Texas is the birthplace of the world’s most popular poker game, Texas Hold’em. You won’t find many legal Texas online poker sites available in the Lone Star State, however.
This WPT.com guide reviews the current status of online poker in Texas, including the best options for Texas players looking for a legitimate, legal online poker platform.
While Texas doesn’t currently allow access to full-scale real-money poker sites, you can play on legal sweepstakes poker sites in the state.
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ClubWPT is the top sweepstakes poker platform available in Texas, and this guide includes an in-depth review of ClubWPT.
Best Texas Poker Site
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Is Online Poker Legal In Texas?
Texas laws don’t allow any form of online gambling. While several other states allow online sports betting, and a few offer legal online casinos and poker, Texas explicitly outlaws all forms of online gambling.
Live poker rooms thrive in Texas, operating as social poker clubs. While Texas plays host to one of the most vibrant live poker economies in the U.S., online poker options are quite limited.
The lack of legal options makes playing online poker in Texas somewhat difficult. While Texas poker players don’t enjoy access to full-scale legal online poker rooms for now, they do have access to sweepstakes poker sites.
Is Online Poker Legal In The United States?
Federal gambling laws allow each U.S. state to legalize online poker (along with online sports betting and online casinos) if it wishes to do so.
Some states offer a robust selection of regulated online gaming formats. If you go to Pennsylvania, for instance, you’ll have access to legal real-money online poker, as well as online sports betting and online casinos.
Michigan and New Jersey both offer a similar slate of regulated online gaming options.
Only a few of states, however, offer legal online poker sites. While more than half of U.S. states allow online sports betting, real-money online poker sites remain scarce in most of the U.S.
The “poker boom” era of the 2000s in the U.S was a time when you could play poker online at numerous online sites, no matter where you were located in the country. That came to an end in 2011, when the U.S. Department of Justice cracked down on poker sites that were operating illegally in the U.S.
While online poker has yet to return to the peak years of the 2000s, sweepstakes gaming sites allow U.S. poker players to enjoy the game they love online.
Best Texas Online Poker Sites
Gaming insiders expect Texas to eventually emerge as one of the biggest online gambling economies in the U.S., and in the world for that matter.
With a 31-million population and a storied poker tradition, Texas is certainly a prime candidate to host a thriving online poker scene. Many legal hurdles remain for regulated online poker to become a reality in Texas, however.
Sweepstakes poker sites are legal in Texas right now, however, and offer the best way for Texas poker players to enjoy the game legally. Read on for more on the legal status of sweepstakes poker and how sweepstakes gaming sites operate.
ClubWPT operates under the sweepstakes gaming model. An official product of the World Poker Tour, ClubWPT currently operates as the best legal online poker room available in Texas.
ClubWPT
ClubWPT operates a legal sweepstakes poker site, owned by the World Poker Tour. ClubWPT doesn’t run real-money poker games in the traditional sense (like its international counterpart WPT Global, for example).
The ClubWPT platform operates as a sweepstakes poker site. You’ll find free-to-play (aka social or play money) poker games at ClubWPT, accessible to anyone in the U.S.
You’ll also find sweepstakes poker tournaments at ClubWPT, and those tournaments award cash and prizes. The prizes include entries into World Poker Tour live events, WPT Voyage packages, and more.
ClubWPT Sign-Up Link
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How Does ClubWPT Work?
You can access the sweepstakes games at ClubWPT through monthly subscriptions.
The subscription fee grants you unlimited access to the sweepstakes games in your subscription tier, with no additional buy-ins required.
ClubWPT’s sweepstakes tournaments award more than $100,000 in cash and prizes per month.
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 tiers at ClubWPT are as follows:
- VIP ($27.95 per month, access to all VIP tournaments)
- Diamond ($149.95 per month, access to all Diamond and VIP tournaments)
- Super SATurdays ($100 add-on per month, access to Super SATurdays satellite tournaments)
VIP Tournaments
The most affordable subscription on ClubWPT is the VIP tier. The VIP subscription allows access to all tournaments under the VIP filter at ClubWPT.
VIP tournaments use Tournament Points (TP) as the buy-in currency. You get 500 TP when you sign up for a subscription, and your TP balance reloads each day.
Tournaments in the VIP tier award TP (so you can “buy-in” to more VIP Tournaments), cash, and prizes.
