Real-money online poker isn’t currently legal in North Carolina. While you can find a couple of live poker rooms running at tribal casinos in the state, you won’t find any full-scale, real-money online poker sites operating legally in NC.
If you’re a North Carolina poker player, sweepstakes poker sites are your best bet for legal online poker. ClubWPT is the best sweepstakes poker room currently available in the Tarheel State.
This North Carolina online poker guide aims to clarify the legal status of sweepstakes poker, as well as provide a thorough overview of the games and prizes available at ClubWPT.
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Is Online Poker Legal In North Carolina?
There are no full-scale, real-money online poker rooms currently operating legally in NC.
Sweepstakes poker sites offer the best way to play online poker legally in North Carolina. These sites award sweepstakes credits that can be redeemed for cash, as well as sweepstakes prizes.
Because all prizes at a sweepstakes gaming site are awarded as sweepstakes prizes, these sites fall under a different legal category than real money gaming sites. Sweepstakes gaming is legal in more than 40 U.S. states.
ClubWPT is the best sweepstakes poker site currently operating in the U.S. North Carolina players are in luck, as ClubWPT is legal in the Tarheel State.
Is Online Poker Legal In The United States?
The U.S. was once one of the biggest online poker markets in the world. The “poker boom” era of the early 21st century saw all of the world’s biggest online poker rooms operate in the U.S. in a legal grey area.
That era came to an end on April 15, 2011, a day known as “Black Friday” in poker lore. The U.S. government seized the domains of virtually all of the biggest online poker rooms offering access to U.S. players.
In the modern era, U.S. states can legalize poker on an individual basis. All online poker sites doing business in the U.S. must operate in a state that has legalized online poker. The gaming regulation agency in a given state must approve and license a poker site before it can launch in the state.
Sweepstakes poker sites don’t operate with the same legal restrictions as real-money poker sites in the U.S. Sweepstakes gaming sites are legal in more than 40 U.S. states, including North Carolina.
ClubWPT tops the list of legal poker sites available in NC. If you’re looking for a legal platform to play poker online, ClubWPT is the best sweepstakes site available in the state.
Best NC Online Poker Sites
As mentioned, ClubWPT offers the best legal platform for playing poker online in North Carolina. Read on for a thorough overview of how ClubWPT works, as well as the games and prizes offered.
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ClubWPT
ClubWPT is a legal sweepstakes poker room owned and operated by the World Poker Tour, one of the longest-running and most trusted brands in the poker industry.
North Carolina players can find two kinds of games at ClubWPT – free-to-play games and sweepstakes games.
The free-to-play games (known as “Play Chips” games) run 24/7 at ClubWPT and include both poker and casino games. These games are available to anyone in the U.S.
ClubWPT’s sweepstakes games award cash and prizes to the winners. The sweepstakes games at ClubWPT award more than $100,000 in cash and prizes each month.
How Do I Start Playing The Sweepstakes Games At ClubWPT?
The prizes on the line in ClubWPT’s sweepstakes tournaments include sweepstakes credits that can be redeemed for cash. Other prizes available include “Passports” to prestigious WPT live events, travel packages for WPT Voyage luxury cruises, and more.
You can get access to the sweepstakes tournaments at ClubWPT by purchasing a monthly subscription.
You can purchase one of two different subscription tiers at ClubWPT, as well as an add-on subscription allowing exclusive access to special Saturday satellite tournaments. The subscription fee grants you unlimited access to the tournaments in your subscription tier, with no additional buy-ins required.
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 is the most affordable subscription available at ClubWPT. The $27.95 monthly rate grants access to all tournaments in the VIP tier.
When you sign up at ClubWPT, you’ll automatically get 500 “Tournament Points,” which can be used to “buy in” to tournaments in the VIP tier. Your Tournament Points (TP) balance reloads each day.
VIP tournaments run like a traditional online poker tournament, with cash (in the form of sweepstakes credits), prizes, and TP awarded to those that finish “in the money.”
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
VIP subscribers also get access to freeroll tournaments (aka zero TP buy-in tournaments) in the VIP tier that award TP, cash, and prizes.
Diamond Tournaments
The Diamond subscription is the best overall value available at ClubWPT. The $149.95 monthly subscription fee gives you access to all tournaments in both the Diamond and VIP tiers.
If you’re a Diamond subscriber, you get unlimited access to all tournaments on the Diamond level. You don’t have to use TP to buy into Diamond tournaments.
Much like the VIP level, Diamond-level tournaments award TP (which can be used to buy into VIP tournaments), cash, and prizes. The cash and prizes awarded in Diamond tournaments are significantly bigger than those awarded in the VIP tier.
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
Diamond subscribers get access to both the Diamond and VIP tiers. Keep in mind that the TP earned in Diamond tournaments can be used to “buy in” VIP tournaments.
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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 flagship 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 first-place prize for the World Championship Challenge is a $12,000 package that includes the buy-in and a travel stipend for 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 these qualifiers are in the Diamond tier.
Is ClubWPT A Real Money Online Poker Site?
The games offered at ClubWPT don’t qualify as “real money” poker games in a legal sense.
All prizes available in ClubWPT’s sweepstakes tournaments are awarded as sweepstakes prizes. The “cash” prizes on the line in the sweepstakes tournaments are actually sweepstakes credits that are redeemable for cash.
Sweepstakes gaming sites are legal in more than 40 states. ClubWPT is a sweepstakes gaming platform featuring poker as the game.
