Connecticut Online Poker

Conclusion on Connecticut Online Poker Whether you are a new player or a seasoned pro, you’ll find something to love on any of the Connecticut poker sites recommended above. With a wide range of ways to play, real money online poker sites in Connecticut have become one of the fastest-growing segments of the online gaming industry. Update: March 7, 2020: There’s still no online poker in Connecticut. Moreover, things don’t look too promising. The CT Mirror reported on March 3, 2020 that Gov. Ned Lamon and the tribal casinos are deadlocked over sports betting. This doesn’t bode well for any expansion of gaming in the state, including online poker.

1. Connecticut Online Poker
2. Connecticut Online Poker Law

Connecticut is a major destination for professional poker players. The Foxwoods Poker Classic is a major annual poker tournament in Mashantucket, CT that serves as a proving ground for some of the best poker competitors in the world. The winner of the 2013 Foxwoods Poker Classic walked out of the casino that night with over 100 thousand dollars in prize winnings and a solid shot at the World Series of Poker.

Online poker in Connecticut is one of the primary training methods for the poker professionals that look to compete in tournaments like these. It allows them to see multiple hands simultaneously and really accelerate their experience. These types of features have dramatically evolved within the US online poker market, resulting in growing momentum for the presence of online games within the poker community. Poker has always been popular in the state and has established a substantial presence within the Connecticut online gambling market.

Online poker rooms for Connecticut players have been around for a long time. These US friendly online gambling options have existed in a legal grey area that is sometimes hard to comprehend. This guide is to help you understand that legal grey area along with many other key ingredients in this industry. Here, you can find an explanation on the federal and states laws that impact state-sanctioned online poker rooms and what you should know to ensure that you are staying within the law. After you’ve armed yourself with the knowledge to understand the industry you’ll likely start to look for things that appeal to you as a customer, like the promotions and bonuses that a website offers, the game selection, the software options, etc. We will also cover all those things right here in this guide. Shuffle up and deal!

Are Online Poker Sites Legal In Connecticut?

Typically, gambling laws in the US are left up to the state but there is still some federal oversight. USA online gambling laws do not outlaw online poker but CT players are urged to play with precaution to Connecticut state online gambling laws. CT state laws outlaw online wagering of any form but there has never been a reported arrest.

Most US states simply have not sanctioned or legally regulated online gambling businesses of any sort yet, with a few exceptions. New Jersey, Delaware and Nevada all have state licensed online poker sites operating legally within their territories. In those states, it is legal to obtain a license to operate an online poker site. Players living in or visiting one of those three states can choose between the state-based poker sites or the licensed poker sites operating outside of the US, such as the ones listed in this guide. For all other states, including Connecticut, residents will need to rely solely on the legally sanctioned offshore poker sites for real money poker gambling online.

Legally Licensed Online Poker Sites Accepting Connecticut Players

Connecticut Online Poker

These are the poker rooms that we have taken the time to inspect so you don’t have to. For a website to gain endorsement by us, it must have all the legal requirements met; they must be located outside of the United States and in a properly regulated area, they must have up-to-date licensing. They must also have compliance certifications from tech companies that are unassociated with the casino that verify that their Random Number Generators and software solutions have been properly tested for complete statistical randomness. Once we have verified that those things are in order we begin evaluating the site for quality, reliability and performance. These are the sites that won our endorsement.

Other Connecticut Gambling Pages

Connecticut Online Poker FAQs

What Games Can I Play At Connecticut Online Poker Rooms?

You’ll be able to find high, medium, and low stakes US online poker games of all shapes and sizes. There are Omaha, Omaha Hi/Lo, 32 Card Draw, Americana, Texas Hold’em, and stud poker in 3, 5, and 7 card varieties. You may even find some variations of the game HORSE. Listed in with the promotions sections, you can find several tournaments and event opportunities at any given website that offer grand prizes and incentivize certain play styles.

