No, not at present, although NY lawmakers continue to work toward that possibility.
Best online poker sites in 2020: all the top websites to play online poker in 2019, ranked from the most beginner-friendly to the hardest ones. This article was originally published on Feb. See our list of online poker sites in the Garden State. There are currently seven legal online poker sites under four different poker networks. Players can play poker online for money within New Jersey state lines at any of the following poker sites: 888 PartyPoker Borgata BetMGM WSOP New Jersey Pala Poker PokerStars.
NY online poker is hampered by current law that includes poker among its list of prohibited games of chance. The state’s constitution only allows a few exceptions for poker, including at regulated commercial casinos. Meanwhile, Native American-owned casinos can also spread live poker if they wish, per the applicable nation or Tribal Gaming Agency.
In early 2020, a bill was introduced in the state Senate that would remove poker from the list of prohibited games while authorizing up to 11 online poker licenses to operators. A similar bill was introduced in the State Assembly as well. In both cases, the bills failed to advance beyond committees the year before.
These are the latest among several attempts to legalize online poker in New York, ranging back to 2013.
If recent history provides any indication, chances are not great that real money online poker will be legalized and regulated in New York in the near future.
Previous online poker bills that have been introduced have failed to garner adequate support to advance through the legislative process. Meanwhile, online sports betting has gotten much more attention among lawmakers lately thanks in part to gambling laws in neighboring states. New Jersey and Pennsylvania have launched online poker sites, casinos and sportsbooks.
If online poker were to become legal, the New York State Gaming Commission would be the governing body drafting regulations, issuing licenses and overseeing the integrity of online poker in New York.
In the absence of real money NY poker sites, there aresweepstakes poker sites that currently welcome players in New York. The most popular of these sites is Global Poker, where players from every US state except Washington can play.
Sweepstakes sites use virtual currencies rather than real money. Global Poker uses Gold Coins and Sweeps Coins.
Players can purchase Gold Coins to play “cash” games and tournaments. When they buy Gold Coins, they receive Sweeps Coins as a bonus. Sweeps Coins can be obtained in other ways as well, including via Facebook giveaways and even by writing to Global Poker directly.
Furthermore, players can use Sweeps Coins for sweepstakes-style cash games and tournaments. Players can win and accumulate more of them. Then, once they have collected a minimum required amount, players can redeem Sweeps Coins for real money and withdraw the cash.
There are online poker sites located outside the US — hence called “offshore” sites — that do accept US players. While New Yorkers don’t necessarily face legal obstacles to play on such sites themselves, they are, nonetheless, taking a risk when they do.
The Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 restricts US banks and other financial service providers from allowing transactions with non-US gambling sites. That means rogue poker sites are forced to find other means via which to allow American players the ability to deposit and withdraw funds.
If that isn’t problematic enough, American players have to take a leap of faith when it comes to game integrity and the safety of their funds. There have been incidents of these sites suddenly closing and making off with players’ money, leaving Americans no legal recourse to recover their funds.
Also, if players suspect they have been victimized by cheating, collusion, ghosting, multi-accounting, or other types of fraud, they generally have to hope the sites respond to their complaints. Since again, they have no legal recourse to ensure they are protected.
Playing on a fully legal, licensed and regulated real money site is much more preferable. To be able to offer the games, operators must comply with rules to monitor and prohibit fraudulent activity, thus making the sites much safer for online poker players.
The New York Penal Code explicitly prohibits gambling, defined as staking or risking “something of value upon the outcome of a contest of chance” or some other event not under a person’s control and doing so with “an agreement or understanding that he will receive something of value in the event of a certain outcome.”
That prohibition includes types of gambling in which skill plays a part, too.
The way the law is written, “contests of chance” involve any game that “depends in a material degree upon an element of chance, notwithstanding that skill of the contestants might also be a factor therein.”
There are exceptions, foremost among them playing in the state lottery or gambling at a facility licensed by the New York State Gaming Commission, such as at the state’s commercial casinos. Also allowed are horse racing and pari-mutuel wagering operations, authorized video lottery terminal operators, and Class 3 Indian gaming facilities.
As is the case in many other states, home poker games are allowed in New York as long as no one is collecting rake or fees.
The relevant part of the New York Penal Code describes such a game as “a social game of chance… without fee or remuneration.”
There was a notable court case involving a home poker game in New York in 2011.
Lawrence DiCristina was hosting poker games out of a warehouse in Staten Island. DiCristina collected 5% rake in the game, which in and of itself, would run afoul of what the law says about hosting a “social game of chance.” However, DiCristina was found guilty of violating federal law, the Illegal Gambling Business Act (IGBA).
The case was appealed, and in 2012, the conviction was overturned in the US District Court for the Eastern District of New York. Interestingly, on appeal, the US District Court Judge Jack B. Weinstein ruled that Texas Hold’em was, in fact, a game of skill and thus not prohibited by the IGBA.
