Georgia Online Poker
Georgia doesn’t have sports betting and the state lottery is one of just a few legal options for gaming. But you can win prizes that can be redeemed for real money by playing sweepstakes online poker.
Last updated: July 15, 2024
Georgia has few options for legal gaming aside from the state lottery, but you can play online poker legally and win prizes convertible to real money by playing sweepstakes poker in the Peach State 🍑.
Lawmakers have been trying to get sports betting off the ground, but to no avail. Disagreement over how to spend tax revenue derailed two otherwise promising sports betting bills that were introduced during the 2024 session.
But there is good news! With a population of about 11 million residents, Georgia is the eighth-largest US jurisdiction where you can play online poker and win prizes that can be redeemed for real money.
Clubs Poker is our recommendation for online poker in Georgia. It’s a new platform, but we expect it will grow quickly because it’s packed with features that players are sure to love. The US-based site hosts ring games, tournaments, and sit & gos, and offers an online poker experience comparable to the best online poker software in the world.
If you’re new to online poker or are just looking to play without spending any money, there are several free-play apps available for download and free-play sites that players can access from Georgia.
Look to this space for news and updates about online poker in Georgia!
Can I Play Online Poker in Georgia?
Yes, you can play online poker in Georgia! You also have options, depending on whether you want to play for prizes that you can redeem for real money or you just want to play for free. If you’re looking for a chance to win prizes convertible to real money, we recommend sweepstakes online poker. Sweepstakes sites are also our pick for players looking for a true online poker experience.
If you’re entirely new to online poker, we recommend free-play apps and free-play sites. These are excellent options for learning about the game without spending any money.
| Online Poker in Georgia: Key Facts | |
|---|---|
| 📢 What’s Legal | Social poker, including sweepstakes and free-play sites |
| ✨ Main Highlights | Sweepstakes poker has daily tournaments, players can win real money |
| 🔮Real Money Online Poker (Regulated) | Legislation is considered unlikely anytime soon |
| 🃏 Available Games | No Limit Hold’em, Pot Limit Omaha, and several mixed game variants |
| 🔞 Legal Age | Players must be 18 years of age or older |
| 👥 GA Population | 11 Million (ranks 8th) |
The Best Online Poker Sites in Georgia
If you’re interested in playing online poker in the Peach State, we recommend sweepstakes poker sites. They offer the best online poker experience while giving players a chance to win prizes that can be redeemed for real money. We also recommend free-play sites for new players or anyone looking to play online poker for free.
“Sweepstakes poker” is actually an umbrella term used to describe two types of poker site: traditional subscription-based sites and so-called “modern” sweepstakes sites. You can win prizes that can be converted to real money by playing both types of sites.
Subscription-based sites are pretty straightforward. For a monthly fee, players gain access to daily tournaments, which offer prizes that can be redeemed for real money.
We recommend Clubs Poker, which follows the modern sweepstakes model for online poker. Here are short descriptions of three online poker sites that operate legally under sweepstakes law in Georgia:
Clubs Poker
Clubs Poker is a new online poker site. It follows the modern sweepstakes poker model. Although the poker room is new, we expect that it will grow quickly in popularity for its excellent features, including bomb pots, rabbit hunting, and straddles.
The platform offers a wide variety of mixed game poker variants, including No-Limit Texas Hold’em (NLH), Pot Limit Omaha (PLO), Omaha Hi-Lo, Seven Card Stud, HORSE, and 2-7 Draw. Recreational players are expected to flock to the site, so there will probably be lots of soft games. Clubs Poker is based in the US.
Read our full review of Clubs Poker »
ClubWPT
ClubWPT is a subscription-based online poker site. The platform hosts tournaments every day. For a monthly fee, players have a chance to win access to events on the popular World Poker Tour.
Most of the tournaments on ClubWPT are NLH or Pot Limit Omaha. ClubWPT has sit-and-gos (SNGs) and ring games, but ring games are only available in play money mode, so players aren’t able to win prizes that can be converted into real money through ring games.
Read our full review of ClubWPT »
Global Poker
Global Poker is another site that follows the modern sweepstakes model. Players use real money to buy play tokens (aka Gold Coins) and receive Sweeps Coins as a gift. Players need a certain number of Sweeps Coins for entry to sweepstakes tables, where players can win prizes that can be converted into real money.