The different variations of poker that are available to online poker players from Connecticut can be accessed through the free poker software that these websites supply. Poker software has been a driving force in the world of competitive and recreational poker. Usually designed from a technology development company that has been hired specifically for a particular brand. Poker software allows players to play more games and in a more enjoyable and convenient way. To the competitive poker world, poker software is like the technological advancement of the bow-and-arrow to Genghis Khan, it changes everything. Players can see upwards of 10,000 hands a day compared to the old casino days of maybe 20.

Can I Play For Free At Online Poker Sites?

Sparsely available, yet you will be able to find it in your search in a few forms. You might see an option for “play money” that will toggle your search for games online where you can enter into real poker games with other real people also playing with a valueless hypothetical currency that is more like points in a video game. This way you can play for fun with no financial stress and get to know the interface of the game you’re playing before making real money bets.

Another option is what’s called Freeroll tournaments. These are tournaments with no entrance fee that commonly carry cash prizes, which theoretically allows you to win money without risking any at all. There are also other bonuses that will allow you to play for free as well, they are called the “No Deposit Bonus”. In the “No Deposit Bonus” you will be provided with free chips to play and if the special wagering requirements are met, you may stand to gain some profit off the bonus!

Are There Online Poker Bonuses For Connecticut Players?

Connecticut Online Poker Law

The bonuses that a website can offer you can inform you a little on the quality of the website itself. Aside from the previously mentioned “No Deposit Bonus”, there are also streams of other bonuses and promotions that will be offered to you as the various internet poker rooms court you as a customer. They vary widely but there is one that has been known as an industry standard, and that’s the “Welcome Bonus”. This is a match bonus where a percentage of your first deposit (or first series of deposits) is matched to provide bonus funds to your account. These welcome bonus’ vary from site to site. It’s worth looking at the other bonuses that a site may offer if the welcome bonus is lower than you might have expected. The other promotions that the site offers will normally make up for it.

Can I Play Real Money Poker Games From My Mobile Phone?

Mobile poker has come to the online poker community. You can access online poker rooms from your smartphones no matter who the providers are. The responsive technology on the internet allows Android users to download apps that make the transition to mobile poker seamless and without trouble. There is also the web browser based poker rooms that tend to be more available to iPhone users while Windows IOS phones and blackberries along with Android seems to have more options in downloadable apps.

What Are The Banking Options?

The wallet systems that are programmed into these websites are backed up by a data encrypted server with SSL security protocols in place. Once you register you will be ushered digitally to the online cashier where you will see the options for deposit and withdrawal. Although the deposit and withdrawal options are usually very similar, using any major credit cards like Visa, and MasterCard for a payout is usually not an option. You can use them to make deposits though, and then you can request your withdrawals through various bank-to-bank or person-to-person wire transfer methods. Commonly they also offer methods of mailing a check by post and sending one by courier. By far, the best method of sending funds to and from your online gambling accounts is Bitcoin and there are usually even bonuses associated with using it.

Connecticut Views on Poker Gambling from The Beginning

Governor of Connecticut in the early 90’s, Lowell P. Weicker Jr. can be named as the one responsible for paving the way for gambling in the state of Connecticut. Through several legal proceedings and compromises, the Governor was able to create the foundation needed for the two gaming tribes of Connecticut to establish Casinos in their home state. What is now the largest casino in the US was just a Bingo hall in the late 80’s, but in the early 90’s when the legislature was there for them to do, they started to add poker and casino games. In 1995, they added a 30 table-game area for high-limit poker. All of these things led to the US government’s federal recognition of the Mashantucket Pequot Tribe of Connecticut as an official native American tribe. Today there are three casinos in the state and they are widely regarded as some of the largest and nicest in the world.

Land Based Poker Rooms In Connecticut

If you are only going to have two casino poker rooms in an entire State, then you’d be very happy that these were the mega resort casinos of Mohegan Sun and Foxwoods in Connecticut. These are high points in a State which is otherwise not gambling friendly. Fortunately there are cash games up to high levels and some of the biggest tournament events around at these casinos.

