Somewhere in Las Vegas there is a mailbox, Unit 8179 at 848 North Rainbow Boulevard, that receives handwritten 3-inch by 5-inch index cards from poker players. Each card carries a username, a name, an address, an email and a date of birth, one card per envelope, no photocopies, no metered mail. Post one and, per ClubGG's Terms of Service, you get 30 days of entry into tournaments that pay out $1,700 WSOP Circuit tickets, without paying the $9.99 or $49.99 monthly membership everyone else pays. That mailbox is the single most important legal fact about ClubGG in the United States, and almost nobody who plays on the app knows it exists.
"Is ClubGG legal in the US" is a harder question than the same question about any other club app, because ClubGG is three different businesses wearing one icon: a play-money club platform with agents settling cash off-app, a paid membership scheme that hands out real tournament tickets under sweepstakes rules, and a back-office product it sells to the unions themselves. Each layer sits under a different body of law, and your state has an opinion on all three. This guide takes them one at a time, then gives every state its own entry with the statute linked and a plain answer up front. We play in these clubs and we are not lawyers, so read it as a detailed map, not advice. For how the clubs themselves work, our ClubGG review and club list covers the practical side; this piece is about the law. Click your state on the map or in the list to go straight there.
One app, three businesses
Start with what the App Store sells. The ClubGG Poker listing is published by NSUS Limited, rated 18+, and its in-app purchases are a tell: WSOP+ Premium at $49.99, WSOP+ Basic at $9.99, diamond packs from $0.99 to $99.99, and a "Club Level" purchase at $19.99. Nothing on that list is a poker chip you can cash out, and the clubgg.com footer says so in capitals: "NO PURCHASE NECESSARY to enter Sweepstakes", tournament tickets "have no monetary value", and any reference to "pots", "limits" or "betting" is "solely for instructional or illustrative purposes". Section 7 of the terms is titled, in full, "FREE PLAY ONLY".
Now look at what the same company sells to the other side of the table. The ClubGG for Unions page advertises "120+ active unions" and "2M+ users", and offers a Union Back Office to "manage players, agents, games and activity from one place", priced by the number of affiliated clubs: the plan for up to 50 clubs is quoted at $5,000 a month, which works out to $100 per club per month (5,000 divided by 50). There is a "Limits Allocation" module and a "Performance & Reports" module. Whatever a union is doing with its agents, ClubGG is selling it the dashboard to do it with, and its media guideline then forbids those clubs from "publicly advertising or promoting real-money gambling or any tools that facilitate it, such as payment methods (e.g., crypto, bank transfer, mobile payment)". Both things are true. Understanding how they coexist is the whole article.
Play-money tables inside clubs and unions. Chips have no value in the app. Agents convert them to and from cash outside it. Governed by state gambling statutes and, for operators, federal law.
Monthly memberships or a mailed index card buy entry to tournaments paying WSOP Circuit tickets. Structured as a sweepstakes; unavailable in 14 states by ClubGG's own terms.
A subscription dashboard sold to unions to manage clubs, players and agents, from $5,000 a month for 50 clubs. Software-as-a-service, with a media guideline that keeps real money off the marketing.
The sweepstakes layer, and why there is a mailbox
American sweepstakes law rests on a three-legged stool that every promotions lawyer can recite in their sleep: a game is illegal gambling when it combines consideration (you pay), chance (the outcome is not fully in your control) and a prize (you can win something of value). Remove any leg and the stool falls over. Lotteries are the state's monopoly on all three legs at once; a sweepstakes survives by sawing off the consideration leg, which is why a cereal box says "no purchase necessary" and why ClubGG's terms open with "NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. A PURCHASE WILL NOT IMPROVE YOUR CHANCE OF WINNING."
The memberships are the consideration. Section 17 of the terms authorises recurring charges of "$9.99/month for WSOP+ Basic, $49.99/month for WSOP+ Premium", and Premium fees are "NOT REFUNDABLE IN WHOLE OR IN PART FOR ANY REASON". Section 9(d) is the saw: the "OFFLINE, NO-PURCHASE-NECESSARY, METHOD OF ENTRY" that sends free members to the Rainbow Boulevard mailbox with their index card, one registration per person per 30-day period, and gives them "access to any Site Tournaments on the Site" for that month. A lawyer would call it an alternative method of entry, or AMOE. The terms themselves acknowledge the reasoning in a footnote most players will never scroll to: "It is possible that the Site Tournaments could be deemed to be 'sweepstakes' under the laws of one or more U.S. states. As a result, these Terms and Conditions comply with those applicable requirements for offering and operating sweepstakes in those jurisdictions."
