Poker in New York: where to play live, and what the rules are

New York is a big poker state with its action in the wrong place for most of its population: the rooms are upstate, several hours from New York City, at the four commercial casinos licensed after the 2013 constitutional amendment and at the tribal resorts that predate them. There is no licensed live poker room in the five boroughs. The pages below cover the rooms we have read and verified against the operators' own poker pages.

Where live poker is actually played

The largest verified room in the state is at Turning Stone Resort Casino in Verona, run by the Oneida Indian Nation: 32 tables, open 24 hours a day, with a limit ladder running from $3-$6 up to $100-$200 and no-limit Hold'em to $25-$50. It also hosts the state's biggest annual festival, a World Series of Poker Circuit stop.

del Lago Resort & Casino in Seneca County runs a smaller room on a part-time schedule — Thursday through Monday, with 9am starts and no Tuesday or Wednesday session published at all. That pattern is worth checking before a long drive, and it is common at rooms outside the big destination resorts.

What the state regulates

Commercial casino gaming in New York is overseen by the New York State Gaming Commission, and casino promotions carry a line saying they are subject to Commission approval. The minimum age for casino gaming, including poker, is 21. Tribal casinos such as Turning Stone operate under compacts between the nation and the state rather than under a commercial licence, which is why their rules on matters like players cards can differ from a commercial property's.

Online poker

New York has not authorised online poker. Bills to licence it have been introduced repeatedly without passing, and mobile sports betting — legal in the state since January 2022 — did not bring poker with it. Any site offering real-money online poker to New York residents is doing so without a New York licence.

Before you travel

Room hours, stakes and tournament schedules change more often than casino websites are updated. Where an operator does not publish a figure — a table count, a buy-in — we leave it out rather than estimate it, so a missing number on our pages means the casino does not state it.

This page is general information about how poker is regulated and where it is played, not legal advice.