New York has yet to introduce real-money online poker like its neighbors, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Legislation to that effect has been considered; however, this could mean that New York online poker is added in the future. Read on for an overview of the current status of online poker in New York, including where it stands and what its prospects are going forward.
Can you play real money online poker in New York?
You cannot currently play real-money online poker in New York at sites like PokerStars, WSOP Online, or BetMGM Poker. Nor can you play online casino games for real money in NY, although legislation to authorize such games and sites has been introduced repeatedly over recent years. Recent moves have made social casinos and sweepstakes sites largely unavailable as well, which means you cannot play at the social online poker site Global Poker in NY.
Meanwhile, live poker is widely available at several tribal and commercial casinos in the state. Those in NY can play cash games and tournaments in the poker rooms at such locations. The casinos occasionally host some large-field poker tournament series as well.
Are offshore poker sites safe for NY players?
You might encounter online poker sites operating outside the US that invite NY players to play. However, such “offshore” poker sites present significant risks for players, and you should avoid them in favor of legal sites.
If you deposit funds and play at an offshore site, you do so without any of the protections a licensed and regulated poker site provides. Since offshore sites operate outside of New York jurisdiction, you have no legal recourse should you encounter any problems related to the security of their funds or game integrity.
If you suspect cheating, collusion, multi-accounting, or other issues regarding the fairness of games on an offshore site, you have to hope the site’s security team will respond to your complaints and deal with them appropriately. But there are no guarantees, and no way to ensure that such issues won’t arise. There have even been cases where such sites have shut down without notice, leaving players suddenly unable to access their accounts and with no legal means to try to recover their money.
The short answer, then, is that it is not safe to play on offshore sites. Fully legal, licensed, and regulated sites are much preferable for US players.
When will real money online poker be legal in New York?
Online poker in NY has a number of supporters among the state’s lawmakers. In fact, they have been seriously discussing legalizing online poker for many years, with legislation introduced almost every year for the past decade-plus. While past efforts to legalize online poker in New York have failed to gain support, that has not deterred proponents.
The latest attempts to legalize New York online poker have been headed by New York Senator Joseph Addabbo, who again released a bill in 2024. While Gov. Kathy Hochul did not include the bill in her 2025 executive budget, Addabbo said he will continue to push for legalization, hoping it will finally cross the finish line.
Unlike during those early years, when online poker failed to gain legislative momentum, online sports betting in New York is legal and thriving today. Other examples of gambling expansion have occurred as well, meaning the landscape has shifted, and perhaps New York online casinos and online poker will earn more acceptance going forward. Stay tuned!
Online poker options in New Jersey and Pennsylvania
As far as real money online poker options go, New York players can create accounts on legal online poker sites in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. They can even deposit funds from New York, if they wish. However, players must be physically located in the applicable states to play online poker.
Below is our selection of top recommended online poker rooms currently operating in New Jersey. Again, you must be located in NJ to play at these sites:
Most of those sites are also available in Pennsylvania, except PartyPoker, which is not in PA.
The real-money online poker rooms in NY and PA offer a wide variety of cash games, sit-and-gos, and multi-table tournaments. The sites primarily offer no-limit Texas hold ’em as (by far) the most popular variant, although you will also find pot-limit Omaha games, SNGs, and tourneys. PokerStars additionally has seven-card stud and other variants, too, for those who enjoy mixed games.
Many New York poker players travel either to NJ or PA to participate in the big online tournament series that are frequently run on WSOP Online and PokerStars. WSOP Online invites New Jersey players to compete for WSOP Online Circuit rings and even WSOP bracelets. Meanwhile, in NJ, PokerStars runs the New Jersey Championship of Online Poker (NJCOOP) and New Jersey Spring Championship of Online Poker (NJSCOOP), and in PA, they host parallel PACOOP and PASCOOP series.
Also worth keeping in mind is that both New Jersey and Pennsylvania participate in the Multi-State Internet Gaming Agreement, which allows online poker sites to share player pools with other states, including Michigan and Nevada. That’s great, because with larger player pools, you get more cash games running as well as bigger tournament fields and larger prize pools.
Live poker in New York
There are a number of live poker rooms in New York’s casinos. Poker rooms in the tribal casinos date back to the 1990s and 2000s, while commercial casino poker is newer, opening during the latter half of the 2010s. Here’s a quick look at the poker rooms in each of the four tribal casinos and four commercial casinos:
| Casino | Commercial/Tribal | Number of Tables |
|---|---|---|
| del Lago Resort & Casino | Commercial | 14 tables |
| Resorts World Catskills | Commercial | 19 tables |
| Rivers Casino & Resort | Commercial | 16 tables |
| Tioga Downs Casino and Resort | Commercial | 12 tables |
| Akwesasne Mohawk Casino Resort | Tribal | 5 tables |
| Seneca Niagara Casino & Hotel | Tribal | 23 tables |
| Seneca Allegany Resort & Casino | Tribal | 8 tables |
| Turning Stone Resort Casino | Tribal | 32 tables |
Also worth noting are the two commercial poker rooms at Casino Niagara (26 tables) and Fallsview Casino Resort (16 tables), both in Niagara Falls just over the border in Ontario, Canada.