The prize leg is handled with equal care. The current Road to WSOP Circuit promotion advertises "Over $230K in Monthly Prizes" as "141 WSOP Circuit $1,700 Tickets" (141 times 1,700 is $239,700, so the headline is conservative), with daily qualifiers at 18:00 Eastern on weekdays. The tickets are "non-transferable and non-refundable, and may not be exchanged for cash or any other items of cash value", expire after a year, and can only be used through the WSOP LIVE app for events whose buy-in matches. In other words the prize is real, it is worth $1,700 of tournament entry, and it never becomes money in your hand. Section 14 still reminds you that tax on prizes is your problem, and IRS guidance on gambling winnings does not distinguish between a cheque and a ticket.
WSOP+ tournaments: $9.99 or $49.99 a month, or nothing at all with a mailed index card. The free route is what removes this leg.
Club game via agent: cash or crypto sent to a person who credits chips. This leg is firmly attached.
WSOP+ tournaments: poker tournaments, so yes, whatever your opinion of your own skill edge.
Club game via agent: same game, same answer. Most state definitions say chance "in whole or in part" or "in a material degree".
WSOP+ tournaments: $1,700 Circuit tickets that cannot be sold or cashed. Real value, no cash-out.
Club game via agent: chips the agent has promised to buy back. That promise is the "something of value" every statute is looking for.
The WSOP+ layer stands on two legs, which is legal in most states and precisely why ClubGG can run it openly from an American address. The club-and-agent layer stands on all three, which is why no operator claims it as its own.
Two legs is not zero legs, and states differ on how much of a stool they will tolerate. Montana banned online sweepstakes casinos from 1 October 2025 and Connecticut's legislature defined the target as any promotion using a "dual-currency system of payment", per a June 2025 Snell & Wilmer summary. ClubGG's tickets are not a second currency you can cash out, which puts it on safer ground than the sweepstakes casinos those laws were aimed at, but NSUS clearly read the room. Its terms list fourteen states where Site Tournaments are unavailable: Connecticut, Georgia, Hawaii, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Montana, New Jersey, New York, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Washington. Read that list against the map above and it tracks the states with the strictest sweepstakes or gambling posture (Washington, Montana, Hawaii, South Carolina), the states with their own regulated poker markets to protect (Michigan, New Jersey), and New York, whose promotion rules make sweepstakes lawyers nervous as a matter of habit. Mail-in entries are also refused from those states, so there is no index-card loophole around the list.
The club layer, and the person holding the cash
None of that sweepstakes machinery touches the tables most American ClubGG players actually sit at. Club and union games run on chips the club issues, and the club's agent, a person on Telegram or WhatsApp, sells those chips for dollars or crypto and buys them back when you cash out. The app never sees the transaction; it sees chips moving between accounts, which is what a play-money app is supposed to see. That is the same two-layer structure as PokerBros, and we walked through the federal statutes in detail in our PokerBros state-by-state guide; the short version is that UIGEA is a payments law aimed at "a person engaged in the business of betting or wagering" (31 U.S.C. § 5363), the Illegal Gambling Business Act (18 U.S.C. § 1955) needs five or more people running a business that breaks state law, and the verb list in both is conducts, finances, manages, owns. Neither says plays.
Where ClubGG differs from every other club app is that it does not pretend the agent layer is a rumour. The union page names "agents" as a thing its software manages and bills unions for the privilege. The media guideline then draws the line NSUS actually cares about: clubs may exist, unions may exist, agents may be managed, but nobody may advertise real-money play or a payment method with ClubGG's name attached, and every club promotion must carry, in bold, the sentence that ClubGG "is a free poker client that only offers poker gameplay with play money that doesn't have any monetary value". Call it what it is: a software company keeping the regulated part of the business at arm's length by contract, in writing, with a compliance email address. It is more honest than silence and it changes nothing about who a state prosecutor would look at first, which is the person receiving the Zelle.
The state statutes that matter for club play are the ones that decide whether the person betting is an offender at all. Some codes name the player outright (Florida's "any game at cards ... by any device whatever", Minnesota's "makes a bet"). Some define the player out of the offence entirely (New York, New Jersey, Kentucky, Pennsylvania). A few are written around premises, businesses or income thresholds in ways that fit a phone badly (California, Delaware, Ohio, Montana). Every state's entry below says which, cites the section, and notes whether ClubGG's own terms let you play WSOP+ there, because those two facts together are the answer to the question you typed into Google.
GGPoker's long shadow
ClubGG is operated by NSUS Group Inc., the company behind GGPoker, and that parentage is doing a lot of work in the tournament prizes. In 2024 NSUS bought the World Series of Poker brand from Caesars for $500 million, according to Pokerfuse, which is how a play-money club app can give away WSOP Circuit seats by the hundred. What NSUS does not have is a licence to deal a single real-money hand to an American. The same Pokerfuse report notes that the company "recently withdrew its Pennsylvania license and currently does not hold supplier or manufacturer approvals in any regulated US poker market", the Pennsylvania approval in question being the interactive gaming manufacturer licence the Gaming Control Board granted on 11 February 2021, per Poker Industry PRO. WSOP Online, the regulated US site that carries the brand NSUS now owns, still runs on 888's software.
