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

Where to play live poker in Virginia

Live poker is legal in Virginia’s licensed casinos, which the Virginia Lottery regulates, and you must be 21 to play.

Casino	City	Poker
Rivers Casino Portsmouth	Portsmouth	The largest room in the state, with about 24 tables: No-Limit Hold'em, Pot-Limit Omaha and Limit Hold'em, open 24/7; opened in January 2023
Caesars Virginia	Danville	About 21 tables, open 24/7, with weekly guaranteed tournaments; the casino opened on December 12, 2024
Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Bristol	Bristol	About 14 tables; the permanent casino opened on November 14, 2024

Richmond and Norfolk. Richmond has no casino, and the casino planned in Norfolk is still under construction, so the closest poker for both cities is Rivers Casino Portsmouth.

Table counts come from DeucesCracked, and hours and games change. Check with the casino before you go.

How online poker works in Virginia

No state-licensed site. Virginia has had legal online sports betting since 2021, but online poker and casino games are not licensed. In 2026, Senate Bill 118 and House Bill 161 would have legalized online casino games, with poker in the House version, and each passed in the other chamber. The two chambers didn’t agree on a final text before the session ended on March 14, so neither became law.

What the law says about players. Code 18.2-326 makes illegal gambling a Class 3 misdemeanor, punished by a fine. There is no record of a Virginia 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 Virginia players are not licensed by the state, so Virginia 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 Virginia players

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

• 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 Virginia

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 Virginia 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 Virginia taxes them as income too. Keep records of your results and talk to a tax professional about your situation.