games available as does Harrah’s Cherokee.
The year 2019 was a pivotal one for some expansion to North Carolina gambling. It started in May with legislative and gubernatorial approval of a long-debated bill to legalize charitable casino nights. This allows designated charitable organizations to host casino nights that offer table games like blackjack and roulette solely to raise funds for charity.
In July 2019, Governor Roy Cooper also signed legislation to legalize sports betting. North Carolina became the 17th state in America to do so. Bets were allowed at the Cherokee establishments for professional and collegiate sports games starting in 2020.
There have been no attempts to tackle online poker or internet gambling of any kind in North Carolina.
| Type/Code | Summary |
|---|---|
| State Code Section(s) | 14.37.289-309; 16.1-2; 18C |
| Definition of Gambling | Any person or organization that operates any game of chance or any person who plays at or bets on any game of chance at which any money, property or other thing of value is bet, whether the same be in stake or not, shall be guilty of a Class 2 misdemeanor. |
| Online Poker/Gambling | There have been no efforts to legalize and regulate any type of online gambling in North Carolina. |
| Live Poker | Poker is offered in the one fully-functional tribal casino in the state, with both cash games and tournaments available there. |
| Casinos | One tribe in North Carolina secured a gambling compact with the state to operate gambling establishments on its land, and of those, only one is a casino operated with Harrah’s to offer everything from slots to poker. |
| Sports Betting | There have been no proposals via the legislature to legalize any type of sports betting. |
| DFS | A bill introduced in 2017 to legalize paid-entry fantasy sports games did not make it to the legislature floor for a vote. There was no follow-up bill put forward in 2018. |
| Other Forms of Gambling | Bingo and raffles for charitable organizations, lottery. |
Is Online Poker Legal in North Carolina?
Gambling law is a tricky area, and any poker site that promises to give you authoritative advice regarding the legality of online poker or gambling is probably not telling you the whole truth.
What exactly is the whole truth? Well, gambling online for real money may be in conflict with the laws of US states. The problem is, very few directly mention online poker or other forms of Internet gambling, so the question of legality becomes one more of opinion than fact. As a result, you should consult a lawyer with experience in state gaming law before taking any answer as definitive.
Having such a conversation will be easier if you are already educated on the basics of the law. To that end, here are some of the fundamental aspects of North Carolina gambling law:
Here’s how the state defines gambling:
“Except as provided in Chapter 18C of the General Statutes or in Part 2 of this Article, any person or organization that operates any game of chance or any person who plays at or bets on any game of chance at which any money, property or other thing of value is bet, whether the same be in stake or not, shall be guilty of a Class 2 misdemeanor” (Section 14-292).
If you’re wondering about those exceptions, they refer to the state lottery and charitable gambling that is overseen by the state.
Unfortunately, there is no further definition of “game of chance” found in North Carolina law. Based on case law involving gambling charges in the state, it appears that poker would qualify as a game of chance.
There is no obvious exemption for private or “social” gambling in North Carolina. While games played in public (or public establishments) may bring additional charges, a social game between friends in the home does not technically comport with North Carolina law.
North Carolina law allows for the seizure of all items employed in illegal gambling – including the money used in a game of poker (Section 14.299).
There is no specific mention of gambling that occurs online in North Carolina law.
To learn more about gambling law in North Carolina, visit this link below and review the state statutes directly.
Could North Carolina Potentially Regulate Online Poker?
Anything could happen, but there’s precious little to indicate that such a thing is probable in North Carolina. While over a dozen US states have taken some public action in the general direction of regulation following the Department of Justice’s 2011 rethinking of the Wire Act, North Carolina has yet to even take the most basic of steps toward the goal of regulating online poker sites in NC. As we’ll discuss below, there are a number of types of gambling likely ahead of online poker in line, making the chances of North Carolina-regulated poker games online even dimmer still.