A typical VIP tournament looks like this:
- Tournament Name: $1,000 Mountain
- Buy-In: 400TP
- Prize Pool: $1,000 USD + 202,500 TP Guaranteed
- First Place: $150 USD + 2,000 TP
You can also find freeroll tournaments (aka zero TP buy-in tournaments) in the VIP tier that award TP, cash, and prizes.
Diamond Tournaments
Diamond-tier subscribers get access to all Diamond-level tournaments, in addition to all VIP tournaments.
Diamond tournaments award the biggest prizes available at ClubWPT, making the Diamond subscription the best value available among the sweepstakes games.
Diamond subscribers get unlimited entries into Diamond Tournaments, with no Tournament Points required to buy in to a tournament.
All of the tournaments on the Diamond level operate as freerolls in a sense, though you do have to pay the monthly subscription to get access.
Like in the VIP tier, Diamond tournaments award cash and prizes to tournament winners. The cash amounts and prizes available are substantially larger than what’s awarded in VIP Tournaments.
A typical Diamond Tournament could look like this:
- Tournament Name: $5,000 Cash Guarantee
- Buy-In: Freeroll (unlimited entry for Diamond subscribers)
- Prize Pool: $5,000 USD + 541,000 TP Guaranteed
- First Place: $1,000 USD + 5,000 TP
You can also find many opportunities to win entry into a WPT live event on the Diamond level. Most of the tournaments in this tier award cash and VIP Tournament Points, with a World Poker Tour 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 WPT Prime tournament):
- Tournament Name: $2,500 WPT Prime Championship Passport + $500
- Buy-In: Freeroll (unlimited entry for Diamond subscribers)
- Prize Pool: $3,000 USD + 467,500 TP Guaranteed
- First Place: $2,500 WPT Prime Passport + 5,000 TP
Diamond subscribers enjoy access to both the Diamond and the VIP tier, and the TP earned in Diamond tournaments can be used in VIP tournaments.
ClubWPT Sign-Up Link
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$125,000 WPT World Championship Challenge
One of the biggest tournaments on the ClubWPT schedule is the $125,000 WPT World Championship Challenge. The details for this special event look like this:
- Tournament Name: $125,000 WPT World Championship Challenge
- Buy-In: Entries must qualify through other ClubWPT events
- Prize Pool: $125,000 USD
- First Place: WPT Event Package $12,000
The first-place prize for this event is a $12,000 package that sends you to the annual WPT World Championship in Las Vegas.
You must qualify through other tournaments on ClubWPT to get a spot in the $125,000 WPT World Championship Challenge. Most of the qualifiers that allow you to win your way into the $125,000 WPT World Championship Challenge are in the Diamond tier.
Is ClubWPT A Real Money Online Poker Site?
ClubWPT doesn’t operate as a real-money online poker site in the traditional sense.
The site operates as a sweepstakes gaming platform, running poker tournaments that award cash and prizes.
You compete against your opponents for your money and their money at a traditional real-money poker site. Legal real-money poker sites can only operate in U.S. states that explicitly legalize and regulate online poker.
At ClubWPT, players pay a monthly subscription fee that grants access to online poker tournaments awarding cash and prizes. The cash and prizes available in these tournaments are awarded as sweepstakes prizes.
This format allows ClubWPT to operate as a sweepstakes gaming site, which falls under a different legal category than a real-money poker site. Keep reading for more on how sweepstakes poker sites operate.
How Do I Sign Up At ClubWPT?
You can sign up for a ClubWPT account from anywhere in the U.S. You can only play the sweepstakes games for cash and prizes if you’re in one of 36 eligible states however.
Texas is on the list of states that allow access to the sweepstakes poker games at ClubWPT.
Here’s how Texas poker players can sign up for a ClubWPT account:
- Click the sign-up link in any of the ClubWPT ads in this article.
- Click the green “Sign-Up” button at the top right of the ClubWPT home page
- Enter a valid email, choose a username and password, and click “Continue”
- Enter your name, DoB, and physical address, and choose a security question and answer.
- 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.
If you’re located in Texas, you’re in luck, as the ClubWPT sweepstakes games are accessible to you (as long as you’re physically located in Texas while you play).
ClubWPT Sign-Up Link
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How Do Sweepstakes Poker Sites Work?
