US Online Poker Sites

The US online poker market splits into two very different worlds. Real-money regulated poker only exists in a handful of states — New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Nevada, and West Virginia — where operators need a state gaming license, and some of them share player pools across state lines under the Multi-State Internet Gaming Agreement (MSIGA). Outside those states, the only legal option is the sweepstakes model — sites like Global Poker and ClubWPT Gold, which don't take real-money deposits but let you redeem promotional "Sweeps Coins" for cash, and are available in most states precisely because they aren't licensed real-money gambling.

Below are the main options in both categories, plus exactly which states each one actually operates in — that part changes often enough that it's worth checking before you sign up anywhere. There is also a third world most American players actually live in: the offshore rooms. They hold no US licence and operate outside state regulation, but they take real-money deposits from most states and run the biggest US-facing games. Ignition is the largest of them; the WPN and Chico skins are the others, covered under International.