North Carolina Gambling Facts
North Carolina has essentially fought gambling expansion at nearly every turn. The state was very late to the lottery, selling their first ticket in 2006. The state also battled fiercely (albeit unsuccessfully) against the tribes who sought to open casinos within North Carolina’s borders. As a result, North Carolina has one of the briefest and most limited histories with gambling of any state in the US.
Famous North Carolina Poker Players
Since the poker room in North Carolina at Harrah’s Cherokee is fairly new, most professional poker players who hail from the Tar Heel State found their passion for the game through home games and via online poker.
Greg Raymer was one of those players to hone his poker skills online and at poker rooms around the US. He spent many years playing poker as a hobby while working as a patent attorney for major companies like Pfizer. However, when he won the 2004 World Series of Poker Main Event for $5 million, he put his law career on hold. Raymer became a sponsored poker pro for PokerStars and went on to be a skilled mixed game player. His earnings through November 2019 in live poker tournaments only add up to more than $7.8 million.
Chris Hunichen is another skilled poker pro from North Carolina, earning more than $7 million in live tournaments to date. But he, like Mike Sowers, garnered the majority of his poker abilities and earnings playing online poker for many years.
Mark Newhouse is a longtime poker pro, famous for final tabling the WSOP Main Event and finishing ninth in 2013 and 2014. He has more than $3.5 million in earnings.
As of 2021, the top-ranked poker pros from North Carolina (in the live tournament arena) are:
1. Greg Raymer ($7.8 million)
2. Chris Hunichen ($7 million)
3. Mark Newhouse ($3.5 million)
4. Mike Sowers ($3.4 million)
5. Anthony Spinella ($3.4 million)
6. Chris Bell ($3.2 million)
7. Mike Gracz ($3.1 million)
8. Carter Phillips ($2.7 million)
9. Randal Flowers ($2.2 million)
10. Nicholas Maimone ($2.1 million)
Sources & Citations For This Article on North Carolina Online Poker
Are you looking for the best US legal online poker sites or a real money poker app? If the answer is yes, then you came to the right place. This is one of our many online poker reviews where you can find more about the best online poker options.
Without further ado, keep reading to discover how to play the best online poker for money and how to form an online poker strategy. So, let’s get started!
Contents
Best Legal Online Poker Sites
- WSOP
- PartyPoker
- PokerStars
- Pala Poker
- 888poker
- Global Poker
Is online poker legal? It's not always the same as legal online casinos and legal online sportsbooks. All new players who decide to explore the vast universe of real money poker sites should know that federally, online poker sites are illegal. However, on the individual level, online poker is legal in some of the states.
Some websites such as Global Poker (which is a sweepstakes poker site) are allowed in 49 out of 50 US states. Only Washington does not allow it. At the moment of writing our online poker reviews, only four states offer legal online poker websites in the United States. These are the following: Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Nevada and Delaware.
For more information about some of the available sites, make sure to consult our Global Poker review.
US Legal Online Poker: State by State
Is online poker legal in your state? If the answer is no, keep in mind that the situation can change pretty quickly. Unsurprisingly, Nevada was the leader of regulated online poker. Once the ice was broken, the domino-effect followed.
One by one, many states tried or are still trying to pass the legislation. As you can see, some of them even succeeded. The last one to recently pass online poker is West Virginia, and we expect more legal US poker sites to be launched in the future.
When it comes to future predictions, we believe that chances are pretty good for some of the states to overcome all the legal obstacles and finally launch real money poker sites so their residents become able to play legal online poker.
Arizona, Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Ohio, New York are some of the states that’ll probably make some innovations when it comes to the possibilities of playing poker online. These are the states that have active supporters of online poker in the state senate.
What’s more, regulated real money poker sites in neighboring states can only have a positive effect on public opinion. Additionally, within the borders of the aforementioned states, you can find a considerable number of land-based casinos.
Many of them come with the best online poker rooms where you can play various variants of poker, including the most popular one - Texas Hold’em. In other words, these poker offline options make it easier to launch legal poker sites and eventually start to offer legal online poker.