Recommended Connecticut Poker Site

This page gives you a detailed overview of how and where to find poker games in the State of Connecticut. First of all, live casino poker games are covered – focusing on those two huge tribal casino resorts. After that I have looked at social poker games. Next you’ll find information on playing online poker from this State – followed by some key excerpts from the Statutes which are relevant to poker fans.

Live Poker Games In Connecticut

By the standards of any casino outside of Las Vegas or Atlantic City, Foxwoods and Mohegan sun are giants. They provide hotel, restaurant, conference and entertainment complexes in addition to the gambling games. Millions of people are drawn to these venues every year, coming from not only Connecticut, but neighboring States including Massachusetts and New York too.

You can enjoy some of the biggest tournament events around including the World Poker Tour and World Series Circuit events at these venues. These are in addition to all the regular tournaments (including their own events) and of course a ton of cash game action.

These casinos are both on the land of native tribes, there are no State licensed casinos at all in Connecticut.

Social Poker – Are Home Games Legal Here?

You can play social poker home games in Connecticut legally – though there is an additional rule on top of the usual ‘nobody can profit from running the game’ concept. This is that there has to be a real social relationship between the people involved in the game. This seems a nebulous concept to try and prove in a court room – though these types of games are not the focus of any enforcement activity in this State anyway.

There are free poker tournaments in restaurants and bars in CT. These currently exist in a legal grey area, though a bill was put forward to give these free-to-enter games a carve-out from the Statutes. Holdem is currently prohibited under the charity gambling laws in Connecticut.

Online Poker Games In Connecticut

Even with the casino resorts making this State a famous east-coast gambling destination, the government here is far from open to progress when it comes to the general gambling climate. Internet gambling and poker games are assumed to be covered by the general Statutes. There is little to indicate that Connecticut will regulate internet poker any time soon. At the moment Mohegan Sun run a free poker site.

Offshore sites, who operate from locations like Netherlands Antilles and Antigua, welcome players from CT. These internet poker rooms are completely legal in their own countries, and offer players from most US states a wide range of cash games and poker tournaments. Remember that from a legal perspective you are playing at your own risk, though no Connecticut player has ever been busted for merely enjoying real money online poker.

What Do The Connecticut Gambling Statutes Say?

The Connecticut Statutes focus on risk and gain, and do explicitly list poker in their books under the gambling definitions. As in many States, what the laws do here say that every possible form of gambling is illegal – and then make exceptions in clauses for such things as social poker home games, charity gambling and so on. The tribal lands are governed by their own laws, though there are deals (known as ‘compacts’) in place between the tribes and the State.

Here is the key definition of what constitutes illegal gambling activity under the CT Statutes. This is from Section 35, 278A of the code:

…risking any money, credit, deposit or other thing of value for gain contingent in whole or in part upon lot, chance or the operation of a gambling device, including the playing of a casino gambling game such as blackjack, poker, craps, roulette or a slot machine…

It might be possible to argue that poker in this context refers to casino poker games (the ones where the house has a built-in edge). My opinion is that the conservative nature of this State would see this kind of case quickly thrown out.

Connecticut Poker – Summing It Up

Famous for the biggest and best casino resorts on the East Coast, Connecticut is in reality very strict in its anti-gambling laws. If it were not for the tribal lands which host Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun, there would be virtually no gambling here at all. Those casinos have prompted nearly States including Massachusetts and Rhode Island to legalize their own casinos. The leak of potential tax revenues into Connecticut proved to be the tipping point. There will soon also be some competition from upstate New York, where some new State casinos have been approved.

There is little likelihood of Connecticut regulating online poker games any time soon. If and when many surrounding States are benefiting from the revenue generated from these games, we might find the government here taking a look into the area.