That ruling was reversed by the Second US Circuit Court of Appeals. DiCristina tried to appeal again, but in February 2014, the US Supreme Court declined to hear the case.
Nevertheless, the most recent attempts to introduce online poker legislation have included mention of the DiCristina case, in particular Judge Weinstein’s ruling that poker is considered distinct from other gambling games thanks to its skill component.
New York is home to tribal casinos and commercial casinos, with live poker rooms found in each.
The first tribal casino opened in 1993, the Turning Stone Resort Casino in Verona, operated by the Oneida Indian Nation of New York. It continues to feature one of the biggest and most popular poker rooms in the state.
In 2013, commercial casinos were legalized and among them can be found some popular poker rooms as well, such as at Rivers Casino in Schenectady and Resorts World Catskills in Monticello.
No-limit hold’em is the primary game at all New York poker rooms, although the larger ones also spread pot-limit Omaha and stud games.
Meanwhile, both the Rivers Casino and the Seneca Niagara Casino & Hotel have hosted popular poker tournaments in recent years as well.
Here’s a list of live card rooms that players can find in New York casinos:
POKER ROOM | ADDRESS | TABLES |
---|---|---|
Akwesasne Mohawk Casino | 873 State Route 37, Hogansburg, NY 13655 | 5 |
Del Lago Resort and Casino | 1133 Route 414, Waterloo, NY 13165 | 14 |
Resorts World Catskills | 888 Resorts World Dr., Monticello, NY 12701 | 19 |
Rivers Casino & Resort at Mohawk Harbor | 1 Rush St., Schenectady, NY 12308 | 16 |
Seneca Niagara Resort & Casino | 310 Fourth St., Niagara Falls, NY 14303 | 23 |
Seneca Salamanca Casino | 768 Broad St., Salamanca, NY 14779 | 8 |
Tioga Downs Casino | 2384 W. River Rd., Nichols, NY 13812 | 6 |
Turning Stone Casino | 5218 Patrick Rd., Verona, NY 13478 | 32 |
Also, there are poker rooms in two casinos just across the Canadian border on the other side of Niagara Falls: Casino Niagara (with 26 tables) and Niagara Fallsview Casino Resort (with 16 tables).
During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, stories of poker games occurring in the underground poker clubs in New York City were frequently reported on in newspapers and given literary treatments by fiction writers.
Following World War I, one of the most famous poker clubs in the country regularly met at the Algonquin Hotel in Midtown Manhattan. The Thanatopsis Pleasure and Inside Straight Club comprised many of the era’s most famous writers, actors, poets, playwrights, columnists and critics who kept the games going until the early 1930s.
As far as other types of gambling were concerned, New York first legalized and then banned pari-mutuel wagering before bringing it back again in 1940. Horse racing and off-track betting have been an important industry in the state ever since.
Meanwhile, after being the first US state to ban the lottery in the 1830s, New York was the second to bring it back in 1967.
Poker continued to be played, however, with regular underground games taking place in a variety of locations, such as bars and restaurants, office suites, high-rise condos, self-storage units, social clubs, private homes, and even in churches and synagogues.
Some of the Hungarian restaurants where such games took place were commonly referred to as “goulash joints” or “ghoulies.”
Despite their necessarily clandestine nature, a few of these poker clubs gained renown outside of New York City. This includes the Mayfair Club that began as a bridge club in the 1940s, then later became the site of high-stakes backgammon, gin rummy and poker games.
Famous poker players who passed through the Mayfair during the century’s later decades included Stu Ungar, Erik Seidel, Dan Harrington, Howard Lederer and Mickey Appleman, to name a few. Band manager and music producer Brian Koppelman played there as well, and later with David Levien would use that experience as inspiration to write the screenplay for the 1998 film Rounders.
Clubs, like the Mayfair, began to be shut down, however, in 2000, thanks to then-Mayor Rudy Guiliani’s “Quality of Life” campaign to clean up New York City.
Games persisted nonetheless, with clubs reappearing in the 2000s and afterward, in particular during the “poker boom” when the game found new popularity on television and online.
In 1993, the state signed a compact with the Oneida Indian Nation of New York, resulting in the opening of the state’s first land-based casino, the Turning Stone Casino Resort in Verona, which featured a large and popular poker room. Eventually, other Native American-owned casinos opened as well.
In 2013, voters in the stated supported the New York Casino Gambling Amendment authorizing a limited number of commercial casinos to open in areas of the state other than New York City.
While the overall number of casinos in New York are small, many of them do provide live and legal poker to New Yorkers not wishing to brave the underground games.
