Welcome to the WPT.com guide to Illinois online poker! This article aims to clarify the legality of online poker in Illinois, and direct Illinois players to the best legal poker sites available in the state.
As this article will discuss, sweepstakes poker is currently the only legal form of online poker available in Illinois. ClubWPT operates as the top sweepstakes poker platform that’s legal in the Prairie State.
Read on for an overview of Illinois poker laws, as well as a thorough review of ClubWPT.
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Is Online Poker Legal In Illinois?
Full-scale, real-money online poker currently isn’t legal in Illinois. While Illinois hosts one of the biggest online sports betting economies in the nation, state lawmakers have yet to legalize online poker.
The status of online gambling in Illinois mirrors that of many other US states. Each state can legalize online poker, online casinos, and online sports betting, but many states have only given the green light to online sports betting so far.
If regulated online poker ever does arrive in Illinois, it will likely come as part of a package that also includes the legalization of online casinos.
While real-money online poker isn’t legally available in the state, Illinois poker players can access legal sweepstakes poker sites. Sweepstakes poker sites don’t function the same way as real money online poker sites, but you can win cash and prizes at these poker rooms.
ClubWPT stands as the top sweepstakes poker site available in Illinois. The sweepstakes tournaments at ClubWPT award cash, as well as prizes like entries into World Poker Tour live events, travel packages for WPT Voyage Cruises, and more.
Is Online Poker Legal In The United States?
In 2018, the US government repealed an act known as PASPA, the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act. The implementation of PASPA effectively made sports betting illegal across the US, with a couple of exceptions (including Nevada).
The fall of PASPA ushered in a new era of online gambling across the nation. US states now have the option to legalize online sports betting if they wish.
Along with online sports wagering, US states can also legalize online poker and online casinos. While more than half of US states have legalized online sports betting, only a handful have legalized online poker and casinos.
Around eight states currently offer access to legal online poker. In these states, all online poker sites are licensed and regulated by state gaming regulation agencies.
If you’re in one of the other 40+ states without regulated online poker, you’re still in luck though. Sweepstakes gaming sites are legal in most US states, including Illinois.
Best Illinois Online Poker Sites
ClubWPT is the best sweepstakes poker site available to Illinois players. While you don’t directly compete for money at ClubWPT, you can play for cash and prizes in sweepstakes tournaments.
Keep reading for more on how ClubWPT works and what it has to offer for Illinois players.
ClubWPT
ClubWPT is a sweepstakes poker platform owned and operated by the World Poker Tour. Players in 36 states can play for cash and prizes in the sweepstakes tournaments at ClubWPT.
The ClubWPT platform runs two types of games – free-to-play (Play Chips) games and sweepstakes games.
The Play Chips games are available in all 50 states. These play money games offer the opportunity to hone your poker skills with no monterary risk involved. You can also play free online casino games at ClubWPT.
The sweepstakes tournaments at ClubWPT are available via monthly subscription. These games are available in 36 states, including Illinois.
You can access the sweepstakes tournaments by purchasing one of two different subscription tiers. You can also purchase an add-on subscription allowing access to special Saturday satellite tournaments.
The subscription levels at ClubWPT break down 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)
The sweepstakes tournaments at ClubWPT award more than $100,000 in prizes each month. Game formats include Texas Hold’em, Pot-Limit Omaha, and Pot-Limit Omaha Hi-Lo.
VIP Tournaments
The VIP level is the lowest-priced subscription tier at ClubWPT. This tier allows access to all tournaments under the VIP tab.
VIP tournaments use Tournament Points (TP) for buy-in currency. You begin your journey at ClubWPT with 500 TP when you sign up for a subscription.
Your TP balance reloads each day. The VIP tier tournaments award TP, 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’ll also find plenty of freerolls in the VIP tier, awarding TP, cash, and prizes. VIP freerolls don’t require TP to enter.
Diamond Tournaments
The Diamond-level subscription grants access to all Diamond-tier tournaments, as well as all VIP-tier tournaments. The Diamond-level tournaments award the biggest prizes available at ClubWPT, making it the best overall value among the sweepstakes tiers.
Unlike VIP Tournaments, which require Tournament Points to enter, Diamond subscribers get unlimited entries into Diamond Tournaments.
There’s no buy-in currency required for Diamond Tournaments, which are open for entry on an uncapped basis for subscribers to this tier. These 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 amounts and prizes available are significantly larger in the Diamond tier, however.
A typical Diamond Tournament looks 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
Diamond tournaments also offer opportunities to win entry into World Poker Tour live events. Many of these tournaments 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:
- 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
Note that 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
One of the biggest events at ClubWPT is the $125,000 WPT World Championship Challenge. The details for this special tournament 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 tournament is a $12,000 package that sends you to the annual WPT World Championship in Las Vegas.
This $125,000 WPT World Championship Challenge isn’t an open-enrollment event; you can only qualify for it through other tournaments on ClubWPT.
Most of the tournaments that allow you to qualify for the $125,000 WPT World Championship Challenge are in the Diamond tier.
