Top 5 Poker Sites with the Most Traffic When it comes to the size of online poker rooms, there are the top 4 and then everyone else. The single biggest site – PokerStars.com – dwarf their rivals, with incredible peaks of more than 200,000 concurrent players. Carbon Poker has experienced a slowdown in cashouts as of late and has apparently dropped off the tracking radar of PokerScout.com. The last of the unregulated sites include the Equity Poker Network (150) and Revolution (100). EPN has seen player traffic reduced 21% from 190, many of whom likely headed over to WPN.

Poker is one of the most popular games in the world, and not just because of the cash prizes. It’s attractive to many people because it’s simple to learn but has an incredibly high skill ceiling. That is, it can take a lifetime to master given the multiple layers of complexity present in every hand. While poker is usually a face-to-face game, the Internet now allows people to experience the freedom and flexibility of playing legal online poker in the US.

However, the US regulates online gambling strictly in general. It can be challenging to understand in which states online poker is legal. Some states now allow classic games for cash, but most still only allow sweepstakes games for virtual coins.

The online poker market is indeed expanding and is likely to become even more varied in the future. Here we will go over where you can currently play online poker, where it’s likely to expand to next, and what kinds of poker you can play on the Internet.

Best Online Poker Sites In The United States

Global Poker – Best Online Poker For Cash Prizes – Available in all states except Washington
WSOP.com – NV, NJ
PokerStars – NJ, PA
partypoker – BetMGM & Borgata Poker NJ

States With Legal Online Poker In The US

Michigan – coming soon
West Virginia – coming soon

Best Online Poker For Cash Prizes (All States Except WA)

Best Online Poker For Cash Prizes

on Global Poker's Website

Available on Web Browser, iOS & Android

Best Online Poker For Cash Prizes

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Global Poker is the world’s biggest online poker site. Operating under the sweepstakes model like Chumba Casino and LuckyLand, poker players from 49 states can play poker online for cash prizes. Global Poker offers cash games, tournaments, and sit n gos round the clock.

What Are Sweepstakes Poker Sites, And Why Should I Try Them?

Sweepstakes poker sites are online poker services where you can play poker with other people without competing for real money. This circumvents the illegal gambling laws in place in most states. Gambling laws in these states explicitly forbid games of chance where there’s real money on the line. Since sweepstakes games don’t have real money on the line, they’re technically not illegal.

Many people who are residents of states that don’t allow online poker games for money can still enjoy playing sweepstakes poker. Even better, sweepstakes will still let you to earn money or other prizes depending on how their sweepstakes coin plan works.

How Sweepstakes Poker Sites Work

Sweepstakes poker sites provide players with free “Sweeps Coins” or other types of play money coins. Sweeps Coins are usually free, although players can also buy additional virtual currency to bet with via the poker interface. The coins are for playing poker and replace chips or real money.

After you finish playing on a sweepstakes poker site, you can exchange your coins or virtual money for cash prizes or other rewards.

Most Popular Sweepstakes Poker Sites

By far, the most popular sweepstakes poker site is Global Poker. They use a sweepstakes model for individual hands and all their tournaments. Players can purchase “Gold Coins” and then get Sweeps Coins as a reward that they can use in their poker games.

Global Poker is popular because of the variety of tournaments they offer, including multi-table or multi-day options. It does, however, only have a few different poker games for you to partake in: No-Limit Texas Hold ’em and Pot-Limit Omaha. That being said, they’re still a great choice for newcomers, especially since you get 5,000 free Gold Coins as soon as you verify your email address. This is a significant sign-up bonus.

What States Have Legal Poker Sites Today?

Although poker is arguably one of the most traditional card games in the US, laws governing online poker are much stricter than you might think. Most states heavily regulate gambling to the extent that several, like Texas, don’t allow you to play for money at all for most types of games.

One of the most highly regulated games is online poker. At this time, there are only four states that allow you to play poker online for real money: New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Nevada, and Delaware. It follows that players on online poker websites can play only with people from one of these four states, thereby limiting the player pool.

Three of the states (New Jersey, Nevada, and Delaware) share online poker rooms because of deals struck between poker site companies. Let’s take a closer look at each of the states that allow online poker.

New Jersey Online Poker

New Jersey is a great place to play online poker because it has a huge population of digital gamblers. In other words, it’s relatively easy to find full tables.

Furthermore, some poker providers allow New Jersey players to compete with players from other states that allow online poker. Gamblers in New Jersey are fortunate enough to be able to jump into games at almost any time of day without much effort.

World Series of Poker (WSOP) – Partnered with the Caesar’s Casino Atlantic City organization, 888 Poker provides New Jersey’s WSOP with poker rooms. It’s a great option for many, especially with free promotions like $20 for new sign-ups popping up all the time.
PokerStars NJ – This latecomer to New Jersey’s online poker party, joining in 2016, is now one of the biggest online poker providers in the US. They’re a partner of Resorts Casino and have a pretty good site layout with innovative software and great table selections. Several sign-up bonuses make it an awesome deal for those looking to try out a new site.
PartyPoker – PartyPoker is another provider in New Jersey. It offers new players a $25 no deposit bonus and a $1000 match bonuses on the first deposit. It has a reputation for having lots of tables for both amateur and casual players. However, they also offer several more serious tournaments.

Pennsylvania Online Poker

Online gambling has been legal in Pennsylvania for some time, including casinos, lottery games, and sportsbooks. Online poker, introduced in 2019, is actually the most recent addition to the state’s collection of online gambling options. Originally launched in partnership with PokerStars, online poker providers now also include PartyPoker and WSOP.

Online poker in Pennsylvania officially became legal in October 2017 thanks to Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf. This new state law allowed online gambling activities like casino games, sportsbooks, and poker. Brick-and-mortar casinos were able to then pursue different licenses for online play.

Pennsylvania online poker games allow you to play for real cash. You can join tournaments or single games with player pools derived from Pennsylvania and other licensed states. Since its legalization, online poker in Pennsylvania has exploded in popularity.

World Series of Poker (WSOP) – Online competitors will soon be able to play poker in Pennsylvania through WSOP, which will be supported by 888’s poker software. WSOP is a partner of Harrah’s Casino. It won’t have shared player pools and will be for use within Pennsylvania only.
PokerStars – PokerStars was actually the first online poker site in Pennsylvania, officially launching in 2019. It offers tournaments and several varieties of poker for online gamblers to enjoy.

Nevada Online Poker

Despite its notoriety as the home of flashy gambling capital Las Vegas, Nevada doesn’t have a whole lot of online poker providers. Currently, Caesar’s Entertainment offers online poker branded with the WSOP logo. Players can take advantage of WSOP events running from May to early July every year.

The only downside is that Nevada itself doesn’t have a large population. So, you’ll probably need to join a pool with players from other licensed states.

That said, Nevada’s online poker offerings are

Online Poker Room Traffic