So ClubGG is, for now, GGPoker's only door into American poker, and it is a side door: a free-play client whose prizes route players into live WSOP Circuit stops rather than into an online cash-game lobby NSUS cannot legally run. That explains the care in the terms, the fourteen excluded states and the media guideline. A company with a $500 million brand to protect and regulated licences to pursue has more to lose from a sloppy sweepstakes than any independent app developer ever will.
ClubGG legality state by state
Fifty entries, alphabetical, each with two facts up front. The first tag says whether ClubGG's own terms let you play WSOP+ Site Tournaments in the state (open, or restricted by ClubGG). The second says how the state's gambling statute treats a person playing a club game for money through an agent: named in statute means the offence is written to include the bettor, whatever the realistic odds of enforcement; not an offender means the code aims only at whoever runs or profits from the game; unclear means the wording does not fit an app player cleanly. Regulated online poker status follows where it exists. Every statute is linked to the legislature or Justia text we read. Penalty classes are quoted; sentencing ranges vary by state and by judge. A map, not advice.
Is ClubGG legal in Alabama?
WSOP+ memberships and their Circuit-ticket tournaments are open to Alabamians; the state is not on ClubGG's restricted list. The club side is where the statute book comes in. Ala. Code § 13A-12-21 calls it simple gambling, a Class C misdemeanor, when a person advances or profits from unlawful gambling "as a player", and the lone defence, a "social game in a private place", assumes nobody is skimming the pot. A club with rake and an agent buying chips back is somebody skimming the pot. The agent's own exposure is promoting gambling under § 13A-12-22. Nothing regulated exists online here.
Is ClubGG legal in Alaska?
No ClubGG restriction applies in Alaska, and the state's treatment of a player is about as gentle as the law gets: Alaska Stat. § 11.66.200 makes engaging in unlawful gambling a violation on a first offence, a fine of up to $1,000 after that, and never a crime for the person in the seat. The social-game defence needs a home game with no house income, which a union club is not. An agent promoting or profiting from the game faces a Class A misdemeanor, climbing to a Class C felony once five or more people run the enterprise. No regulated online poker.
Is ClubGG legal in Arizona?
Arizona is open for WSOP+ play. For club games, the state's offence is oddly specific: A.R.S. § 13-3304 punishes "benefiting from gambling", a Class 1 misdemeanor, so the losing player has technically done nothing the section describes while the winning player has. Social gambling is carved out only where nobody but the players benefits, and Arizona's definition of gambling covers games "of chance or skill", so nobody needs to argue about poker being skilful. The agent is named in § 13-3305 (accepting money to be transmitted for wagering, for a fee), and promotion of gambling is a Class 5 felony. No regulated online poker.
Is ClubGG legal in Arkansas?
Open for WSOP+. Arkansas names poker in its betting statute and then fines the player less than a tournament late-registration fee: § 5-66-112 sets the penalty at "not less than ten dollars ($10.00) nor more than twenty-five dollars ($25.00)", a violation rather than a crime, with no social-game exception in the chapter. The serious charge is keeping a gambling house under § 5-66-103, a Class D felony aimed at whoever runs the room or an agent for it. Losers have 90 days to sue under § 16-118-103. No licensed online poker.
Is ClubGG legal in California?
WSOP+ is open to Californians, which matters in a state with more card-room poker than anywhere else and no online version of it. On the club side, Penal Code § 330 does not list poker; it catches players only when the game is a "banking or percentage game", and a raked club game is the textbook percentage game. § 337j aims at whoever runs an unlicensed "controlled game" and spares home games nobody profits from operating. We found no record of a California online player being prosecuted. Years of online poker bills went nowhere.
Is ClubGG legal in Colorado?
Open for WSOP+. For club games, Colorado files the player under the lowest tier it has: C.R.S. § 18-10-103, "A person who engages in gambling commits a petty offense." The definition reaches anything contingent on chance "in whole or in part", so poker's skill is no exit. The bona fide social relationship exception collapses if anyone involved is a professional gambler, and an agent taking a fee is one by statutory definition, which is a Class 2 misdemeanor for the agent. No regulated online poker.
Is ClubGG legal in Connecticut?
Connecticut is one of the fourteen states ClubGG's own terms exclude from WSOP+ Site Tournaments, so the sweepstakes layer is closed to you here. The club layer is worse than most: Conn. Gen. Stat. § 53-278b makes engaging in gambling a Class B misdemeanor and, unusually, extends the same charge to anyone "present when another person or persons are engaged in gambling". The social exemption requires that no professional gambler is involved. Connecticut legalised online poker in May 2021 and, per Pokerfuse, still has no site running because its tribal partners do not operate poker.
Is ClubGG legal in Delaware?
Open for WSOP+, and one of the six states with licensed online poker (BetRivers Poker, per PokerNews, inside the multi-state pool). Delaware's criminal gambling provisions, 11 Del. C. §§ 1401-1432, cover lottery policy, bookmaking-style wagers on contests "of skill, speed or power of endurance of human or beast", crap games and premises, and contain no general offence for playing cards for money. Applying them to an app player would take some imagination, and nobody appears to have tried. Providing premises and receiving money to bet for another are the agent-side provisions.
