Regulated online poker hasn’t yet arrived in Virginia, but aspiring grinders still have options for playing online poker legally in the Old Dominion.
Sweepstakes poker sites offer the best legal alternative to real-money online poker in Virginia. Platforms like ClubWPT award substantial sweepstakes prizes, including sweepstakes credits redeemable for cash.
This guide to Virginia online poker aims to clarify the legal status of sweepstakes poker rooms, as well as direct Virginia poker players to the best legal poker sites available in the state.
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Is Online Poker Legal In Virginia?
Virginia doesn’t permit real-money online poker sites, and it appears that status might not change any time soon.
The Old Dominion does host a thriving online sports betting economy. State lawmakers recently shifted their stance on casino gambling as well, with a few physical casino properties open in the state.
Virginia’s recent gambling expansion could eventually lead to regulated online poker launching in the state. There doesn’t appear to be much on the way in terms of online poker legislation in the near future, however.
While real-money online poker isn’t a reality yet in Virginia, sweepstakes poker sites are legal. All prizes at these sites are awarded under a sweepstakes gaming model, and sweepstakes poker sites fall into a different legal category than real-money online poker rooms.
The top sweepstakes poker room available in Virginia is ClubWPT. Keep reading for more on how ClubWPT works, what games are offered, and what prizes are on the line.
Is Online Poker Legal In The United States?
U.S. states can legalize certain forms of online gambling on an individual basis. Mobile sports betting and daily fantasy sports experienced a boom period in the 2020s, with more than half of U.S. states offering at least one of these forms of online sports gaming.
While online sports betting is available in more than half of the U.S., real-money online poker is available in less than 10 states. Virginia mirrors many other states, with a vibrant online sports betting scene but no access to online poker.
Sweepstakes poker is thriving in the U.S., however, and is legal in more than 40 states. Sites like ClubWPT offer an excellent (and more importantly, legal) alternative to regulated online poker.
Best Virginia Online Poker Sites
If you want to play poker online in Virginia, ClubWPT tops the list of the best online poker sites available in the state.
Read on for an overview of ClubWPT and how the sweepstakes tournaments work on the site.
ClubWPT
ClubWPT is a sweepstakes poker room owned and operated by the World Poker Tour (WPT).
Virginia players will find two kinds of games running at ClubWPT – free-to-play games and sweepstakes games.
The free-to-play games at ClubWPT use a play money currency known as “Play Chips.” The Play Chips games allow you to practice poker for free, with no monetary risk involved. You’ll also find free-to-play casino games on the site.
ClubWPT’s sweepstakes games operate much like traditional poker tournaments, with sweepstakes credits and prizes on the line (instead of strictly cash). These games award more than $100,000 in cash and prizes every month.
Players in all 50 U.S. states can sign up for a ClubWPT account and get access to the Play Chips games. The sweepstakes online poker games are legal in 36 states, and Virginia is on that list.
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How Do I Start Playing The Sweepstakes Games At ClubWPT?
Virginia players can access ClubWPT’s sweepstakes tournaments by purchasing a monthly subscription.
You can choose between two different subscription levels, and also purchase a special add-on subscription that grants access to special satellite tournaments running each Saturday.
The monthly subscription fee allows unlimited access to the sweepstakes tournaments available in the tier for which you purchased the subscription.
The subscription tiers 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)
VIP Tournaments
The VIP subscription level is the lowest-priced tier available at ClubWPT.
The $27.95 monthly fee gives you access to all sweepstakes tournaments under the VIP filter. VIP tournaments use “Tournament Points” (aka TP) as currency.
When you sign up for any ClubWPT subscription, you’ll start your journey with 500 TP. You can use those points to enter VIP tournaments. Your TP balance also reloads every day.
A VIP tournament runs like a traditional online poker tournament, with cash (in the form of sweepstakes credits), prizes, and TP awarded to those who finish “in the money.”
For example, the “$1,000 Mountain” VIP tournament awards the following prizes:
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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
VIP subscribers also enjoy access to freeroll tournaments (aka zero TP buy-in tournaments) that award TP, cash, and prizes.