As far as online poker is concerned, State Senator Joseph Addabbo Jr. and Assemblyman Gary Pretlow have each introduced multiple online poker bills over recent years, though none has gained needed support. Thus New York remains without legal, real money poker sites, unlike its neighbors, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, to the south.
For online poker to become legal in NY, it will likely be necessary first for other forms of online gambling or online casinos to be legalized, in particular, NY online sports betting.
In early 2020, some momentum was starting to build around an online sports betting bill. However, the onset of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and the disease’s profound impact on New York state, including economically, understandably made the pursuit of such legislation a much lower priority among lawmakers as the state grappled with budgetary matters and other more urgent concerns.
With the country’s fourth-largest population of more than 19 million, New York would be a great candidate for online poker, given what would surely be a significant player pool. It would be especially good for online poker in the US if the state were to legalize online poker and join the multi-state compact to increase liquidity.
Online poker is back in Pennsylvania. Many of the biggest and best-known poker sites are now legal and licensed to run games within state lines. They include PokerStars – with partypoker and WSOP.com expected to join soon.
As a player you can take advantage of the big marketing budgets these sites will use to gain traction in the Keystone State. There are no-deposit bouses, big matched welcome offers and generous loyalty schemes available right now.
This page has everything you need to understand the games, bonuses, and software options available at the legal PA online poker sites. You’ll also find a brief explanation of how the sites work and a detailed FAQ located at the bottom of the page.
Yes. Seven casinos took up the poker license, most as part of a package deal.
Instead of $4 million per gambling vertical, several PA casinos paid $10 million for poker, online slots, and online table games licenses. Many also spent $10 million for a separate sports betting license.
It took a long time from when the gambling expansion act (H 271) of 2017 was passed for PA online poker sites to appear. License holders prioritized sports betting and casinos as these have higher revenue than poker.
Poker sites need to reach a critical mass of players to offer a good enough choice of cash games and big guarantees for their tournaments. This naturally limits the number of successful rooms possible, and healthy market share is critical.
The biggest rooms in other regulated states are strong favorites to be the biggest and best in Pennsylvania. Here are the sites to check out:
Poker players worldwide consider the PokerStars desktop client and apps to be the best software around. This covers the speed and smoothness of the games – plus small factors like how easy it is to resize tables and the ability to upload your own pictures.
PokerStars partnered with Mount Airy Casino. They were the first online poker site to launch in Pennsylvania – and have exceeded expectations in popularity. Player pools are not shared with their New Jersey site for the time being, which will be the case for all PA online poker rooms until further notice.
There are two bonuses for new players:
Regular players will enjoy a novel loyalty program. Stars Rewards gives you chests as you play, these have prizes tailored to you – going up in value depending on the stakes you play.
Games at PokerStars include the usual mix of cash games, tournaments and sit & goes. This site has a fast-fold cash game called Zoom Poker, and a lottery sit & go format called ‘Spins’. Regular ‘PACOOP’ (Pennsylvania Championship of Online Poker) events feature big prize tournaments – the highlight of a busy tournament schedule. They also run a number of other exciting tournament series that come with hefty guarantees.
Party Poker is the biggest rival to PokerStars. This site is owned by gambling giant Entain, which has a national deal with MGM. Valley Forge Casino will supply licenses for GVC.
Once live, PA poker players should receive $25 simply for signing up. This bonus comes in two parts:
If you like what you find, then you can get a 100% matched welcome bonus on your first deposit up to $1000 max. Promotions include leaderboards, reload bonuses and a loyalty points program.
In addition to the packed list of cash games, tournaments and sit & goes, you can now play ‘Fast Forward’ poker at Party. This is a fast-fold format, where players are moved to a new hand as soon as the current hand is folded.
The partypoker software has been completely revamped since they were last available in the US. You will find smartphone apps and desktop downloads for both Windows and Mac devices. At launch, games will only be against other players from PA. In time it is hoped that the shared player pools will expand to cover Pennsylvania – allowing games against other partypoker players from other states.
WSOP is short for ‘World Series of Poker’. This brand is owned by Caesars Entertainment – owners of the iconic Harrah’s Casino in PA. There are active WSOP.com poker sites in both Nevada and New Jersey – and soon, Pennsylvania.
Software for this site is powered by 888 Poker, offering both an app and a downloadable desktop version.
There are some generous bonuses for new players at WSOP Pennsylvania:
You can clear your bonus by collecting points in the real money games. WSOP have satellite qualifiers to the World Series events – as well as online poker promotions. Look out for new poker formats including ‘Blast’ lottery Sit and Goes, alongside the usual mix of NL Hold’em and PLO cash games and tournaments.
BetMGM Poker is the online poker site representing gaming titan MGM Resorts International. MGM has numerous partnerships with other gaming companies, including Entain (formerly GVC Holdings) and Penn National.