States Where Legal Online Poker Seems Like a Distant Dream
From this point of view, Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Kentucky, Nebraska, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah are just some of the states where we can see a certain legislative hostility towards online gambling. Therefore, we don’t believe that we won’t be able to play Texas Hold’em online there for quite some time.
Sweepstakes Legal Online Poker - Play Poker Free No Matter Which State You’re In
As said before, Global Poker, a sweepstakes legal online poker site, can be accessed in all US states except for the state of Washington. This legal online poker platform was launched in 2106, and since then, many players use its services. The virtual currency gaming business model is what makes it unique.
Instead of playing for real money, players play poker free, using gold coins or sweeps cash. That’s why Global Poker often appears when players search for “play poker free” or “play poker online, free”.
To understand how sweepstakes poker works, let’s start with some poker basics and make sure to understand sweeps poker terminology clearly. There’s a difference between gold coins and sweeps cash, and there’s a reason for which “play poker online, free” is actually a bit of a misnomer here.
Gold Coins are the name for the virtual currency in Global Poker, and they are equivalent to what regular legal online poker sites usually call “play money”. In other words, you can’t cash them out, but you can use them to play Texas Hold’em online or participate in some of the available tournaments with other players. On the other hand, “$weeps cash” is a promotional, virtual currency that can be cashed out through PayPal.
To sum up, you can buy gold coins that don’t have any monetary value and can’t be cashed out. “$weeps cash” is obtained as free of charge once you buy Gold Coins. Because of this virtual currency online poker model, Global Poker is not quite considered an online gambling activity. Therefore, it’s allowed in almost all of the US.
Where Can I Play Legal Online Poker in the US?
Pennsylvania is the last state where online poker had become legal when PokerStars was launched there at the end of 2019. Right now that’s also the only available option to play online poker for money in Pennsylvania.
If we don’t count Global Poker, which can be accessed in 49 states, all the other legal online poker sites come with pretty restricted access. For example, Pala Poker and PartyPoker are only available in the state of New Jersey.
However, they are not the only NJ poker sites one can access. WSOP, America's top legal online poker site, is available in the Garden State, and it’s also accessible to all Nevada online poker fans as well. Likewise, PokerStars NJ, available both independently and within the FOX Bet app
Claim the WSOP promo code in New Jersey and Nevada to get a $1,000 signup bonus!Where Can I Play Poker Live?
Most of the land-based casinos across different states include special poker rooms where you can play live poker. Playing Texas Hold’em online is definitely the most popular option. After all, poker is an American thing, so it’s no wonder to see it available in the vast majority of mortar and bricks casinos.
In fact, instead of listing all the states where you can sit back, relax and try out your luck with live poker, it’s better to list all those where you can’t play poker online. It’ll be easier to remember this list:
- Alaska
- Georgia
- Hawaii
- New Hampshire
- Tennessee
- Texas
- Utah
We must add that in Texas, private poker clubs aren’t forbidden. As long as no house makes a profit from the game, poker can be played in private places for fun.
US Online Poker Basics
When talking about the current status of legal US poker sites, there are two especially important laws that you should be aware of. Let’s take a look at these two federal laws that govern online poker in the country.
The Wire Act
The first one is the Interstate Wire Act of 1961, often called the Federal Wire Act. As you can see, it passed long before online poker or even the internet existed. However, it prohibits certain types of betting businesses to operate via wired communications.
In 2011, the US Department of Justice concluded that the scope of the act was limited to sporting events. Therefore, states, where online poker is now regulated, found that the bill didn’t apply to online poker nor other forms of gambling.
However, in 2019, the US Department of Justice reversed its opinion. The new opinion concludes that the Wire Act applies to all types of online gambling.
The UIGEA
Legal Online Poker Real Money
The other relevant law is the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) from 2006. This law made it illegal for US banks to proceed with transactions for offshore gambling companies. That’s how they were pushed out of the market.