The site offers regular multi-table tournaments (MTTs) that feature large guarantees. Australia-based Global Poker, which launched in 2016, is very popular with players because it gives special prizes to the winners of its tournaments, including custom-made trophies, branded merchandise, and unique avatars.
Read our full review of Global Poker »
Free-Play Poker in Georgia
You can play online poker for free in the Peach State, too. Players don’t have to spend any money — there are free-play sites and free-play apps available for download. Free-play poker sites are great options for new players or for anyone still trying to learn the mechanics of the game.
Zynga Poker, Replay Poker, and Governor of Poker are among the more popular free-play sites. Social media platforms like Facebook also offer online poker for free. Two of the world’s most popular real money online poker operators, PokerStars and WSOP, also have free-play sites — banking on the hope that once new players become more comfortable playing online poker they will migrate to their “paid” sites, assuming the players live in a state with regulated real money online poker.
It’s important to note that players who play exclusively on free-play sites won’t be able to develop a winning online poker strategy, since there isn’t any real money at stake in free-play poker. We still recommend free-play sites for new players.
Real Money Online Poker in Georgia
The Georgia Lottery, raffles, and bingo games are the only forms of legal state-regulated gaming in the Peach State.
There are no land-based casinos, tribal or otherwise, in Georgia. There are no registered cardrooms, private poker clubs, or riverboats, either. Lawmakers haven’t even been able to agree on how sports betting should be conducted in the state — two bills introduced during the 2024 session did not receive enough support before the Georgia General Assembly adjourned in March.
Both bills would have allowed mobile sports betting, but not retail sportsbooks. A tax rate of 20% was initially proposed. The state would have issued 16 mobile sports betting licenses, including seven standalone. Eight licenses would have required operators to partner with a professional sports entity, while the final license would have been reserved for the Georgia Lottery, allowing it to launch its own sports betting app.
At this stage there is no way to know how many licenses Georgia could issue for online poker or casino gaming. If lawmakers don’t want the state’s professional sports entities involved in igaming beyond sports betting, the number of licenses available would presumably be whittled down to eight — the seven aforementioned standalone licenses, plus the Lottery.
It has taken several years for sports betting to get this far. Georgia is a socially conservative state, with many parts of society opposed to gambling on moral grounds. The most recent efforts to launch sports betting ultimately ran aground in part because lawmakers couldn’t agree on how to spend the tax revenue generated by sports betting.
Until sports betting launches it seems premature to talk about when lawmakers might consider regulating online casino gaming and real money online poker. When factoring in how long it’s taken for a sports betting bill to come close to winning passage, it will likely be several years before an igaming expansion bill is filed in the Georgia General Assembly.
Multi-State Online Poker in Georgia
Should lawmakers in Georgia ultimately embrace the idea that the state should regulate real money online poker, it would be wise for the state to join a multi-jurisdictional gaming compact to support and help grow the game in the Peach State.
Membership in a gaming compact gives operators the ability to combine their player pools between the compact’s member states. That creates shared liquidity, which leads to bigger tournaments, bigger prizes, more tax revenue, and more excitement for online poker. The biggest (and only) compact in the US is the Multi-State Internet Gaming Agreement (MSIGA), which includes Delaware, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, and West Virginia.
Georgia ranks eighth in terms of population with about 11 million residents, which means it’s bigger than Michigan, the largest MSIGA state by population with 10 million people. Georgia is also smaller than Pennsylvania, which has 13 million people and ranks fifth in population. The distinction is important because Michigan, the smaller state, is a member of MSIGA while Pennsylvania, the larger state, isn’t a member and therefore runs a segregated market for real money online poker.
Poker Sites Likely to Launch in Georgia
As discussed in two sections earlier, at this stage it seems way too early to try to figure out how many licenses Georgia will ultimately issue for online casino gaming and real money online poker. But if the two failed sports betting bills offer a clue, it could be in the double digits.
Lawmakers wanted to see 16 mobile sportsbooks in the Peach State. Even if just one-quarter of that number were ultimately agreed to for the number of online casino and poker licenses, it would be enough to accommodate the top three operators for real money online poker in the US — BetMGM Poker, PokerStars, and WSOP — plus BetRivers Poker, a platform currently in development by Rush Street Interactive (RSI).