How Do I Sign Up At ClubWPT?
You can sign up for a ClubWPT account and participate in the Play Chips games from anywhere in the U.S.
To purchase a subscription for the sweepstakes games (and compete for cash and prizes), you must be physically located in one of 36 eligible states while you’re playing.
North Carolina is on the list of states that allow access to the sweepstakes poker games at ClubWPT.
Here’s how North Carolina poker players can 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 Play Chips games and tournaments are open to all U.S. players, without a subscription required.
To play the VIP and Diamond tournaments, you must sign up for a monthly subscription package and must be located in one of the 36 eligible states when you play.
You’re in luck if you’re located in North Carolina, as ClubWPT’s sweepstakes games are accessible to you (as long as you’re physically located in North Carolina while you play).
How Do Sweepstakes Poker Sites Work?
Sweepstakes poker rooms (and sweepstakes gaming platforms in general) operate in a different legal category than real-money gambling sites (like online poker rooms, online sportsbooks, online casinos, etc.)
At a real-money poker site, you deposit funds into your player account, and you put that money on the line in direct competition in cash games and tournaments. You and all other players are competing for your money and their money.
For example, you might deposit $1,000 at a real-money poker site, then buy into a $200 tournament. That $200 goes directly to the prize pool and tournament fees collected by the site.
At a sweepstakes poker site, you don’t directly compete for cash. At ClubWPT, you purchase a monthly subscription, which grants you access to tournaments that award sweepstakes credits that can be redeemed for cash.
The top prizes up for grabs at ClubWPT include “Passports” (buy-in plus travel stipend) to World Poker Tour live events, and travel packages for WPT Voyage cruises.
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Are Offshore Poker Sites Safe?
If you’ve searched for a legal online poker site that you can play on from the U.S., you’ve likely come across a few sites that appear to offer legal online poker games in North Carolina.
These sites might look legit, but you’ll notice that they are not licensed or regulated by any North Carolina gaming agency (or U.S. gaming agency, for that matter).
Any online gambling site that offers access to U.S. players but isn’t licensed by a state gaming regulation agency is operating illegally in the U.S. These sites operate outside of the U.S. in terms of both legal jurisdiction and physical location.
Offshore poker sites should be avoided for the following reasons:
Illegal Financial Transactions
The first step toward playing online poker at any site is to either make a deposit or purchase a subscription.
If you’ve ever visited an offshore gambling site, you’ve likely noticed that deposit and withdrawal options are pretty limited. It’s often nearly impossible to deposit using a bank account or debit/credit card, and cryptocurrency is often the only way to get money onto the site.
If you do manage to get a deposit through with a traditional banking method, that deposit will often appear on your bank statement as a purchase from an online store you’ve never heard of. The name of the poker site is nowhere to be found in the transaction description.
If a poker site has to disguise the nature of your deposit, that’s not a good sign.
When you purchase a subscription at ClubWPT, that transaction will clearly appear on your bank statement as a purchase from ClubWPT.
Your Money And Personal Information Is In Danger At Offshore Poker Sites
All of the online poker sites in the WPT family operate with a keen interest in protecting the money and personal information of players.
If you deposit at an offshore/illegal poker site, you’re giving your banking information, personal information, and your money to an illegal gambling operation that breaks U.S. laws by offering games in the United States.
There’s no telling where or with whom your information might end up once an offshore gambling site has it.
When you request a withdrawal from an offshore poker site, you’re requesting money from a gambling operation that has no legal obligation to send your funds.
Offshore poker sites operate illegally, and any time you deposit at such a site, that could be the last time you see that money.
Offshore Poker Sites Lack Player Security
While offshore poker sites appear to offer legit cash games and tournaments, they’re also consistently filled 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 install the necessary security measures to eliminate these types of activities.
Offshore sites have little or no incentive to ensure the security of its players and 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.
North Carolina Poker FAQ
Can I play online poker in North Carolina?
Yes. While regulated real-money poker sites aren’t currently available in NC, you can play online poker legally at sweepstakes poker rooms like ClubWPT.
There doesn’t appear to be any online poker legislation on the horizon in North Carolina, so sweepstakes poker remains the best option for online poker players in the Tarheel State.
Is online gambling legal in North Carolina?
No. While U.S. gaming laws allow states to offer certain forms of online gambling, North Carolina hasn’t given the green light to any form of real-money online gambling.
The state did legalize sports betting at two tribal casinos located in NC. You can only bet in person, however.
What is the best legal online poker site available in NC?
ClubWPT tops the list of legal online poker sites available to North Carolina players. ClubWPT operates as a sweepstakes poker room, putting it in a different legal category than real-money online poker sites.
The sweepstakes tournaments at ClubWPT are available via monthly subscription. Those tournaments award sweepstakes credits that are redeemable for cash, as well as prizes like entries into WPT live events, WPT Voyage Cruises, and more.
Is ClubWPT legal in North Carolina?
Yes. You can play in the sweepstakes tournaments at ClubWPT in 36 states, and North Carolina is on that list.
ClubWPT is one of the most popular online poker sites in the U.S. The sweepstakes tournaments at ClubWPT award substantial cash and prizes.
Are offshore poker sites legal?
No. Offshore poker sites operate in the United States illegally and should be avoided.
Your money, personal information, and financial information might not be safe at an offshore poker site. Additionally, you can expect the games to be riddled with unethical activity, including cheating, bots, multi-accounting, ghosting, and collusion.
Best North Carolina Poker Site
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