History of US Legal Online Poker
Online casinos started to appear back in 1994. They were usually situated in Antigua or the Isle of Man. However, the vast majority of their users were US-based customers. Two years later, in 1996, online gambling was also brought to the North American market soil.
The Kahnawake Gaming Commission was established just outside Montreal. They started issuing licenses, and pretty soon, it was possible to find hundreds of new online gambling websites.
Once again, two years later and again in Canada, the first-ever poker online website saw the light of day. Planet Poker was the favorite source of fun to thousands of Americans who were spending endless hours playing the first real-money online Texas Hold’em.
Over the next few years, thanks to technological advances, better online poker software was developed, while the number of websites kept increasing. These online poker operators also started to offer various tournaments and cash games and got a solid fan base all over the world.
The Industry Kept Growing & Then It Collapsed
Even though there were different interpretations of the law, especially of the famous Wire Act, the newly developed industry kept growing.
The year 2003 is especially important in the evolution of online poker. Using an account from Tennessee, Chris Moneymaker won the World Series of Poker after participating in the event through an online satellite. In Chris Moneymaker's case, we guess, it's okay to say that name determines destiny.
This online poker strategy was live-streamed on ESPN. Suddenly, the whole nation knew about Chris's story. A good number of Americans were hoping to be the next. All of a sudden, poker was everywhere on TV. Live games were followed carefully, and commercial breaks had one purpose: promoting online poker for money and playing Texas Hold 'em online.
States Online Poker Is Legal
The great number of promoted sites were, in fact, offshore online poker sites. A lot of them disappeared from American browsers after Congress passed the above-mentioned UIGEA in 2006.
However, even though a lot of sites weren't accessible anymore, online poker couldn't be erased that easily. Some of the offshore gambling companies had found a way around the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006, but not for long.
In 2011, some of the largest online poker operators, including PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker, and Absolute Poker/Ultimate Bet, were accused of violating UIGEA and money laundering. These websites were definitely excluded from the significant US online poker market, which seemed to come to an end at the time.
Legal Online Poker Sites Rise Again
Also in 2011, the DOJ released a legal opinion that the Federal Wire act exclusively applied only to one form of gambling: sports betting. A few states saw this as a possibility, paving the way to regulated online casinos and legal US poker sites.
In 2012, Delaware was the first state that managed to do just that. Then, in December 2013, Nevada followed the example of passing online poker legislation. A week later, the Garden State became the third to legalize online gambling, and plans for NJ poker sites were made.
Online Poker Real Money Legal In India
The first-ever regulated US online poker site was launched in Nevada in April 2013. Delaware and NJ poker sites went live that same year, a few months later. In 2017, Pennsylvania became the fourth state to join this group. West Virginia is the fifth state where online poker was regulated in 2019. Probably, more states will try to do the same thing in the near future.
Which State is Next?
Is online poker legal in California or New York? This is one of the frequently asked questions that people search for in the USA. They also search for different terms of poker terminology that sound unfamiliar to them. However, that’s another question that we could discuss on some other occasion.
How To Play Online Poker In Us
Let’s get back to our question of legal online poker sites and the possible new markets in the USA. Michigan has made significant efforts to legalize online gambling, particularly online poker, while California, New York, and Massachusetts also seem to be moving in the right direction.
Real Money Poker App: How to Find the Best Poker App
It doesn’t matter if you are a Pennsylvania online poker fan or a regular visitor of NJ poker sites, the good news is that you can play poker whenever you want, anywhere within the borders of one or the other state.
Many of the best online poker websites have launched a dedicated real money poker app that you can easily download and install on your device. The best poker apps are available for both iOS and Android operating systems.
In order to find the best poker app, make sure you visit one of the websites we listed at the beginning of our review.
Also, before you replace your poker offline adventure with the one that can be found on the internet, make sure to read some of the online poker reviews and get to know the poker terminology used by the players worldwide. After a brief introduction to the poker basics, it’s time to create your own online poker strategy and join one of the legal online poker communities!