Under a maximum growth scenario, where multi-state poker networks across the US expand quickly under MSIGA, BetMGM and WSOP could each make Georgia the fourth member of their respective online poker networks. PokerStars could create a three-state network that includes Georgia, while RSI could potentially launch its new BetRivers Poker platform in as many as five states initially.
Depending upon how Georgia lawmakers draft igaming legislation in the future, the Peach State could form part of up to four online poker networks in the US — provided, of course, lawmakers agree to have the state establish a regulated market for real money online poker and GA subsequently joins MSIGA.
Bearing in mind all of those prerequisites, we think operators could establish the following networks to include the Peach State. These matchups are completely hypothetical:
| Operator | Likely Georgia Brand | Hypothetical Network Plans |
|---|---|---|
| BetRivers Poker | BetRivers Poker GA | Poker platform in development by Rush Street Interactive (RSI). A three-state network across GA-MI-NJ seems most likely at this early stage, but Delaware could also be in the group. |
| BetMGM Poker | BetMGM Poker GA | The operator could create a four-state network across GA-MI-NJ-NV, but it first needs to launch in Nevada and combine its MI and NJ player pools. |
| PokerStars USA | PokerStars GA | Look for PokerStars to set up a three-state network of GA-MI-NJ, just like BetRivers. |
| WSOP Online | WSOP GA | Could grow its network to four states: GA-MI-NJ-NV, the same as BetMGM Poker. WSOP is the only operator in Nevada, but it lost access to Delaware in late 2023. |
Georgia Online Poker FAQ
Is online poker legal in Georgia?
Yes, you can play online poker from anywhere in the Peach State! We recommend sweepstakes poker for players looking to win prizes that can be redeemed for real money. Alternatively, we recommend free-play poker sites for players looking to play online poker without spending any money.
Does Georgia have real money online poker?
Georgia does not have a regulated market for real money online poker and is unlikely to establish one anytime soon. In the meantime, we recommend sweepstakes online poker, which is a legal alternative to real money online poker and where you can win prizes that can be converted into real money.
Is sweepstakes poker available in Georgia?
Yes, Georgia has modern sweepstakes poker sites. Under this model, players use real money to buy play tokens (aka Gold Coins) which have no monetary value and can only be used for play-money games. Players are gifted Sweeps Coins, which they use for entry to sweepstakes tables that offer prizes that can be converted into real money. We recommend Clubs Poker for modern sweepstakes poker.
Are ring games available online in Georgia?
Yes, Clubs Poker has ring games. Since it’s a modern sweepstakes poker site, players will need a certain number of Sweeps Coins to access the tables that offer prizes that can be redeemed for real money.
Does Georgia have subscription-based online poker?
Yes, subscription-based poker sites are available to players in Georgia. For a monthly fee, players get access to tables that offer prizes that can be converted into real money. It’s a popular choice for players who live in a state without a regulated market for real money online poker — like Georgia.
Are there online poker tournaments in Georgia?
Many types of online poker tournaments are available in the Peach State. Clubs Poker has tournaments on a daily basis in several formats, including bounty tournaments, multi-table tournaments (MTTs), progressive knockout tournaments (PKOs), and sit-and-go (SNG) tournaments.
What types of poker games are available online?
NLH is the most popular game on Clubs Poker, but players will also find mixed game variants like Pot Limit Omaha (PLO), Omaha Hi-Lo, Seven Card Stud, 2-7 Draw, and HORSE.
Is PokerStars legal in Georgia?
No, PokerStars and the other top real money online poker operators in the US — BetMGM and WSOP — are not currently legal in Georgia. If lawmakers decide to set up a regulated market for real money online poker, we expect that PokerStars (and its competitors) will be interested in launching in the Peach State.
Will Georgia regulate online poker anytime soon?
A regulated market for real money online poker still seems several years away, at best. Georgia is a socially conservative state that has traditionally been averse to gambling — the only forms of legal state-regulated gaming are the lottery, bingo, and raffles. Lawmakers only recently considered legalizing online sports betting, and there’s expected to be more pushback at expanded igaming beyond that.
Can I play online poker on offshore sites?
Playing online poker on sites based offshore is not recommended because they don’t offer the same level of consumer protection as sites legally regulated in the US. When players disclose their financial and personal information on offshore sites they are at risk of identity theft. Federal officials have warned US citizens not to play poker on offshore sites because they have no legal recourse to collect their winnings.