Is ClubWPT A Real Money Online Poker Site?
ClubWPT does not funtion as a traditional real-money online poker site. It operates as a sweepstakes gaming site, with subscription-based poker tournaments that award cash and prizes.
You don’t deposit money or directly compete for cash at ClubWPT. There are substantial cash and prizes on the line, however.
ClubWPT awards more than $100,000 in cash and prizes every month. The flagship tournament on ClubWPT, the $125,000 WPT World Championship Challenge, awards $125,000 in total cash and prizes alone.
The grand 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.
Illinois 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:
- 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 free-to-play cash games and tournaments are open to all U.S. players, without a subscription required.
To play the VIP and Diamond games, 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 Illinois, you’re in luck, as the ClubWPT sweepstakes games are accessible to you (as long as you’re physically located in Illinois while you play).
ClubWPT Sign-Up Link
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How Do Sweepstakes Poker Sites Work?
As mentioned, ClubWPT doesn’t operate as a traditional real-money poker site.
The cash and prizes available in ClubWPT’s subscription-based tournaments are awarded under a sweepstakes gaming model.
Sweepstakes gaming is legal in more than 40 U.S. states. Sweepstakes poker rooms like ClubWPT are classified in a different legal category than real-money poker sites.
At a traditional real-money poker site, players deposit money for direct use cash games and tournaments. For example, you might deposit $1,000 and and buy into a tournament for $200.
When you withdraw winnings from a real-money poker site, the withdrawal involves a direct cash transfer of some kind.
At ClubWPT, players can compete for cash and prizes, but you don’t execute direct cash deposits ord withdrawals. All prizes awarded in ClubWPT’s tournaments are sweepstakes prizes.
Those prizes include sweepstakes credits that can be redeemed for cash, luxury packages to WPT Voyage cruises, and even seats to WPT Main Tour events.
Is It Safe To Play At Offshore Poker Sites?
If you’ve tried to find a legal online poker site that you can access from Illinois, you might have found a few sites that appear to offer legit online poker games for real money.
These sites might seem to operate as legal online poker rooms. It’s important to realize, however, that offshore online poker sites that operate in the United States are doing so illegally .
Here are three reasons that Illinois poker players should avoid offshore/illegal gambling sites:
Offshore Poker Sites Conduct Illegal Financial Transactions
If you visit an offshore poker site, you’ll find that payment options are generally pretty limited.
Many of these sites essentially only allow deposits and withdrawals using cryptocurrency. If you can’t deposit USD in your account at an online poker room, that’s generally a bad sign.
If you do manage to get a deposit through using a bank account or credit/debit card, that transaction will often show up as a purchase from an online shopping outlet you’ve never heard of in a foreign country. Offshore gambling sites often try to disguise the true nature of a deposit, trying to fool your bank 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 keen 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 try to withdraw money from an offshore poker site, you’re requesting funds from an illegal operation with no legal obligation to send you your money. If you find yourself on the wrong end of a denied withdrawal, you have no legal way to file a complaint and recoup your money.
Offshore poker sites operate illegally, and any time you play at such a site, that could be the last time you see your money.
Player Security Is Questionable At Offshore Poker Sites
Offshore poker sites are quite often infested with bots (aka computer automated “poker players”), player collusion, multi-accounting, and ghosting.
The games at offshore poker sites are frequently 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.
Illinois Online Poker Sites FAQ
Can I play online poker in Illinois?
While regulated online poker isn’t yet available in Illinois, sweepstakes poker sites are your best option for playing poker online legally in the Prarie State.
The top Illinois sweepstakes poker site is ClubWPT. You can purchase a monthly subscription at ClubWPT and get access to sweepstakes poker tournament with cash and prizes on the line.
You can begin the sign-up process by clicking on any of the “CLAIM OFFER” links in this guide.
Is online gambling legal in Illinois?
Online sports betting is currently the only form of real money online gambling available in Illinois.
If you’re looking for a legal alternative to regulated online poker, sweepstakes poker sites are your best bet. ClubWPT is the top sweepstakes poker room currently available in Illinois.
Can I play online poker in Illinois with a VPN?
Playing online poker with a VPN is against the terms and conditions of most online poker sites. We don’t recommend using a VPN to play on poker sites that aren’t available in Illinois.
If a poker site determines that you’re using a VPN to play poker online at their site illegally, you stand to lose all winnings incurred while playing on the VPN.
Is ClubWPT legal in Illinois?
Yes. ClubWPT is legal in Illinois, including the subcription-based sweepstakes tournaments. The sweepstakes tournaments at ClubWPT award cash and prizes, including entries into WPT live events, WPT Voyage Cruise packages, and more.
ClubWPT tops the list of best online poker sites currently available in Illinois.
Is there an Illinois online poker bill?
There are currently a couple of online poker bills active in the current Illinois legislative session. These bills have until January 2025 to pass. If they don’t pass by then, online poker legalization is off the table in Illinois until the next legislative session.
Best Illinois Poker Site
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