Diamond Tournaments
The Diamond subscription level offers entry to tournaments with the biggest prizes awarded at ClubWPT.
The $149.95 monthly fee grants access to all tournaments in the Diamond tier, as well as all tournaments in the VIP tier. Diamond tournaments don’t require TP to buy in, and you’ll get unlimited access to these tournaments when you purchase a subscription.
Diamond tournaments award sweepstakes credits/cash, Tournament Points (which you can use to buy into Diamond tournaments), and prizes.
A typical Diamond Tournament could look 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
Many Diamond tournaments also offer the opportunity to win your way into live events on the World Poker Tour.
For example, the following Diamond tournament awarded cash and VIP Tournament Points throughout the payout ladder, with a WPT Prime Passport 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
The prizes awarded in the VIP tournaments include WPT Passports (entry plus travel stipend for WPT live events), WPT Voyage Cruise packages, and more.
The Diamond subscription allows access to both the Diamond and the VIP tiers, and unlocks opportunities to win the largest prizes available at ClubWPT. All of these factors make the Diamond level subscription the best value available among the subscription tiers at ClubWPT.
$125,000 WPT World Championship Challenge
The flagship event on the ClubWPT schedule is the $125,000 WPT World Championship Challenge.
The details for this annual tournament look like this:
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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 top prize in the World Championship Challenge comes in the form of a $12,000 package that includes the buy-in and travel expenses for the WPT World Championship, held each December at the Wynn Resort in Las Vegas.
You must qualify for the $125,000 WPT World Championship Challenge through other tournaments on ClubWPT. Most of the qualifiers for the World Championship Challenge are only available to Diamond subscribers.
Is ClubWPT A Real Money Online Poker Site?
ClubWPT doesn’t operate as a traditional real-money poker room.
Sweepstakes prizes are awarded to those that finish in the money in a sweepstakes tournament. The “cash” that’s up for grabs in ClubWPT’s tournaments is actually sweepstakes credit that can be redeemed for cash.
Sweepstakes gaming is legal in more than 40 states, and Virginia is on that list.
How Do I Sign Up At ClubWPT?
You can sign up for a ClubWPT account and participate in the free-to-play games from any U.S. state.
To play in the sweepstakes games and compete for cash and prizes, you must be physically located in one of 36 eligible states while you’re playing.
Here’s how Virginia poker players can sign up for a ClubWPT account:
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Click the “CLAIM OFFER” 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 Play Chips games and tournaments are open to all U.S. players, without a subscription required.
To compete in the VIP and Diamond tournaments, you must purchase one of the monthly subscription packages and be physically located in one of the 36 eligible states when you play.
You’re in luck if you’re located in Virginia, as ClubWPT’s sweepstakes games are legal (as long as you’re physically located in Virginia while you play).
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How Do Sweepstakes Poker Sites Work?
Sweepstakes poker sites aren’t governed by the same online poker laws that would apply to a traditional poker site.
By definition, sweepstakes gaming platforms award prizes to winners, but these prizes aren’t direct cash winnings. All prizes awarded at ClubWPT, for instance, are sweepstakes prizes.
These prizes include sweepstakes credits redeemable for cash. The biggest prizes up for grabs at ClubWPT include WPT Voyage Cruise packages and WPT Passports (entry plus travel stipend to prestigious live World Poker Tour events).
A traditional online poker site requires you to make a direct cash deposit and then put that money on the line in direct competition against other players.
At ClubWPT, you can purchase a monthly subscription and, as long as your subscription is active, get unlimited access to the site’s sweepstakes tournaments.
Are Offshore Poker Sites Safe?
When you look for any kind of legal online gambling site, you’ll come across a few platforms that appear to offer traditional poker cash games and tournaments in all U.S. states. In spite of federal laws, these sites offer online casino gaming and poker in many U.S. states.
While these sites might look legitimate, you might notice that they’re not regulated or licensed by any Virginia gaming agency (or any U.S. agency for that matter).
