Poker in Venezuela: the live calendar, the two rooms, and who regulates it

Venezuelan live poker is small, concentrated in two rooms, and organised around festivals rather than a daily grind — and its buy-ins are quoted in US dollars. Here is what is actually on the calendar, and what we could verify about the rules around it.

Where poker is played

Two venues carry Venezuela's published live poker. Casino BBH in Lechería, on the Caribbean coast of Anzoátegui state, is the home of the BBH Poker Series and the busier of the two: it is hosting the 2026 Winter Poker Series from 27 November to 6 December, with USD 135,000 in announced guarantees across five tournaments, the largest being a USD 100,000 Main Event. Gran Casino El Marqués, inside the Unicentro El Marqués shopping centre on avenida Francisco de Miranda in Caracas, has run opening events, a Main Event, Mystery Bounty and a Win The Button progressive knockout, some with multiple starting flights, though it had no upcoming dates published as of 28 October 2026.

That is the whole verified picture. Neither room publishes a standing weekly tournament or cash-game schedule we have been able to confirm, so in Venezuela the festival dates are the calendar.

Buy-ins in dollars

Festival buy-ins and guarantees in Venezuela are announced in US dollars rather than bolívares. For a travelling player that makes the numbers legible; for a local one it is simply how the market prices itself after years of currency instability. Note that an announced guarantee is a minimum prize pool the organiser commits to, not a prediction of the field and not a buy-in.

Who regulates gambling

Casinos, bingo halls and slot machines in Venezuela fall under the Comisión Nacional de Casinos, Salas de Bingo y Máquinas Traganíqueles (CNC), the national gambling commission, which publishes a problem-gambling self-assessment test and a directory of treatment centres and Jugadores Anónimos groups on its own site. We have not yet read the CNC's licensing register directly, so this page does not state which of the two rooms above holds which licence — when we have read it from the primary source, it will say so here.

Signing up to play online

Where this site shows an online operator for Venezuela, that reflects the operator's own terms about which countries it accepts, not a Venezuelan licence. Those are different facts and we try not to blur them. If you play online from Venezuela, read the operator's terms on deposits, verification and withdrawals before you fund an account, and check which identity documents it will accept.

Playing sensibly

Poker is entertainment and a game of skill played for money you can afford to lose — it is not an income, a plan for paying off debts, or a route to a different life, and anyone selling it that way is selling something else. Players must be 18 or over. If gambling stops being fun, the CNC's self-test and treatment directory are the official starting points in Venezuela.

Nothing here is legal or tax advice; it is general information verified on 28 October 2026 from the sources cited on the records this page lists.