ClubWPT doesn’t operate as a traditional real-money poker site. The cash and prizes available in the VIP and Diamond tournaments are offered under a sweepstakes gaming model.
Sweepstakes gaming sites are legal in most U.S. states. Sweepstakes poker sites like ClubWPT fall under a different legal category than real-money poker sites.
At a traditional real-money poker site, players deposit money and use that money as currency in cash games and tournaments. When a player withdraws winnings from their account at a real-money poker site, the withdrawal usually involves a direct cash transfer from the player’s balance to the player’s bank account.
At ClubWPT, players can compete for cash and prizes, but direct cash deposits and withdrawals don’t take place. All prizes awarded in ClubWPT tournaments are sweepstakes prizes.
Those prizes include sweepstakes credits that can be redeemed for cash, travel packages for WPT Voyage luxury cruises, and even seats to WPT Main Tour events.
Is It Safe To Play At Offshore Poker Sites?
If you’ve tried to find an online poker site that you can play on in Texas, you might have found a few sites that seem to offer legitimate online poker games for real money.
These sites try to give the impression that they’re legal, regulated and approved by Texas gambling laws. Don’t be fooled though; these offshore poker sites operate illegally in the United States.
Take a look at the following reasons that you shouldn’t play on these illegal online gambling sites:
Offshore Poker Sites Conduct Illegal Financial Transactions
When you look at the deposit methods at an offshore poker site, those options are often quite limited.
Many illegal sites only allow deposits and withdrawals using cryptocurrency. When a poker site doesn’t let you put money in your account using USD, that’s generally not a good sign.
If you do get to make a deposit using your bank account or a credit/debit card, that deposit will often show up on your bank statement as a purchase from an online store you’ve never heard of. In other words, your online poker deposit is showing up as something you bought from an online shopping outlet, often in a foreign country.
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 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 money, financial information, and personal information.
If you give your bank account or debit card number to an offshore poker site, there’s no telling where or with whom that information might end up.
If you try to withdraw from an offshore gambling site, you’re requesting money from an operation that has no legal obligation to send your funds. If you find yourself on the wrong end of a denied withdrawal, you have no legal way to file a complaint and get your money.
Offshore poker sites operate illegally, and any time you deposit at such a site, that could be the last time you see that money.
Player Security Is Questionable At Offshore Poker Sites
Many offshore poker sites are known for bots (i.e. computer automated “poker players”), player collusion, multi-accounting (players operating multiple screen names at the same time), and ghosting (players controlling another player’s account).
The games at offshore poker sites can be rife with illegal and unethical activity. Offshore sites are often in no hurry to implement the security measures needed to find and punish bad actors.
Offshore online poker sites have one goal – taking deposits from players. You can’t expect much player security once they have your money.
Texas Online Poker Sites FAQ
Can I play online poker in Texas?
Yes. While full-scale, regulated, real-money online poker isn’t legal, Texas players can play on sweepstakes poker sites.
ClubWPT is the best option for sweepstakes poker in Texas. A monthly subscription at ClubWPT gets you unlimited access to sweepstakes tournaments.
ClubWPT’s sweepstakes tournaments award more than $100,000 in cash and prizes per month, including entries to live World Poker Tour events.
Is ClubWPT legal in Texas?
Yes. ClubWPT is legal in Texas, including both the sweepstakes games and the free-to-play games.
The sweepstakes tournaments at ClubWPT are available via monthly subscription, and award cash and prizes.
Is WPT Global allowed in Texas?
No. WPT Global, the world’s top real-money poker site, unfortunately isn’t legal in Texas or any other US state.
WPT Global is available in more than 100 countries, but isn’t legal in the United States at this time.
Are offshore poker sites legal?
No. Offshore poker sites operate outside of any US laws and regulations and should be avoided. You can’t count on things like player security, game integrity, and legal, secure payouts at an offshore poker site.
When will Texas legalize online poker?
Full-scale, legal online poker probably isn’t getting the green light in Texas any time soon.
The Lone Star State hosts a vibrant live poker scene, with Texas poker clubs thriving across the state. For legal TX online poker sites to become a reality, however, state legislators and possibly Texas voters would have to agree on a legal framework.
That process could take many years to come to fruition. For now, Texas players do have access to a great online sweepstakes poker site, ClubWPT.
Best Texas Poker Site
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