If an online poker site runs real-money games, but doesn’t clearly display a seal of approval from a state gaming regulation agency, the site is operating illegally.
These sites are known as “offshore” gambling sites, as they operate outside of the U.S. in terms of both physical location and legal jurisdiction.
Offshore sites should be avoided for the following reasons:
Illegal Financial Transactions
If you attempt to make a deposit at an offshore poker site, you’ll notice that it’s often next to impossible to deposit using a debit card, credit card, or ACH bank transfer.
Illegal offshore gambling sites heavily promote cryptocurrency deposits and withdrawals. If you do manage to get a deposit through using a traditional banking method, that transaction will often appear on your statement as an online purchase from a retailer you’ve never heard of.
Offshore sites try to disguise the true nature of player deposits in an effort to get around banking regulations.
When you purchase a subscription at ClubWPT, that transaction will always clearly appear on your bank account as exactly what it is – a purchase from ClubWPT.
Personal And Financial Information At Risk
When you sign up for an account at an offshore gambling site, you give your personal information to an illegal gambling operation that’s conducting business outside of U.S. laws. Make your first deposit, and now they have your financial information and your money.
Once an offshore site has your information, you don’t know where or with whom that information might end up. Once the site has your money, you run the risk of never seeing those funds again.
If your in a state without regulated online poker, your best bet is to play at legitimate sweepstakes poker sites like ClubWPT. ClubWPT, and its parent company, the World Poker Tour, operate with a keen interest in protecting the financial and personal information of its players.
Offshore Poker Sites Lack Player Security
While illegal/offshore poker sites might appear to run legitimate poker games, those games are also often infested with the following things:
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Bots (computer/AI-automated “poker players”)
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Player collusion
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Multi-accounting (one player playing under multiple screen names)
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Ghosting (players controlling other players’ accounts)
Legitimate poker sites like ClubWPT operate with the highest security protocols, with the aim of proactively eliminating these types of unethical activities.
Offshore sites have little or no incentive to ensure the security of its players or the games on the site. These operations have one goal – taking deposits from players. You can’t expect much player security once they have your money.
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Virginia Poker Sites FAQ
Can I play online poker in Virginia?
Yes. While regulated online poker isn’t yet a reality in Virginia, you’re not out of luck when it comes to playing poker online.
Sweepstakes poker sites are legal in 36 U.S. states, including Virginia. These sites award prizes under a sweepstakes gaming model, which is defined differently than a real-money gambling model in a legal sense.
The top sweepstakes site currently available in Virginia is ClubWPT.
Is online gambling legal in Virginia?
Online sports betting is the only form of full-scale online gambling currently legal in Virginia.
If you come across an online gambling site that offers anything other than sports betting (or doesn’t bear a seal of approval from the Virginia Lottery), that site is operating illegally.
ClubWPT offers the top legal alternative to real-money online poker in Virginia. ClubWPT operates under a sweepstakes gaming model, and operates legally under Virginia poker laws.
What is the best legal online poker site available in Virginia?
ClubWPT is the best legal poker site available in Virginia. The site doesn’t run traditional real-money poker games, but it does offer sweepstakes tournaments with cash and prizes on the line.
The “cash” on the line in ClubWPT’s sweepstakes tournaments are actually sweepstakes credits that you can redeem for cash. You can also win entry into WPT live events, travel packages to WPT Voyage Cruises, and more.
ClubWPT awards more than $100,000 in monthly cash and prizes.
Is ClubWPT legal in Virginia?
Yes. You can play all of the games available at ClubWPT while located in Virginia. This includes the site’s sweepstakes tournaments, as well as the free-to-play (aka Play Chips) games.
Are offshore poker sites legal in Virginia?
No. Offshore gambling sites operate outside of U.S. laws and should be avoided.
Does Virginia have poker rooms?
Virginia does have at least one live poker room, and more could be on the way as the state’s casino industry expands.
The top legal online poker site currently available in Virginia is ClubWPT. ClubWPT operates as a sweepstakes poker site, with cash (aka sweepstakes credits) and prizes on the line daily.
Best Virginia Poker Site
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