If you’re in Tennessee and looking for a guide to the best legal poker sites, you’ve found the right place.
This WPT.com guide aims to clarify the legal status of online poker in Tennessee, and direct Tennessee poker players to the safest, most reputable poker sites.
Sweepstakes poker is currently the only legal form of online poker available in the Volunteer State. The top sweepstakes poker room offering access for Tennessee players is ClubWPT. Read on for more on how that platform works and how to win cash and prizes at ClubWPT.
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Is Online Poker Legal In Tennessee?
Traditional real-money poker sites currently aren’t legal in Tennessee. The only way to play legal online poker in the Volunteer State is via sweepstakes poker sites like ClubWPT.
Online sports betting is the only form of online gambling that’s legal in Tennessee at this time. Sweepstakes gaming falls under a different legal category than online gambling, which allows sweepstakes poker rooms like ClubWPT to operate legally in the state.
If full-scale, real-money poker games were to go online in Tennessee, that would likely happen as part of a measure that would bring both online casino games and online poker to the state. The passage of such a measure doesn’t look like it’s happening anytime soon, however.
Tennessee poker enthusiasts are still in luck though. ClubWPT offers sweepstakes tournaments where cash and prizes are on the line. The prizes include WPT Voyage Cruise packages, “Passports” to World Poker Tour live events, and more.
Is Online Poker Legal In The United States?
In 2018, the US government overturned an act known as PASPA, (the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act). PASPA declared sports betting illegal across the US, with a couple of exceptions (including Nevada).
The fall of PASPA brought forth a new era of online gambling across the nation. All US states now have the option to legalize online sports betting.
States can also legalize online poker and online casinos. More than half of US states have legalized online sports betting, but only a handful have legalized online poker and casinos.
Only a handful of states currently offer access to legal online poker. These real-money online poker sites are licensed and regulated by state gaming regulation agencies.
If you’re in one of the 40+ states without regulated online poker, you still have the opportunity to play online poker for cash and prizes. Sweepstakes poker sites are legal in most US states, including Tennessee.
Best Tennessee Online Poker Sites
As mentioned, ClubWPT is the top choice for legal sweepstakes poker in Tennessee. While ClubWPT doesn’t offer real-money poker games in the traditional sense, you can win substantial cash and prizes in the sweepstakes tournaments offered on the site.
Read on for an overview of how ClubWPT works and what prizes it has to offer.
ClubWPT
ClubWPT operates as a sweepstakes poker platform owned by the World Poker Tour. Players in 36 states (including Tennessee) can compete for cash and prizes in the sweepstakes games at ClubWPT.
Tennessee players will find two kinds of games at ClubWPT, including free-to-play (Play Chips) games and sweepstakes games.
The free-to-play games are available in all US states. These games offer the opportunity to sharpen your poker skills with “Play Chips” (i.e. no monterary risk involved). You’ll also find free-to-play online casino games at ClubWPT.
The sweepstakes tournaments at ClubWPT are available via monthly subscription. You can access these tournaments by purchasing one of two different subscription tiers. You can also buy an add-on subscription that allows access to special Saturday satellite tournaments.
The subscription levels at ClubWPT break down as follows:
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VIP ($27.95 per month, access to all VIP tournaments)
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Diamond ($149.95 per month, access to all Diamond and VIP tournaments)
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Super SATurdays ($100 add-on per month, access to Super SATurdays satellite tournaments)
The sweepstakes tournaments at ClubWPT award more than $100,000 in prizes every month. The game formats include Texas Hold’em, Pot-Limit Omaha, and Pot-Limit Omaha Hi-Lo.
VIP Tournaments
VIP is the most affordable subscription tier at ClubWPT. This subscription level allows access to all tournaments under the VIP tab.
VIP-level tournaments use Tournament Points (TP) as the buy-in currency. You start with 500 TP when you sign up for either of ClubWPT’s subscription tiers.
Your TP balance reloads each day. Tournaments in the VIP tier award TP, cash, and prizes.
A typical VIP tournament looks like this:
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Tournament Name: $1,000 Mountain
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Buy-In: 400TP
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Prize Pool: $1,000 USD + 202,500 TP Guaranteed
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First Place: $150 USD + 2,000 TP
The VIP level also includes freeroll tournaments that award TP, cash, and prizes. VIP freerolls don’t require TP to enter.
Diamond Tournaments
The Diamond subscription unlocks access to all Diamond-tier tournaments, as well as all VIP-tier tournaments. Diamond tournaments award the biggest prizes available at ClubWPT, making it the best overall value among the sweepstakes tiers.
