Alaska Online Poker – Is It Legal?
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Scott Kacsmar
- August 25, 2024
For a state that has yet to legalize sports betting and online casino gaming, you can bet that Alaska does not have a legal platform for online poker either as of 2024.
In fact, the state does not have any licensed poker rooms, leaving Alaskan players on the hunt for online poker sites that will offer a high-quality online betting experience.
Fortunately, our guide is here to give you just that. Many offshore online gambling sites in Alaska have a great sportsbook and casino section, but not many will provide a solid online poker room too. We show you the best sites to join and what makes them the best, and we explain why online poker is by far the best choice for players seeking some instant poker gratification to win real money today.
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$750 Cash Bonus
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$1,000 Cash Bonus
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$250 Free Bet
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100% Free Play
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Our Highest-Rated Online Poker Sites
We have included our top online poker sites for Alaskan online poker players, all of which offer live poker rooms.
- Bovada – Best option for poker tournaments
- BetOnline – New users get big poker welcome bonus
- Everygame – Great graphics for poker and casino
- SportsBetting.ag – Get up to $1,000 in welcome bonus funds
Can you legally play poker online in Alaska?
No, most states have not been eager to legalize games of chance. Unfortunately, Alaska is among those who have not. Alaska has yet to make sports betting legal and is home to some of the most strict gambling laws in the United States.
The only option you have in Alaska to win real money playing poker is to join offshore sites like the ones we are about to review below. Because these sites are located across international waters, they are not under the control of any U.S. online gambling laws.
Comparing the Top Alaska Poker Sites
We have included our reviews of the top four online poker sites for Alaskan players. These sites all have a poker room that you can use by visiting their website or downloading software (PC or Mac for your desktop; Android or iOS for your mobile device). These offshore betting sites will also have your favorite sports where you can bet on your favorite team.
1. Best Option for Poker Tournaments: Bovada
Key Features
- No. 1 in poker traffic for Americans
- Huge crypto welcome bonuses
- One of the best reward programs
You may not be familiar with the PaiWangLuo poker network, but it is No. 1 in traffic for poker sites that accept American users. This is the network Bovada has been running on for years to help build its popularity in the online gambling market.
Bovada is your best choice for online poker in Alaska. You will be treated to a site that has enough tournaments and cash games that $2 million in prize money is won each week in the poker room, which is accessible with a software download.
The most popular games (Omaha and Texas Hold’em) are offered in Bovada’s comprehensive casino. With users of all experience levels playing here, the coolest feature at Bovada is incognito mode, which allows you to play at tables anonymously to hide your strategies from experienced players.
While Bovada does not have a lot of ongoing promos, the welcome bonuses are huge (especially for crypto fans) and the reward program is one of the best. The more you gamble, the more points you earn at Bovada and those points and your tier level never expire. Those points can be redeemed for bonus bets or even for poker tournament entries. There are also numerous promo codes at Bovada that can be used for a variety of additional benefits.
2. New Users Get Big Poker Welcome Bonus: BetOnline
Key Features
- Very fast payouts on all payment methods
- Takes poker tournament suggestions
- Many exclusive casino games
BetOnline, SportsBetting and TigerGaming are a trio of online gambling sites that belong to the Chico Poker Network. They all operate on what is the No. 3 poker network in American player traffic. BetOnline does a very good job of offering a wide array of poker tournaments, including its big $150k Guaranteed each Sunday and Sit & Go tournaments. They also take poker tournament suggestions from fans that you can submit and possibly see posted.
There are always cash games with the most popular games like Omaha and Texas Hold’em. You can play these games with pot limit, limit and no limit. Another key feature at BetOnline Casino is the Bad-Beat Jackpots, where all players can win money if certain conditions are met.
Those new to the site will appreciate the generous 100% deposit bonus of up to $1,000 on your initial deposit by using BetOnline promo codes. As is common with poker bonuses, you must play $50 in rake to release $5 increments of your bonus money. BetOnline also provides a great online gambling experience for sharp bettors and high rollers as it has high limits and fast payouts. You will also be appreciative of the wide variety of payment methods available.
3. Great Graphics for Poker and Casino: Everygame
Key Features
- Good bonuses for new users
- Highest rakeback rate (36%)
Long known as Intertops, Everygame received a rebranding to honor its 25 years in the business. From the name, this rebranding has done its share to spruce up the sports betting platform on the site, complete with a bigger variety of sports to bet on and live betting markets.
