Poker in North Carolina: live poker rooms, online sites and the law

Where to play live poker in North Carolina

Live poker is legal in North Carolina only at the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians’ casinos, which run under a compact with the state, in the western mountains.

Casino	City	Poker
Harrah's Cherokee Casino Resort	Cherokee	WSOP-branded room with about 25 tables, the largest in the state: No-Limit Hold'em and Pot-Limit Omaha, tournaments and a bad beat jackpot
Harrah's Cherokee Valley River	Murphy	About 10 tables, according to DeucesCracked; another guide says there's no live poker, so call before you go
Catawba Two Kings Casino	Kings Mountain	No poker room: the new casino floor that opened in May 2026 has live table games, but no poker

Near Charlotte. Two Kings, in Kings Mountain, is the closest casino to Charlotte, but it has no poker room. South Carolina has no land-based casinos either, so the nearest live poker in the state is at Harrah’s Cherokee.

Hours, games and limits change. Check with the casino before you go, including the minimum age.

How online poker works in North Carolina

No state-licensed site. North Carolina legalized online sports betting in 2024, and it launched on March 11, 2024. Online poker and casino games were left out, and no bill to license them has passed.

What the law says about players. G.S. 14-292 makes it a Class 2 misdemeanor to play or bet on a game of chance for money, outside the exceptions the law allows. There is no record of a North Carolina player being prosecuted for playing online poker at an international site. Federal law (UIGEA, 2006) restricts how banks process gambling payments and does not criminalize players.

What that means for you. International rooms that accept North Carolina players are not licensed by the state, so North Carolina consumer protections do not apply. Choose rooms with a long track record and keep only what you are playing with on the site. See the overview for the whole country in our US online poker guide.

Which partner rooms accept North Carolina players

All four of our US-facing rooms with rakeback accept North Carolina:

• Ignition Poker: the biggest US-facing room, with anonymous tables, a 150% Bitcoin bonus and 40% rakeback through our link.
• ACR Poker: the biggest guaranteed tournaments open to US players (the Venom, the OSS), a 100% bonus up to $2,000 and 35% rakeback.
• BetOnline Poker: on the Chico network, with a crypto-friendly cashier and 33% rakeback.
• CoinPoker: crypto-only, tables in USDT, HUDs allowed and 30% rakeback every week.

The ranked list at the top of this page is sorted by the rakeback you get through RakebackPokerWorld. To see how much comes back with your own monthly rake, use the rakeback calculator.

Deposits and withdrawals from North Carolina

US banks often block card payments to gambling sites, so crypto is the most reliable way to move money in and out of international rooms:

1. Buy Bitcoin or USDT on an exchange that accepts North Carolina residents.
2. Copy the deposit address from the room’s cashier and send it, checking the network the cashier indicates.
3. To cash out, request a crypto withdrawal and sell on the exchange. Crypto payouts usually arrive within hours.

Start with a small test amount. With USDT, your balance follows the dollar instead of moving with the Bitcoin price. The step by step is in how to deposit and withdraw Bitcoin at poker sites.

Taxes

Gambling winnings, live or online, are taxable income under federal law, and North Carolina taxes them as income too. Keep records of your results and talk to a tax professional about your situation.