Is ClubGG legal in Florida?
Florida is open for WSOP+ and has the largest live poker economy in the country, none of it online. Fla. Stat. § 849.08 makes it a second-degree misdemeanor to play "any game at cards ... at any place, by any device whatever, for money", wording that covers a phone without any help from a modern legislature. The penny-ante exception (§ 849.085) caps winnings at $10 a hand, requires a dwelling and bans any commission. Custodians of staked money face a third-degree felony under § 849.14.
Is ClubGG legal in Georgia?
Georgia is on ClubGG's restricted list. For club play, O.C.G.A. § 16-12-21 treats betting at a card game as a misdemeanor for the person betting, with no home-game defence, and its definition of a bet reaches any bargain resting on chance whether or not skill is also involved. The felony sits in § 16-12-22, commercial gambling, which covers anyone who for gain takes custody of money that has been bet, and carries one to five years. A loser has six months to sue under § 13-8-3. No licensed online poker.
Is ClubGG legal in Hawaii?
Hawaii is restricted for WSOP+ and has no legal gambling of any kind. HRS § 712-1223 makes knowingly participating in any gambling activity a misdemeanor; the affirmative defence in § 712-1231 requires that nobody other than the players receives anything of value and that the game is kept out of businesses and public places. Promoting gambling is a Class C felony, or Class B above $1,000 a week.
Is ClubGG legal in Idaho?
Open for WSOP+. Idaho's definition of gambling names poker outright under casino gambling (§ 18-3801), and § 18-3802 makes participating in it a misdemeanor with no social-game defence anywhere in the chapter. Bookmaking and forwarding money for bets (§ 18-3809) is the agent's section. No licensed online poker.
Is ClubGG legal in Illinois?
Open for WSOP+. Illinois drafted its player offence to skip the argument about skill: 720 ILCS 5/28-1(a)(1) makes it a Class A misdemeanor to knowingly play "a game of chance or skill" for money, and paragraph (a)(12) separately covers whoever operates an internet site for such games. No social exception exists. Illinois also keeps a loss-recovery statute (5/28-8) under which a loser of $50 or more may sue the winner and, after six months, anyone may sue for treble the loss. No licensed online poker.
Is ClubGG legal in Indiana?
Open for WSOP+. Ind. Code § 35-45-5-2 makes knowingly engaging in gambling a Class B misdemeanor, and keeps the Level 6 internet felony in subsection (c) for an "operator", meaning someone who owns or runs a gambling website. There is no social exemption. Taking a fixed share of the stakes in a card game is professional gambling and a Level 6 felony under § 35-45-5-3. No licensed online poker.
Is ClubGG legal in Iowa?
Open for WSOP+, in a state where a club player should know the penalty ladder. Iowa Code § 725.7 prohibits participating "in a game for any sum of money" and grades the offence by amount, from a serious misdemeanor under $100 to a Class C felony above $5,000. The social-gambling exemption in § 99B.45 lists poker but requires players "physically in the presence of each other" and caps anyone at $200 won or lost in 24 hours, so it cannot cover an app. Accepting value "to be wagered" for a fee under § 725.7(1)(c) is the agent's clause. No licensed online poker.
Is ClubGG legal in Kansas?
Open for WSOP+. Kansas keeps its club-game rule to one line: under K.S.A. 21-6404, making a bet is gambling and gambling is a Class B nonperson misdemeanor, and nowhere in the article is there a private-game exception to soften it. The felony sits with commercial gambling in § 21-6406, which covers forwarding bets and holding wagered property for gain, the agent's job description. No licensed online poker.
Is ClubGG legal in Kentucky?
Kentucky lets you into WSOP+ and, on the club side, keeps the bettor out of the criminal code altogether. The structure in KRS 528.010 is borrowed from the Model Penal Code: a "player" bets solely as a contestant and takes nothing but winnings, and Kentucky's offences (528.020 and 528.030) are reserved for people who advance or profit from gambling, so a chip agent taking a percentage is inside the statute and the reg is not. What Kentucky has instead is a civil weapon with a long memory. Under KRS 372.020 a loser can sue the winner for five years, and a third party can step in under 372.040; the Commonwealth used exactly that route against PokerStars and had an $870,690,233.82 judgment restored by the state Supreme Court on 17 December 2020. No licensed online poker exists in the state.
Is ClubGG legal in Louisiana?
Louisiana is restricted for WSOP+. For club play, the state's offences are written around the operator: La. R.S. 14:90.3 defines gambling by computer as conducting or directly assisting in conducting a game "as a business" over the internet, and the base offence in 14:90 has the same structure, so neither describes a person who merely plays. An agent buying and selling chips for a margin arguably assists in the conducting, and the felony for running the servers carries up to five years. No licensed online poker.