But the best part of Everygame is still the full casino section and their online poker room, where the superior site design and user interface are best allowed to shine with good graphics and sound to emulate a realistic gaming experience on your mobile device.
Everygame has downloadable poker software so that you can play your favorite style of poker games with tournaments and cash games. Bovada and BetOnline operate on busier networks for American poker players, but this is not necessarily a negative, as you can face a smaller number of players to help win grand prizes in Everygame Poker’s online tournaments. Just remember that those top prizes will not be as big as the ones often featured at Bovada and BetOnline.
Those looking for an alternative to our top two sites will be pleased with Everygame. For additional value, there is also a selection of great promo codes at Everygame for new users and the platform has the highest reported rakeback rate (36%) for poker players.
4. Get Up to $1,000 in Welcome Bonus Funds: SportsBetting
Key Features
- Some of the most unique promos around
- Very good tournament selection
- Quick payouts and high limits
The Chico Poker Network includes BetOnline and its sister site SportsBetting.ag, so you will get access to the No. 3 poker network for American users. BetOnline just happens to be the more popular, established brand of the two.
But like at BetOnline, our No. 2 online poker site for Alaskan players, you will be able to play in a variety of poker tournaments with SportsBetting, including the $150k Guaranteed each Sunday. They also offer the Bad-Beat Jackpots and games of Texas Hold’em and Omaha with no limit and pot limit.
If you join SportsBetting for the poker options, you can get up to $1,000 in bonus funds as a new user with a 100% deposit match of your initial deposit. For every $50 earned in rake, $5 of your bonus funds will be released.
Our Rating Methodology
We will get into our rating methodology in greater detail below, but our judgment of the best online casinos and poker sites includes looking at the quality of the customer service, the bonuses offered, a wide variety of payment methods and betting markets available and a site’s track record in the industry. A well-designed mobile site is also crucial to a high-quality online betting experience.
The History of Gambling Laws in Alaska
Alaska is the coldest state in the country, and it comes as little surprise that the history of legal gambling has not been hot in The Last Frontier. Back in 1960, the state’s Department of Revenue was put in charge of overseeing legal gambling activities, but that had little definition beyond charitable gaming, like bingo and raffles.
Alaska is a state that has pull tabs and dog mushing races for gambling instead of lottery tickets and horse racing. The pull-tab games were legalized in 1984, and in 1993, the state made sure to oversee the selling of these tickets to users who were getting them from third-party vendors throughout the state.
Cruise ship gambling also quickly came and went in 1995 in Alaska. The tribal casinos in the state today do not have slot machines, as those are illegal. There also is no card room to play poker anywhere in the state, and sports betting has not been regulated despite the Supreme Court overturning PASPA in 2018.
Things are not very active from a gambling point of view in Alaska, but the good news is that Alaskan players can feel free to join offshore gambling sites to participate in sports betting, casino gaming and online poker.
Alaska’s Regulatory Body for Gambling
The Alaska Department of Revenue (Tax Division) oversees the very limited gambling allowed in the state. Alaska does not have any commercial casinos, but there are roughly 10 tribal casinos located on Native American land.
With such limited legal gambling in the state, most Alaskan players turn to offshore betting sites for their gambling needs. These sites are not regulated by Alaska since they are located in places like Costa Rica and Antigua where online gambling is legal.
Key Features of Alaska’s Best Online Poker Sites
In the following sections, we are looking at how we judge the key features of the best offshore casinos.
Competitive Gambling Odds
With online betting sites, you always want to see competitive gambling odds. On the sportsbook, that could be a selection of betting lines with reduced juice, meaning -105 or -108 lines instead of the traditional -110. In the poker section, we expect a wide range of games available for players of different skill levels with different buy-in amounts.
A Wide Variety of Betting Markets
The best online gambling sites always offer the largest selection of bets possible, no matter which forms of gambling you engage with. If you do the sportsbook, there should be a wide range of sports markets and betting types. If you play at the casino, you expect table games, slots, video poker, specialty games and live dealer games.
For poker players, you want to see tournaments, cash games, video poker and a variety of other games like Pai Gow Poker, Caribbean Stud Poker, 7-Card Poker, etc.