While VIP Tournaments require Tournament Points to enter, Diamond subscribers get unlimited entries into Diamond Tournaments. Diamond tournaments are freerolls in a sense (although you do have to pay the monthly subscription to get access).
Both VIP and Diamond tournaments award cash and prizes to tournament winners. The cash and prizes on the line are substantially larger in Diamond tournaments, however.
A typical Diamond Tournament looks like this:
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Tournament Name: $5,000 Cash Guarantee
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Buy-In: Freeroll (unlimited entry for Diamond subscribers)
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Prize Pool: $5,000 USD + 541,000 TP Guaranteed
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First Place: $1,000 USD + 5,000 TP
Diamond tournaments also offer opportunities to win “Passports” into World Poker Tour live events. The biggest tournaments in this tier award cash and TP throughout the payout ladder, with a WPT live event package as the top prize.
For example, the following Diamond Tournament awarded a WPT Prime Passport (travel package and entry fee for any tournament on the WPT Prime schedule) as the first-place prize:
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Tournament Name: $2,500 WPT Prime Championship Passport + $500
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Buy-In: Freeroll (unlimited entry for Diamond subscribers)
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Prize Pool: $3,000 USD + 467,500 TP Guaranteed
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First Place: $2,500 WPT Prime Passport + 5,000 TP
Diamond subscribers get access to both the Diamond and the VIP tier, and Tournament Points earned in Diamond tournaments can be used in VIP tournaments.
ClubWPT Sign-Up Link
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$125,000 WPT World Championship Challenge
The biggest event on the ClubWPT tournament schedule is the $125,000 WPT World Championship Challenge. The details for this special tournament are as follows:
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Tournament Name: $125,000 WPT World Championship Challenge
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Buy-In: Entries must qualify through other ClubWPT events
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Prize Pool: $125,000 USD
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First Place: WPT Event Package $12,000
The first-place prize for this tournament is a $12,000 package that sends you to the annual WPT World Championship in Las Vegas.
You can only qualify for the $125,000 WPT World Championship Challenge through other tournaments on ClubWPT. Most of the tournaments that allow you to qualify are in the Diamond tier.
Is ClubWPT A Real Money Online Poker Site?
ClubWPT doesn’t operate as a traditional real-money online poker room. ClubWPT offers online poker under a sweepstakes gaming model.
Purchase a monthly subscription to ClubWPT, and you get access to poker tournaments that award cash and prizes. You don’t deposit money or directly compete for cash at ClubWPT, however.
ClubWPT awards more than $100,000 in cash and prizes every month. ClubWPT’s biggest tournament, the $125,000 WPT World Championship Challenge, awards $125,000 in total cash and prizes.
The first-place prize for the Championship Challenge is a $12,000 WPT Event Package that sends the winner to the WPT World Championship at Wynn Las Vegas in December.
How Do I Sign Up At ClubWPT?
You can sign up for ClubWPT from anywhere in the U.S. You can only play the sweepstakes tournaments for cash and prizes if you’re in one of the 36 eligible states.
If you want to play online poker in Tennessee, you’re in luck! Tennessee is on the list of states that allow access to the sweepstakes poker games at ClubWPT.
Here’s how to sign up for a ClubWPT account:
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Click the sign-up link in any of the ClubWPT ads in this article.
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Click the green “Sign-Up” button at the top right of the ClubWPT home page
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Enter a valid email, choose a username and password, and click “Continue”
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Enter your name, DoB, and physical address, and choose a security question and answer.
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On the next screen, choose your subscription and your payment method.
The free-to-play cash games and tournaments are open to all U.S. players, without a subscription required.
The VIP and Diamond tournaments are available through monthly subscriptions. If you want to play the sweepstakes tournaments in these tiers, you must be located in one of the 36 eligible states when you play.
If you’re located in Tennessee, you’re in luck, as the ClubWPT sweepstakes games are available to you.
ClubWPT Sign-Up Link
[CLUBWPT AD]
How Do Sweepstakes Poker Sites Work?
ClubWPT doesn’t operate as a traditional real-money poker site.
ClubWPT’s subscription-based tournaments award cash and prizes under a sweepstakes gaming model.
Sweepstakes gaming sites are legal in more than 40 U.S. states. As a sweepstakes poker site, ClubWPT is classified under a different legal category than a real-money poker site.
At a traditional real-money poker site, players deposit money and directly compete for other players’ money in cash games and tournaments. For example, you might deposit $1,000 and put $200 down on a cash game table.
A withdrawal from a real-money poker site involves a direct cash transfer of some kind. At ClubWPT, players can compete for cash and prizes, but you don’t directly deposit or withdraw cash at any time.