Is ClubGG legal in Maine?
Open for WSOP+. Maine's code targets whoever advances or profits from gambling and defines profiting as taking money "other than as a player" under an agreement to share proceeds (17-A M.R.S. § 952), which describes an agent and not a bettor. Its definition of social gambling, a game from which nobody but the players takes "any profit whatsoever", is one a raked club cannot meet. On 11 January 2026, LD 1164 became law without the Governor's signature, authorising internet gaming through the Wabanaki Nations with poker named in the text; no site had launched when we checked.
Is ClubGG legal in Maryland?
Open for WSOP+. Maryland's betting statute, Crim. Law § 12-102(a), has no clause for the bare act of betting in its current text. Its three paragraphs cover bookmaking, keeping or using a place for gambling, and receiving or forwarding money to be wagered, each a misdemeanor carrying up to six months and $5,000; the third paragraph is the agent's. The premises paragraph was drafted for gambling houses and would take a stretch to reach a living room. No licensed online poker.
Is ClubGG legal in Massachusetts?
Open for WSOP+. Massachusetts makes location the whole question: M.G.L. c. 271, § 2 penalises playing cards for money "in a public conveyance or public place, or in a private place upon which he is trespassing", up to $50 or three months, and a player at home on their own phone is in none of those places. Chapter 271, § 1 still allows a loser to recover double from a winner of $5 or more within 18 months, a relic that has survived every revision. The internet clause in § 17A is aimed at accepting wagers on contests, not at card players. No licensed online poker.
Is ClubGG legal in Michigan?
Michigan is on ClubGG's restricted list for WSOP+, which is not surprising in a state with a full regulated online poker market (PokerNews lists PokerStars and BetRivers, and Michigan sits in the multi-state pool). The Lawful Internet Gaming Act punishes unlicensed operators with up to ten years under MCL 432.313 and says nothing about an adult playing an unlicensed game; that player falls back on MCL 750.314, a misdemeanor for winning at cards, with up to a year when the winnings top $50. Michigan players have the rare luxury of a licensed alternative.
Is ClubGG legal in Minnesota?
Minnesota is restricted for WSOP+, and its club-game rule is short: § 609.755 makes it a misdemeanor to "make a bet", with § 609.75 defining a bet as dependent on chance "although the chance is accompanied by some element of skill". The only exception is a "private social bet" that is not part of organised, commercialised or systematic gambling, and a union with agents and a settlement schedule is all three. Running a gambling place or forwarding bets is a gross misdemeanor. No licensed online poker.
Is ClubGG legal in Mississippi?
Mississippi is restricted for WSOP+. Its player statute predates the casinos: Miss. Code § 97-33-1 reaches anyone who plays "any game ... for money" or bets on one, fine capped at $500, with exceptions only for licensed vessel and coastal casino gaming and none for private homes. The same sentence covers whoever encourages or promotes the betting. No regulated online poker.
Is ClubGG legal in Missouri?
WSOP+ is open in Missouri. Club play falls under RSMo § 572.020, which makes knowingly engaging in gambling a Class C misdemeanor and upgrades it to Class A for a "professional player", defined as someone who lives off gambling or drew 20% or more of their income from it in any of the past five years. Chapter 572 applies a material-degree chance test and contains no private-game defence, and first-degree promoting gambling is a Class E felony. No licensed online poker.
Is ClubGG legal in Montana?
Montana is restricted for WSOP+, and it is also the state that banned sweepstakes casinos from 1 October 2025, so the restriction is no accident. For club games, MCA 23-5-112 defines "internet gambling" by name and lists it among illegal gambling enterprises, while 23-5-151 prohibits all unauthorised public gambling. The operating and soliciting offences are clear; whether a mere player "violates" the prohibition is arguable. No regulated online poker.
Is ClubGG legal in Nebraska?
Open for WSOP+. Nebraska writes the player offence with a dollar threshold: betting under $500 in a day "as a player" is a Class IV misdemeanor with no jail under § 28-1104, and $500 or more in a day becomes a Class II misdemeanor under § 28-1103. Gambling needs only "an element of chance" and there is no social exception; the operator felony starts at $1,500 a day received. No licensed online poker.
Is ClubGG legal in Nevada?
Nevada is open for WSOP+, fittingly, since ClubGG's no-purchase mail-in address is on Rainbow Boulevard in Las Vegas. Club play is where Nevada is unusual: it is the only state that criminalises the bettor's side of an unlicensed wager as a separate offence. NRS 465.093 makes it a misdemeanor for anyone in the state to "place, send, transmit or relay through a medium of communication a wager" to anyone except a Nevada licensee, and 465.092 punishes the person receiving it with a gross misdemeanor and forfeiture of the profits. Operating interactive gaming without a licence is a Category B felony under NRS 463.750. The exemption for home card games in NRS 463.0152 was written for tables, not phones. WSOP.com holds the licence, and the state would rather you used it.