Commercial vs. tribal casino poker rooms
Players must be 21 or older to play any of the games in New York’s commercial casinos, including poker. Tribal casinos, though, operate within their own jurisdictions. As a result, the age requirement may differ in some cases.
For example, the minimum age to play poker at the Akwesasne Mohawk Casino Resort, the Seneca Allegany Resort & Casino, and the Turning Stone Resort Casino is 18. Seneca Niagara Casino & Hotel, however, requires players to be at least 21 to play.
Brief history of New York poker
While Las Vegas and Atlantic City might be better known as poker destinations, New York has a long, storied history in poker.
Underground poker clubs
When it comes to underground poker, New York is home to many of the most famous clubs in America. Books like The Thompson Street Poker Club and Queer Luck from the late 19th century chronicle such clubs and the characters who populated them, albeit in an embellished fashion.
From 1919 to the early 1930s, another well-known poker club met regularly at the Algonquin Hotel in midtown Manhattan. The group consisted of actors, writers, poets, columnists, and critics, and they called themselves the Thanatopsis Pleasure and Inside Straight Club. Given that members of the famed Algonquin Round Table took part, it’s no surprise that there were many stories written about the games.
Such poker games weren’t technically legal, but they thrived nonetheless. New York eventually legalized other forms of gambling, such as pari-mutuel wagering on horse races (reinstated in 1940) and the state lottery (in 1967). Underground poker clubs remained illegal but could be found all over the five boroughs. Many clubs met in private homes or apartments, while others set up in restaurants, bars, office buildings, and sometimes even in churches. A number of clubs convened at Hungarian restaurants commonly known as “goulash joints” or “ghoulies.”
Some of these clubs became quite famous, such as the Mayfair Club, which started as a bridge club before introducing backgammon, gin rummy, and poker. Famous players like Stu Ungar, Erik Seidel, and Dan Harrington were among those who played poker at the Mayfair. Later, the writers of the 1998 film Rounders would draw inspiration from the Mayfair and model the fictional Chesterfield Club after it. Such clubs began encountering significant resistance from law enforcement, particularly during Rudy Giuliani’s mayoral tenure. The Mayfair was shut down in 2000, as were other clubs. Eventually, though, other establishments arose to take their place.
Poker in casinos & NY’s path to legalizing online poker
Meanwhile, other legal options for New York poker players were emerging. In 1993, the state’s first tribal casino, Turning Stone, opened in Verona. Others followed, and in 2013, voters authorized an amendment allowing commercial casinos to open outside of New York City. The first of these opened a few years later, and as noted above, you can play live poker at many of them.
As mentioned, online poker legislation has been a topic of legislative discussions in New York since 2014. At first, there were only a few half-hearted bill submissions and discussions. However, in 2016, a bill passed through the Senate Racing, Gaming, and Wagering Committee. It marked the first time online poker legislation moved beyond the introduction stage. The NY Senate passed the bill by a vote of 53-5, and things looked promising. However, the 2016 legislative session ended in June without any action from the State Assembly.
In 2017, the Senate passed similar legislation by a vote of 54-8. From there, online poker legislation looked like a good bet to go further than it had a year earlier. Unfortunately, like its predecessor, the bill never made it past the Assembly’s Standing Committee on Racing and Wagering.
The next two years, 2018 and 2019, proved quite frustrating for fans of online poker. Although the demise of PASPA in 2018 was a boon for state legislatures and sports betting, it may have negatively affected the prospects for online poker in New York. Since the profit and tax potential for sports betting is so much higher than for online poker, many lawmakers made it clear that online sports betting would happen before online poker had a chance.
Another court ruling further wounded the prospects of online poker in New York. Online poker bills filed by State Sens. John Bonacic and, later, Joe Addabbo both relied upon the argument that poker was predominantly a skill game. However, a state court ruled that the skill argument was invalid for daily fantasy sports and set a precedent that would apply to online poker as well. In 2020, a state appellate court upheld the lower court’s finding.
Between the blossoming of sports betting and the legal challenges, New York’s 2018 online poker bills died uneventful deaths without floor votes. Because sports betting became the en vogue topic, refiled bills didn’t even have the same level of momentum in 2019 or 2020. However, New Yorkers who want online poker can take solace in the fact that they do have some steadfast champions in the legislature. In addition to Addabbo, who took up the torch after Bonacic retired in 2019, State Assemblymen Gary Pretlow and Clyde Vanel have also expressed support for online poker legislation. With that said, the end of 2020 seemed to put online sports betting in the spotlight, as Gov. Andrew Cuomo reversed his stance and endorsed the practice.
Is online poker in the cards for New York?
Over recent years, the focus has largely shifted away from legalizing online poker, with most new bills instead focusing on online casinos. While such legislation might well include provisions to legalize online poker as well, it is probably much more likely that online casinos would launch first in NY before any of the major online poker operators go live in the state.
In any event, there’s always a chance the next legislative card to be turned over could be favorable, and online poker in New York could be legalized.