Poker is an incredibly fun game. We all know that. Part of the fun comes from the fact that poker, when played right, is a very social experience. So, it should come as no surprise that so many people want to play poker with their friends.
Of course, playing poker is gambling. In many jurisdictions, gambling is strictly limited, if not outright banned. For example, in the US and the UK, you need a gambling license to run any sort of gambling operation.
This does leave people wondering about the legality of playing poker with friends. Specifically, the legality of playing poker with friends when there is money on the table.
On this page, we’ll look at the legality of playing poker with friends from both an American and a British perspective.
If there is no money on the line, it will never be illegal to play poker with friends. It doesn’t matter whether you’re in the UK or the US. In fact, anybody can play, no matter their age, if money doesn’t change hands.
Things get a bit more complicated when money is on the line, which is what we want to talk about over the next few sections.
We’ll start with British law because that is far, far easier to decipher than US laws related to playing poker with friends.
According to the UK Gambling Commission, it is 100% legal to play poker with friends if the following conditions have been met:
You can play in a hostel or hall of residence (i.e., at university) if more than 50% of the people playing are residents there and no profit is being made.
There is some indication that, technically, gambling can occur on commercial premises if it is a members’ club and a private function has hired a room. However, most places won’t allow this as it is teetering on the edge of legality, and they often need to have extensive processes in place to ensure that the game remains a ‘domestic’ game of poker, i.e., one not bound by commercial gambling rules.
So, it is safe to say that you can play poker with friends for money in the UK, but you cannot take a commission for running the game. So, all the money staked (and there seems to be no limit to the amount of cash staked) will be split between the participants, i.e., that cash can be winnings only.
This is where things start to get a bit confusing. This is because there is no clear-cut answer in US law. It will depend on:
You can assume that most states will let you play poker with friends, even for cash. However, you’ll need to make a note of the minimum age for gambling in each state. This will determine the age at which you can play social poker games with your friends. It will either be 18 or 21.
The only states that explicitly ban social gambling games are:
Laws do vary a little bit between the states. For example, in Georgia gambling law, it is explicitly stated that any gambling involving cards (or dice) is strictly prohibited, and there is no explicit mention of social gambling being an exception to the rule.
Therefore it can be assumed that social gambling is not legal. The District of Columbia also makes social gambling illegal, or it can be assumed that it is illegal under the District of Columbia’s laws, as it lists exceptions to the laws but does not list social gambling as an exception. There’s no sense in us going through all these laws because it is pretty much the same - social gambling is illegal, no matter how they ban it.
So, all these places have banned social gambling. They do it in different ways, but it is fully banned there. This is unlike the law in Connecticut, where, while gambling is prohibited, there is an actual exception in the law that allows social gambling to occur.
Back to the places that explicitly ban social gambling. This means that you cannot legally play poker with your friends. In some cases, it may be banned for money, while other states, e.g., Wisconsin, ban the idea of making a bet, even if no cash is on the line!
However, that’s the law. Truth be told, even if you gamble with friends in states where social poker gambling is illegal, chances are that you won’t have your door busted down by the police, demanding that you march down to the police station with them. We can promise you that there are people in these states gambling with their friends regularly. Sure, we can’t recommend that you do something illegal (as it is still illegal), but you probably aren’t going to get caught.
Of course, you’re only not going to get caught if you are sensible. Make sure that you are truly playing with your friends, and don’t advertise the game. Under no circumstances should you be making a profit from the game (outside of your winnings), and you should be fine. Again, you are on your own here. We are not explicitly stating that you should go out and play social games of poker in states where it is technically illegal to do, but as long as you aren’t telling everybody about it, we reckon you should be fine.
Remember – in all cases, if you want to play poker with friends to be legal, you should only do it in a private dwelling (i.e., your home). Once you start heading out into a public setting and playing the game, the rules become a little bit more complicated, and they will vary from state to state. However, non-private residences will likely need to be licensed by gambling authorities before gambling is allowed there.
In the UK, you are fine with playing poker with friends in a private setting. However, you cannot profit from playing poker (outside of your winnings).
In the US, the rules are a bit more complicated. Most states will let you play poker with your friends (it is known as social gambling), but some other states explicitly ban it. This means that it may be technically illegal to play poker with your friends (even with no cash on the line), but the chances are that you won’t get caught.