Is ClubGG legal in New Hampshire?
Open for WSOP+. RSA 647:2 makes gambling a misdemeanor and, in the same clause, lending money "for the purpose of aiding another to gamble", then sets out the most specific home-poker safe harbour in the country: a private residence, no rake, no seat fee, nobody paid to host, no house bank, no advertising and no more than ten players. An agent-run club breaks at least four of those seven conditions. Business gambling is a Class B felony. No licensed online poker.
Is ClubGG legal in New Jersey?
New Jersey is on ClubGG's restricted list for WSOP+, which tells you how carefully NSUS treads in the state with the deepest regulated online poker market (PokerStars, WSOP, BetMGM and Borgata all live). For club games, the Code of Criminal Justice has no bettor offence at all: N.J.S.A. 2C:37-2 gives an affirmative defence to anyone who "participated only as a player". An agent sharing in the proceeds is promoting gambling, a disorderly persons offence that grows into a third-degree crime by volume.
Is ClubGG legal in New Mexico?
Open for WSOP+. NMSA § 30-19-2 makes "making a bet" gambling and gambling a petty misdemeanor with up to six months; § 30-19-1 defines a bet as dependent on chance "even though accompanied by some skill" and the article offers no social exception. Commercial gambling, which includes forwarding bets or holding anything bet "for gain", is a fourth-degree felony. No licensed online poker.
Is ClubGG legal in New York?
New York is on ClubGG's restricted list, which is how most sweepstakes operators treat a state whose promotion rules are policed by an energetic Attorney General. On the club side the Penal Law protects the person betting. § 225.00 reserves the word "player" for someone whose only stake in the game is their own result, and the promoting offences in §§ 225.05 and 225.10 are triggered by advancing or profiting from gambling in some other capacity. The statute also treats a "promise" of money as something of value, which is what a chip rate agreed on Telegram amounts to, so the agent is squarely in frame while the bettor is not. Albany has debated online poker for years without passing it.
Is ClubGG legal in North Carolina?
Open for WSOP+. North Carolina does not separate player from operator; G.S. § 14-292 makes both a Class 2 misdemeanor in a single sentence covering "any person who plays at or bets on any game of chance" for value, without a social exception. G.S. 16-1 voids gambling debts except lawful sports and pari-mutuel wagers, a reminder that the state's sports betting law left poker exactly where it was. No licensed online poker.
Is ClubGG legal in North Dakota?
Open for WSOP+. North Dakota measures the offence by the size of the bet: N.D.C.C. § 12.1-28-02 makes gambling on private premises an infraction only where an individual wagers more than $25 per hand, and a Class A misdemeanor above $500 per hand. On its face that leaves micro-stakes play outside the offence, though nobody has litigated whether an app is "private premises". Being in the business of gambling is a Class C felony. No licensed online poker.
Is ClubGG legal in Ohio?
Open for WSOP+. Ohio attaches an income test to the player: under R.C. 2915.02(A)(4) betting or playing a game of chance is a first-degree misdemeanor only when done "as a substantial source of income or livelihood", so the weekend player is outside it and the grinder is not. The statute names poker as a game of chance. Facilitating a game "conducted for profit" under (A)(2) is the club and agent clause. No licensed online poker.
Is ClubGG legal in Oklahoma?
Oklahoma is restricted for WSOP+. Its club-game statute names poker outright: 21 O.S. § 942 fines anyone who "bets or plays" at a prohibited game $25 to $100 or up to 30 days, while § 941 makes conducting poker a felony "whether for hire or not", which technically makes the host of a no-rake home game a felon and tells you how literally the statute is applied. Tribal compact poker is lawful and everywhere; online poker is not authorised.
Is ClubGG legal in Oregon?
Open for WSOP+. Oregon has two statutes worth knowing. ORS 167.122 creates unlawful gambling in the second degree, a Class A misdemeanor, for a person who takes part "as a player". ORS 167.109 then does at state level what UIGEA does federally, making it a Class C felony for an internet gambling business to accept card payments or transfers for unlawful online play, an operator offence. The state's home-game carve-out covers games in a residence where the house takes nothing, which excludes a union table by definition. First-degree unlawful gambling, for promoters and profiteers, is a Class C felony. No licensed online poker.
Is ClubGG legal in Pennsylvania?
Pennsylvania allows WSOP+, and it is the state where GGPoker's parent once held an interactive gaming manufacturer licence (granted 11 February 2021) before withdrawing it, per Pokerfuse. For the regulated market, Pennsylvania joined the multi-state agreement on 23 April 2025 and runs PokerStars, WSOP, BetMGM and BetRivers poker. For club play, the Crimes Code is silent on the person betting: 18 Pa.C.S. § 5513 reaches device makers, hosts who let people assemble to gamble, solicitors and premises owners, and stops there. The Gaming Act adds a felony for accepting interactive wagers without a certificate under 4 Pa.C.S. § 1518(a)(3.1), with a fine between $500,000 and $1,000,000, which is the number a Pennsylvania agent should have in mind.
