Poker Rooms by Country
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Online poker may bring players from around the world to a single table, but the truth is that playing online poker is far from a universal experience. In fact, where you live has a significant impact on how, when and where you can play online poker.
With this page, we're going to highlight some of the basic challenges stemming from location that online poker players face and provide tips for limiting the impact those challenges have on your ability to play poker online.
Most rooms restrict real-money play to certain locations
There are very few online poker sites that accept real-money play from every country on the planet. That's why we have unique top site guides for a variety of major online poker markets, including: Canada, United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Europe.
In fact, there's not one room we can think of that doesn't restrict players from at least one country. A few examples: Party Poker doesn't allow players from the United States, PokerStars' French-facing room doesn't allow Canadian poker players and the Spanish-facing arm of the iPoker Network doesn't let players from other European countries participate.
Fortunately for you, our site is specifically designed to only list offers that accept players from your region. So whether you're reading our guide to the best sites for tournaments or the poker rooms with the lowest deposit minimums, you can be sure you'll only see rooms that allow players from your country.
Our USA poker page ranks the top online poker sites accepting US players today. This list is updated frequently. Our United States page also covers how to deposit or cash out in the US as well as a brief introduction to current legislation for US poker online.
Our UK poker page provides a resource for British poker players. This page outlines which poker sites allow you to play poker in Great Britain Pounds in addition to the best poker sites in the UK. All of the rooms featured on this page offer GBP tables, letting you deposit, play and cash out in your preferred currency.
Our Australian poker page also compares the top online poker rooms for Australian players. This list includes some of the benefits Aussie players receive as well as poker rooms where you can deposit and cash out in AUD. All of the poker rooms featured on this page award players with VIP promos, seats to live events (like the Aussie Millions) and offer a huge array of tournaments and cash games.
For Canadians, we have a list of the top Canadian poker sites here. This page provides information on how to deposit and cash out at a Canadian poker room, which Canadians sites accept deposits in CDN and of course, bonuses for new players. The poker rooms listed on our Canada page also provide opportunities to win seats to live poker tournaments including the CPT (Canadian Poker Tour).
Our European poker site page covers sites that accept players from across Europe and allow you to deposit, cash out and play poker online in Euros. The list of poker rooms on this page are some of the best known sites throughout Europe and most of the world. Players joining through our site qualify for exclusive deposit bonuses.
As if it wasn't tough enough to keep track of all the promotions online poker rooms offer to players, it's become quite trendy for rooms to offer promotions specifically targeted at certain regions. For example, online poker players from the UK are regularly courted with exclusive promos related to live poker tours in the United Kingdom - promotions that wouldn't make much sense for Australian poker players..
Currency conversion can carry hidden costs
The majority of online poker games are conducted in U.S. Dollars (USD). This remains the case even at networks and rooms that no longer accept American players. While that universal currency brings some advantages to an online poker room, it can also come with a hidden downside for the player: currency conversion costs.
Not all rooms charge an extra fee for converting your balance from one currency to another, but players who are depositing in a currency other than the primary currency for games at the room will want to triple-check currency conversion policies. Check the list below to see if your local currency could be an issue:
- Canadian players: All major online poker sites accept deposits in CAD. But no sites run games using Canadian dollars.
- Australian players: You'll have no problem depositing and withdrawing in AUD, but your balance must be converted for table play.
- UK players: Pounds are accepted across the board at online poker sites. A few sites - especially UK-focused rooms - offer gameplay in GBP.
- European players: The euro is the second-most-popular currency for online poker games after the USD.
- USA players: Best situation of all players, as the vast majority of online poker games are played using American dollars.
Payment methods and policies vary by country
A related note: not all deposit and withdrawal methods are available to all regions. One common example of a region-restricted deposit method: Credit cards, which many poker sites will only accept from a select list of countries due to issues with fraud. And site policies regarding banking - maximum and minimum cashouts, processing times, verification procedures - can also be much different from one country to the next.
Legal attitudes toward online poker vary by country
Online gambling is a thorny and complex topic, and you'll find a full spectrum of attitudes and opinions on the activity as you move across the major markets for online poker.
For example, the United Kingdom has a permissive attitude toward online gambling that is paired with very aggressive regulatory policies. And many European countries have embraced liberal policies toward online gambling that are allowing a tightly-regulated market to thrive.
Canada and Australia both have laws on the books that could be interpreted as prohibiting some forms of online gambling, but major operators are very active in both countries and there have been effectively no governmental efforts to restrict, let alone abolish, gambling online.
By contrast, the United States has few laws that deal directly with online gambling, but a fairly restrictive approach to policing unregulated gambling online (as evidenced by the infamous Black Friday indictments handed out by the U.S. government in April of 2011).