All prizes awarded in ClubWPT’s tournaments are sweepstakes prizes. Those prizes include sweepstakes credits that can be redeemed for cash, WPT Voyage Cruise luxury packages, and entries to WPT Main Tour and WPT Prime events.
Is It Safe To Play At Offshore Poker Sites?
If you’ve searched for a real-money online poker site that you can access from Tennessee, you may have come across a few sites that appear to be legitimate.
These sites might appear as legal online poker rooms. It’s important to note, however, that there are many offshore online gambling sites that operate in the United States illegally .
Consider three reasons that you should avoid offshore/illegal gambling sites:
Offshore Poker Sites Conduct Illegal Financial Transactions
Payment options are generally quite limited at an offshore poker site.
Many of these illegal poker rooms essentially only facilitate deposits and withdrawals using cryptocurrency. If you can’t deposit US dollars in your account at an online poker room, that’s generally not a good sign.
If you do manage to make a deposit with a bank account or credit/debit card, the transaction will often appear on your bank statement as a purchase from an shell company you’ve never heard of. Offshore gambling sites try to hide the true nature of a deposit, trying to deceive banks into letting the deposit go through.
When you purchase a subscription at ClubWPT, the transaction clearly shows up on your bank statement as a purchase from ClubWPT.
Your Money And Personal Information Isn’t Secure At Offshore Poker Sites
ClubWPT, and any online poker site backed by the World Poker Tour, operates with a vested interest in protecting your personal and financial information.
If you give your bank account, credit card, or Social Security number to an offshore poker site, there’s no telling where or with whom that information might end up.
If you attempt to withdraw your funds from an offshore poker site, you’re requesting money from an illegal operation.
These sites operate outside of US laws, and have no legal obligation to send you your money when you request a withdrawal. If you end up on the wrong end of a denied or delayed withdrawal, you have no legal way to file a complaint and get your money.
Offshore poker sites operate illegally. When you deposit at an offshore gambling site, you might not ever get your money back.
Player Security Is Questionable At Offshore Poker Sites
Offshore poker sites are notorious for bots (aka computer-automated “poker players”), collusion between players, multi-accounting, and ghosting.
If you start playing online poker at these sites, the games are quite often rife with illegal and unethical activity, as these sites have little incentive to punish bad actors.
Offshore gambling sites are in the business of taking deposits from players. You can’t expect a high level of player security once they have your money.
Tennessee Online Poker Sites FAQ
Can I play online poker in Tennessee?
Yes. While real-money online poker isn’t legal in Tennessee, you can play poker legally at sweepstakes poker sites.
The best sweepstakes poker site currently available in Tennessee is ClubWPT. The sweepstakes tournaments at ClubWPT award substantial cash and prizes.
Does Tennessee have any casinos?
No. You won’t find any casinos in Tennessee, whether you’re looking for land-based casinos or online casinos.
If the Volunteer State ever changes its stance on casino gaming, that could pave the way for live poker rooms to open in the state. For now, the best (and only) way to play poker legally is at sweepstakes poker sites like ClubWPT.
What is the best legal online poker site available in Tennessee?
ClubWPT is the best sweepstakes poker room available to Tennessee players. While ClubWPT doesn’t function like a traditional real-money poker site, you can win cash and prizes in the sweepstakes games available on the site.
ClubWPT’s sweepstakes tournaments are accessible through monthly subscriptions. The prizes up for grabs in these tournaments include sweepstakes credits that can be redeemed for cash, entries into World Poker Tour live events, travel packages to WPT Voyage cruises, and more.
Is ClubWPT legal in Tennessee?
Yes. Tennessee is one of 36 US states in which ClubWPT’s sweepstakes tournaments are legal.
Anyone in the US can sign up for a ClubWPT account and compete in the free-to-play (aka Play Chips) games. You must be located in one of the eligible 36 states to play in the sweepstakes tournaments.
You don’t have to live in one of those 36 states to play the sweepstakes games, but you must be located in one of them (such as Tennessee) while you play.
Are offshore poker sites legal?
No. Offshore poker platforms operate illegally in the US, and should be avoided.
Your money and personal information could be at risk if you deposit at an offshore poker site. The integrity of the games at these sites is often questionable as well.
The best bet for aspiring online poker players in Tennessee is ClubWPT.
Is online gambling legal in Tennessee?
Online sports betting is currently the only form of online gambling that’s legal in Tennessee. Sweepstakes poker sites are the only platforms offering legal online poker games in the Volunteer State.
Best Tennessee Poker Site
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