Is ClubGG legal in Rhode Island?
Open for WSOP+. Rhode Island's nearest thing to a player offence is § 11-19-21, up to 30 days for whoever shall "frequent any gambling house or place where gaming is practiced", written for a building and awkward for a phone. Promoting any game or device is a felony under § 11-19-1. The 2024 iGaming law counts poker among casino games but defines an online table game as one "conducted by one or more live persons", so peer-to-peer poker was never expressly authorised and no site has launched.
Is ClubGG legal in South Carolina?
South Carolina is restricted for WSOP+, and its club-game law is the oldest in this list: § 16-19-40, from 1802, bans playing "any game with cards or dice" in an enumerated set of places, and in Town of Mount Pleasant v. Chimento (2012) the state Supreme Court held a private home counts and that poker being a skill game is no defence. The player faces up to 30 days or $100; the keeper of the place up to a year. Whether a phone is an enumerated place is untested. No regulated online poker.
Is ClubGG legal in South Dakota?
South Dakota is restricted for WSOP+. For club games, SDCL 22-25-1 makes engaging in gambling with cards a Class 2 misdemeanor, and the state's internet-gambling chapter, SDCL 22-25A-7, is a Class 6 felony aimed at a "person engaged in a gambling business", which is an agent, not a player. Licensed Deadwood gaming is the statutory exception. No regulated online poker.
Is ClubGG legal in Tennessee?
Open for WSOP+. Tennessee has the strictest chance test in America, anything "to any degree contingent on chance", and Tenn. Code § 39-17-502 makes knowingly engaging in gambling a Class C misdemeanor with no social defence. Gambling promotion (§ 39-17-503), aiding another to gamble for an economic benefit beyond winnings, is a Class B misdemeanor and describes an agent. No regulated online poker.
Is ClubGG legal in Texas?
Texas is open for WSOP+, and its club-game rule is the one every Texan poker player already half-knows. Betting at cards is a Class C misdemeanor under Penal Code § 47.02, with a defence where the game was in a private place, nobody received "any economic benefit other than personal winnings" and the odds were equal for everyone. The state's membership card rooms were built on that sentence. A raked club game with an agent taking a commission fails the middle condition for every player at the table, and no court has said whether an app counts as a private place. Promotion, including holding bets for gain, is a Class A misdemeanor. No licensed online poker.
Is ClubGG legal in Utah?
ClubGG lists Utah as open for WSOP+, which is the boldest entry on its list. Utah Code § 76-10-1102 puts "Internet or online gambling" inside the player offence itself, a Class B misdemeanor that becomes Class A on a third conviction, makes providing online gambling to anyone in the state a third-degree felony, and declares that Utah opts out of any federal authorisation of internet gambling. There is no social exception. NSUS's reasoning is presumably that a free sweepstakes entry with a non-cash prize is not a wager; a club game with an agent is a wager by any definition Utah uses.
Is ClubGG legal in Vermont?
Open for WSOP+, and home to a player offence that reads like it was drafted by candlelight. 13 V.S.A. § 2141 imposes a fine of "not more than $200.00 nor less than $10.00" on whoever wins or loses money "by play or hazard at any game", and § 2133 adds up to 60 days for anyone who plays cards for money in a "common gaming or gambling house that is maintained for lucre and gain". There is no definition of gambling in the chapter, no skill test and no social exception, because the statute is older than the idea that any of those were needed. Bookmaking and keeping a place for wagering under § 2151 climb to five years on a repeat offence. Vermont regulates no poker of any kind.
Is ClubGG legal in Virginia?
Open for WSOP+. In Virginia, making or placing a bet on an event "the outcome of which is uncertain or a matter of chance" is illegal gambling under § 18.2-325, and § 18.2-326 grades it as a Class 3 misdemeanor. The private-residence exception in § 18.2-334 requires a home not commonly used for games and no "operator"; a union that finances and manages the game is an operator by the statute's own definition. Running an illegal gambling operation is a Class 6 felony, with one to ten years once it passes 30 days or $2,000 in a day. No licensed online poker.
Is ClubGG legal in Washington?
ClubGG blocks WSOP+ in Washington, and every sweepstakes lawyer in America would have told it to. The state's internet provision, RCW 9.46.240, turns transmitting or receiving "gambling information" online into a Class C felony, and RCW 9.46.0245 defines that information broadly enough to include a wager made in the course of somebody else's professional gambling, which is what a club player's bet is once the club rakes. Washington is also where Kater v. Churchill Downs was decided, the Ninth Circuit case holding that social-casino chips with no cash value were still "things of value" under state law. Whether a poker player has ever been charged under 9.46.240 is a different question; we could not find a reported case. But if you want the one state where the statute unambiguously reaches the person in the seat, this is it. Card rooms are licensed; online poker is not.
Is ClubGG legal in West Virginia?
West Virginia allows WSOP+ and has had licensed online poker since BetRivers Poker went live in June 2025 (PokerNews). The old misdemeanor still sits beneath the new market: W. Va. Code § 61-10-5 fines anyone who bets on a game of chance "at any place, public or private" between $5 and $300, and its second limb catches whoever "knowingly furnish[es] any money" to someone else to bet with, which is an agent or a staker depending on the day. The interactive wagering statute, § 29-22E-20, punishes those who accept, facilitate or operate unlicensed online wagering and never mentions the player. If you live here, the licensed lobby is a real option and the club is a preference.
Is ClubGG legal in Wisconsin?
Open for WSOP+. Wisconsin's § 945.02 lists "makes a bet" first among its Class B misdemeanors, and § 945.01 defines a bet as dependent on chance "even though accompanied by some skill", which retires the poker-is-skill argument in a subordinate clause. Chapter 945 has no social-gambling exception. Commercial gambling, including forwarding a bet or holding anything bet for gain, is a Class I felony. No licensed online poker.
Is ClubGG legal in Wyoming?
WSOP+ is available in Wyoming. For club play, the state fines and jails at the misdemeanor level: Wyo. Stat. § 6-7-102 allows up to six months and $750 for anyone who engages in gambling, defined as risking property for gain contingent on chance "in whole or in part". The felony tier, up to three years, is for professional gambling, which the statute defines to include "aiding or inducing another to engage in gambling, with the intent to derive a profit", a fair description of an agent. Wyoming does exclude games incidental to a bona fide social relationship, but only where nobody is participating in professional gambling, and a club with rake is a club with a professional in it. Online sports wagering is carved out of the gambling definition by name; nothing similar exists for poker.
Enforcement, taxes and the four answers
Federal and state prosecutors have spent fifteen years going after the people who take the money. Black Friday in April 2011 named site founders and payment processors; the 2025 Los Angeles indictment that caught former NBA player Gilbert Arenas named the people who ran the house. A search of Department of Justice releases and court records for a US player charged over a ClubGG, PokerBros or PPPoker game turned up nothing as of 18 September 2026. That is not a promise and it is not the same as legal; it is a description of where the resources go. The one federal agency that will reliably want to hear from a winning club reg is the IRS, whose Topic 419 says gambling winnings "are fully taxable and you must report the income on your tax return", chips, tickets or cash.
Thirty-six plus fourteen is fifty; the restricted list is quoted from Section 10 of ClubGG's terms as updated 17 June 2026.
Choosing the club, which is the part you control
Strip the statutes away and a US ClubGG player is left with the same decision a home-game player has faced since kitchens had tables: who is holding the money, and will they hand it back on settlement day? ClubGG's union tooling makes that question slightly easier to answer than on other apps, because a union running a $5,000-a-month back office with limits allocation and activity reports has invested in staying around. It does not make the question go away. A club that has settled every week for years, inside a union that reconciles on schedule, run by an agent whose handle has not changed, is a better legal and financial position than any footnote about sweepstakes law, and it is the only part of this article you get to decide.
If you take one thing from the fifty entries above, take this: your state decides whether the club player is named in a statute, ClubGG decides whether you can play WSOP+, the IRS decides that your winnings are income either way, and you decide who your agent is. Three of those four are out of your hands. Spend your attention on the fourth.
Five ClubGG rooms across five unions, each listed under the GlobalPokerSites Funds Guarantee with direct agent contact on the club page: Massiv Cannon (Massiv Union), Loose Beats (The Good Beats Union), LC Orion (Orion Union), LC Rollercoaster (Rollercoaster Union) and Loose Times (TMT Union). Read the club page, confirm the chip rate and payout window in writing, and take a small test cashout before you play big.
This article is general information written by poker players, not legal advice. Laws and ClubGG's own terms change; the restricted-state list is quoted from the terms dated 17 June 2026 and should be checked against the live page before you rely on it. Speak to a lawyer licensed in your state for an answer that fits your situation. 18+ in most jurisdictions and 21+ where state law requires it. Poker played for money is gambling; set limits before you sit down and read our responsible gaming page if it stops being fun.
Sources (state statutes are linked inside each state entry above): ClubGG Terms of Service, updated 17 June 2026; clubgg.com; ClubGG Road to WSOP Circuit; ClubGG for Unions; ClubGG Media Guideline; ClubGG RNG certification (BMM Testlabs); ClubGG Poker on the App Store; Pokerfuse, 12 June 2026; Poker Industry PRO, 11 February 2021; Snell & Wilmer, 5 June 2025; 31 U.S.C. § 5363; 18 U.S.C. § 1955; Kater v. Churchill Downs (9th Cir. 2018); IRS Criminal Investigation on the Arenas indictment; IRS Topic 419; PokerNews US poker tracker; Pokerfuse on Connecticut; GlobalPokerSites ClubGG review; GlobalPokerSites PokerBros state-by-state guide.