When the site finally goes live, new players can find themselves in line for a whopping $1,025 in bonus money from the site. If you use promo code PLAYNJFREE when you sign up, you will be eligible for the following bonuses:
The bonus dollars you accumulate are convertible into cash if you play through them a certain number of times. In essence, the $25 no deposit bonus will need to be turned over a single time to release it as cash. The deposit bonus is a bit more of an ordeal – you have to earn 20 times the amount of iRewards Points in order to convert it to cash. However, the bonus will come to you in 10% chunks, so you can get a little bit at a time.
Make sure to keep an eye on your time limit, however. Any unredeemed bonus at the end of 7 days reverts to BetMGM, so be ready to play quite a bit when you make that first deposit.
For online casinos and sportsbooks, you’ll normally access the website to enjoy gambling. Poker sites are different. Most players prefer to download a desktop software client to access the games. This gives you all the game types, and the ability to comfortably multi-table (play more than one table at a time). It also ensures the games are stable. Avoiding the client crashing just as you get dealt pocket aces is important.
PokerStars PA launched with both an Android and an iOS app available.
When you access the PA poker rooms, you will find four main poker formats. Which are available (and have games running) will depend on the size of the player pool at each site.
Here are the main formats:
At international sites, there are a lot of poker variations to enjoy. The smaller player pools in Pennsylvania will mean that only No-Limit Hold’em and some Omaha variations like PLO and PLO8 will be available. If PA joins a wider group of state sites then Stud, Draw, and mixed games could become available.
If you have only ever enjoyed poker on free to play apps, you will need to read up on strategy before you jump into the real money games. There is a huge difference in skill level as soon as real money is on the line.
The online poker rooms in Pennsylvania have options to enjoy play-money only tables. These can help you get to know the different types of poker game and how the betting rounds work. At PokerStars, the Home Games function lets you create private tables for your friends and colleagues. You can even play them with friends outside of PA, as long as they are for play money.
You can try out real money poker games at some sites without making a deposit. Party Poker should offer $10 in cash plus $15 in tournament entry tokens just for signing up. Other sites like PokerStars give you tokens worth $30 for just a small deposit.
To get off to a solid start at the real money poker tables, it is worth starting off at smaller buy-in levels than you would play in a live setting. This will give you a chance to assess the skill levels of your opponents and make sure you can beat the games before you move up to higher buy-ins.
The online poker sites which have the most players in PA will have a huge advantage over competitors. PokerStars got a leg up on the competition as the first to market and exceeded expectations right away, taking in nearly $2 million in rake and tournament fees in its first month back in November.
As the number of players grows, bigger tournaments, better promotions, and a wider choice of cash games become available. This has the effect of attracting more players. Currently, PokerStars PA offers a choice of two welcome bonuses, namely $30 free if deposit $20 using marketing code FREE30, or a 100%bonus match up to $600 using marketing code STARS600, not both though.
Once more online poker rooms go live in Pennsylvania, there will be fierce competition for new players. You can take advantage of this by getting your bankroll off to a great start thanks to the sites’ big marketing budgets and generous bonus offers.
Based on poker rooms in other regulated states, here is what to expect:
Depending on the brand, you might also be offered crossover promotions for the different gambling verticals.
Sports betting and casino games are well established in Pennsylvania, with many of the license holders for poker involved in all three industries. For example, players can now sign up for Fox Bet online sports betting and also access the PokerStars PA online poker and online casino verticals.
With poker being a skill game, more players will withdraw money than the other gambling verticals. You’ll have a lot of choices for how to get your money on board and your profits back off again.
While not all the online poker rooms will have all of the methods listed, the deposit methods below are the most commonly accepted.
For now, PA poker games are ring-fenced. This means that tables will not be shared with poker players from other regulated states like New Jersey and Nevada.
Three major international brands already partnered with Pennsylvania casinos, with only PokerStars and Mount Airy Casino live with their online poker product. More announcements are expected soon to clarify plans for online poker.
This is the full list of the PA casinos which have licenses to open online poker rooms:
Poker Site | Casino Partner | Software | Status | Bonus |
---|---|---|---|---|
PokerStars | Mount Airy Casino Resort | PokerStars | Live | $30 Free |
PartyPoker PA | Valley Forge Casino | PartyPoker | Approved | TBD |
WSOP.com | Harrahs Philadelphia | 888 | Approved | TBD |
SugarHouse | Rivers Philadelphia | Rush Street | Approved | TBD |
BetMGM | Independent License | GVC | Approved | TBD |
Penn National | Hollywood Casino | IGT | Approved | TBD |
Parx Casino | Parx Casino | GAN/Kambi | Approved | TBD |
Wind Creek Casino | Wind Creek Casino | TBD | Approved | TBD |
There are 10 live poker rooms in Pennsylvania. They are: