Online Poker in Texas
Texas has a long history with poker, with the first stories of it being played in Texas dating back to the early 19th century.
Such a background creates a certain irony when considering the legal status of poker in Texas. Commercial casinos are illegal, and there are no traditional licensed and regulated poker rooms. Further, private poker clubs have seen their status eroded by legal battles, but Rep. Ryan Guillen is leading the charge to clarify the language of the law in favor of poker rooms. Only one tribal casino with a small poker room operates in the state: The Lucky Eagle in Eagle Pass, TX.
Here you will find all the information you need on Poker in Texas.
Poker Snapshot
Are poker rooms legal in Texas? Technically, no, but over 50 “private poker clubs” operate throughout the state.
Will poker rooms be legal any time soon? They are in limbo at the moment. Private poker clubs are currently under fire from city officials, and a Texas Supreme Court case seems destined to resolve the issue. In the city of Dallas alone lawsuits could cost hundreds of thousands of dollars of the public’s money. Poker club owner Doug Polk has created Texans for Texas Hold ’em, a PAC aiming to protect private poker clubs in the state. Legislation created with the aid of his PAC addressing the status of private poker clubs has been heard in committee and has advanced to the Committee on Calendars.
Is online poker legal? No. Texas has never considered legalizing online poker since online poker sites began appearing in the 1990s.
Is online sweepstakes poker legal? Yes. Texans can play poker at social and sweepstakes casinos that offer poker-style games. These casinos offer virtual currencies that players can use to win cash and prizes.
When will Texas legalize online poker? Not anytime soon. The legislature would have to change the constitution to do this. Currently, legalizing retail resort casinos looks like the next evolutionary stage for poker in Texas. Only after that would the legislature look at online gaming.
What is the legal age to play poker in Texas? At poker clubs, 21; at sweepstakes casinos, 18.
Where to play poker in Texas
There are a couple avenues for Texans and visitors to Texas to play live poker in the state. Here is a look at the options.
Kickapoo Lucky Eagle Casino poker
As noted, there are no commercial casinos in Texas. There are three federally recognized Native American tribes based in the state. But only one of them, the Kickapoo Traditional Tribe of Texas, is currently authorized to operate a casino. The other two, however, have recently won a significant Supreme Court victory allowing them to offer electronic bingo.
The Kickapoo Lucky Eagle Casino Hotel first opened in 1996, was rebuilt in 2004, and then expanded again in 2013. It resides in Eagle Pass, about 100 miles south of San Antonio, right near the Mexico border.
The casino has a Class II gaming license, meaning certain games of chance like bingo and keno are allowed. So, too, are non-banked card games, including poker. Like other Class II establishments, Kickapoo Lucky Eagle Casino features slot-like games that are permitted because they are technically versions of bingo.
The poker room at Kickapoo Lucky Eagle has 12 tables. The room typically spreads cash games and does not run tournaments.
Card clubs in Texas
There are also over 50 poker clubs located throughout Texas, including in and around major cities like Austin, Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio.
These establishments range from small clubs with just four or five tables to large rooms with 30 or more. While most of the smaller clubs stick with cash games only, the larger ones often host tournaments, some with large fields and prize pools of more than $1 million.
These clubs regularly invite attention from authorities given how they creatively skirt the gambling laws. Most charge fees for club membership and/or time spent in the club rather than collect rake from pots as regular-licensed poker rooms do.
In essence, in order for them to operate and remain technically legal, the poker clubs have to prove they are not profiting off the actual games. Serving drinks and food and charging for other incidentals is seen by some as “profiting off the game” while poker rooms see the concessions business as separate from the gaming.
Understandably, opinions differ over how to define the poker clubs’ system. Moreover, the 2023 legislative session could have an even greater impact, as legislation filed by Rep. Gene Wu would change the language of the law, completely removing the gray area around private poker rooms and also handing over the regulation of poker to the counties.
Is online poker legal in Texas?
There is much less ambiguity about the legality of online poker for real money in Texas. It is not.
The law in Texas that prohibits illegal gambling is quite comprehensive. Among the many forms of gambling it explicitly forbids, the law states that anyone who “plays and bets for money or other things of value at any time played with cards, dice, balls, or any other gambling device” has engaged in illegal gambling.
Since online gambling and the first online poker rooms began appearing in the 1990s, Texas has never seriously considered legalizing online poker. More often than not, whenever gambling legislation has been proposed, moral objections to gambling have helped stymie its progress.
There are other factors as well. Oklahoma, Louisiana, and New Mexico occupy most of Texas’ US-facing border, and all those states have casinos. Individuals with financial interest in those properties have actually used their influence to prevent Texas from building their own casinos and challenging those out-of-state establishments.
The best alternative for Texans who want to play poker online are sweepstakes and social poker sites.
Sweepstakes online poker in Texas
“Sweepstakes” online poker sites operate in the US according to the states’ sweepstakes laws. They are not exactly real money online poker sites, but players can win cash.
Such sites utilize a virtual currency, which has no cash value but can be purchased with US dollars. Players can play poker games with the virtual currency only, which is similar to “play money” often used at online social casinos.
However, such sites also usually provide ways for players to play poker using a second virtual currency. While it cannot be purchased directly by players, this second currency can be accumulated and subsequently exchanged for actual US dollars.
The fact that players aren’t technically depositing and withdrawing cash with which they play is what enables such online sweepstakes sites to operate. The process could be compared to the “loophole” that Texas card clubs exploit: not directly raking pots in order to stay within the parameters of the state’s gambling law.
Playing on Global Poker in Texas
The most popular sweepstakes-based online poker site in the country is Global Poker. This sweepstakes poker site is available to players in nearly every US state, including Texas.
Global Poker invites players to purchase Gold Coins and play at Gold Coins “cash” tables or in tournaments for which the buy-ins and prizes are all Gold Coins. The Gold Coins have no cash value.
When players purchase Gold Coins, as a bonus, they also receive a different virtual currency, called Sweeps Coins. These can be used to play in Sweeps Coins “cash” games or enter tournaments for which the entry fees and payouts are Sweeps Coins.
Players can collect Sweeps Coins in other ways, too, such as free-to-enter giveaway contests on Global Poker’s Facebook page. They can also simply write to Global Poker directly and ask for Sweeps Coins.
Once players accumulate a minimum amount of Sweeps Coins, they can exchange them for US dollars and withdraw the money. The exchange rate is $1 per Sweeps Coin.
Games offered at Global Poker
Global Poker features a variety of game formats, including “cash” games, multi-table tournaments and “jackpot” sit-n-go’s in which the prize pool is determined by the spin of a virtual wheel. The site spreads no-limit hold’em and pot-limit Omaha, and even offers non-traditional variants like Caribbean Poker and Crazy Pineapple.
Since Global Poker serves most of the country with everyone playing in a single, shared player pool, the site is able to host large field tournaments and tournament series. Some of the events in these series feature buy-ins as big as 218 or 540 Sweeps Coins and feature guaranteed prize pools ranging from 40,000 to 500,000 Sweeps Coins.
If you recall how one Sweeps Coin is worth the equivalent of $1 after it is exchanged, you can see just how big these tournaments can get.
Registering and playing on Global Poker
Players can register accounts at Global Poker via Facebook or Google, or they can just use an email address. Gold Coins can then be purchased by using a credit or debit card (Mastercard or American Express), or through the Skrill online wallet.
In order to exchange Sweeps Coins for cash and withdraw the money, players have to provide further information in order to verify their account. This includes submitting photo identification and proof of address.
Withdrawing cash also requires registering a bank account with the site.
Popular poker games online in Texas
If Texas decides to allow online poker, you will find a variety of games online. Meanwhile, if you check out Global Poker, you’ll discover many popular variants available to play.
Because online poker doesn’t have staffing issues the way that live poker rooms do, online poker rooms can offer any number of games at any one time, and you can often have your pick. Amazingly, you can even play multiple games at the same time.
The most common online poker game is the same as the most common game in live poker. Texas Hold’em has been the top poker game in the world for more than two decades, and the no-limit version shows no sign of relinquishing its crown. No matter the poker site you visit, you will be able to find No Limit Texas Hold’em.
The second-most common online poker game is Pot Limit Omaha. PLO is much the same as Texas Hold’em, but each player gets four cards instead of two. At showdown, you must use exactly two of the cards in your hand to form a five-card hand with three community cards.
However, the two cards out of the four that you use can change from street to street, and draws are sometimes more valuable than made hands. Because of the need to see the river more often, PLO pots have a tendency to become quite large, often larger than the average NLHE pot. It is for this reason that people often consider PLO an “action game.”
Other common games on online poker sites include the following:
- Limit Hold’em
- Limit Omaha Hi-Lo and Pot Limit Omaha Hi-Lo
- Seven card stud and seven card stud hi-lo
- Pineapple and Crazy Pineapple (another hold’em variation with different rules)
These games are usually available as tournaments, and you can play many of them in cash games, fast-fold games and sit and go’s.
History of poker in Texas
Poker stories involving Texas date back to the early 19th century, when the game was first introduced.
One of the earliest involves Jim Bowie, who died alongside Davy Crockett defending the Alamo in 1836. Some years earlier, Bowie took on some steamboat card sharps in a famous poker game in which he caught one of the men cheating and killed him in a duel (or so one version of the story goes).
During the 19th century, poker first spread throughout the southern and western states, including Texas. El Paso in particular was one of many cities where poker players frequently gathered at gambling houses.
Texas was also the site of the first meeting between Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday, a couple of poker-playing Old West heroes frequently depicted in movie westerns. Bat Masterson, another prominent Old West gambler, also starred in Texas-based tales involving both card playing and gunplay. Lottie Deno “the Poker Queen”, made a name for herself in Texas and led to the creation of the character Miss Kitty in the TV show Gunsmoke and also Laura Denbow in the movie Gunfight At the OK Corral.
The 20th century saw several Texas natives figure prominently in poker’s history, among them Johnny Moss, Doyle Brunson, Crandall Addington, Jack Straus, and TJ Cloutier. Such players all gained fame at the WSOP, which was started in Las Vegas by another Texan, Jack Binion.
The origins of Texas hold’em are mostly clouded in mystery, although players like Moss and Brunson have confirmed they first played the game in Texas. Moss once suggested he encountered hold’em as early as 1930, while Brunson says he first played it in the late 1950s, including in underground games on Exchange Avenue in Fort Worth.
In 2007, a Texas lawmaker from Robstown passed a resolution declaring hold’em was invented in his hometown during the “early 1900s.” Even so, there exists no support for such a claim.
In any event, the popularity of Texas hold’em as poker’s most popular variant has guaranteed the state’s continued association with America’s favorite card game.