Multiple Banking Methods
With the way poker variance hits, you will sometimes need to make a deposit. Hopefully, you will have several withdrawals to make too with your winnings. Fortunately, these top online casinos do a good job of providing plenty of payment options for the modern user in 2024. In addition to the traditional payment methods like credit cards and debit cards, you can use eWallets and even a selection of crypto options (Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, etc.) as well.
Generous Promotions & Bonuses
A good welcome bonus can get a user to join a site. A selection of promotions for returning users is how to get that player to be a loyal customer. These sites do a good job of providing big deposit bonuses for new users based on the size of their first deposit. But as an existing user, you can also expect reload promos, risk-free bets, bonus bets, double reward points on select games, free spins and a good reward program at many of these sites.
Live Dealers Available
If you want a more exciting wagering experience at online betting sites, then live dealer games are a great way to achieve that. Instead of playing electronic games with random results, you can use video chat to watch a live dealer actually deal you your cards in blackjack or spin a real roulette ball on the wheel live after you place your bets. Some sites could even call you by your name and there is usually an option to chat by text with other players.
Live dealer games are the best way to feel like you are really at a casino when you play table games like blackjack, roulette and baccarat.
Quality of the User Interface
The best online betting sites will do a great job of designing their site so that you can easily jump from one section of the site to the other, including the sportsbook, racebook, casino, live casino and the poker room, of course. Beyond moving around freely, we need to be able to view our live bets in the online sportsbooks and have a cashier that makes it easy to do deposits and withdrawals.
Of the mobile sites on our list, none have a downloadable poker client for the online casino. However, they have software for the poker room that you can download for your mobile device (Android or iOS). Poker sites need software that is easy to navigate as players may want to play in multiple tournaments at the same time, so they need a neatly organized site to jump between those active games.
Customer Service Options
Whether we are judging poker sites or sportsbooks or casinos, they should all answer with the same customer service. The way to achieve the best grade for customer service is to operate 24/7 with the biggest variety of contact methods available: phone calls, emails, messages on the site and a live chat feature.
Site’s Security Features
If you are going to win real money online, you must deposit real money into a verified account. The only way you get verified is by providing real information to identify you, so these sites must play it safe with our data and keep it secure. For this reason, we only trust online gambling sites that have many years of experience in the industry, so you know you can trust that they are taking security seriously to protect our data.
Varieties of Online Poker in Alaska
When you join offshore sites with a poker room, you will be treated to a wide variety of games. These offshore casinos do a great job of giving you poker tournaments, cash games and even video poker variants if that is more your style.
The following is a partial list of the types of poker games and specific poker styles you can expect to find at offshore sites with a poker room:
- Single-table tournaments
- Multi-table tournaments
- Sit & Go tournaments
- Bad Beat Jackpots
- Pai Gow Poker
- 7-Card Stud Poker
- 3-Card Poker
- Caribbean Stud Poker
- Texas Hold’em (Limit, Pot Limit, No Limit)
- Omaha (Limit, Pot Limit, No Limit)
- Video poker (several variants available)
Advantages of Playing Online Poker in Alaska
If you live in Alaska, you are really out of luck for having any card rooms or land-based casinos to visit to play poker in person. So, if you find it hard to get together with some adults for a social game of poker in a private residence, playing online poker with a wide range of options at offshore sites is your best poker option.
With these online casinos, you will be able to download software that is easy to install and use to play poker. You will also get generous welcome bonuses and ongoing promotions that you would not find at land-based casinos if they even existed in the state. You will get a wide variety of payment options to fund your account, including eWallets and crypto.
Beyond the gaming versatility, you get the luxury of being able to play poker at any time of day in any state of dress and cleanliness you choose to have. You would also save on gas money and time spent traveling to a land-based poker establishment.
For Alaskan players, online poker is by far the best choice.
How to Create an Online Poker Account in Alaska
If you want to join an offshore sportsbook or one of the online poker sites reviewed above, you have to create your account first. This is a simple process that we will walk you through below. This general process should work for any of the top-rated poker sites on our list.
Step 1. Sign-Up
Visit the site of the poker site you wish to join and begin creating your account. You should create a password that is unique and one you are not using anywhere else online.
Step 2. Verify Your Poker Account Details
Before your account is verified, you must provide more personal information, including your name, address, email and phone number. You should expect the site to email you a link or text you a code to enter to verify your account in the system. This is why you must provide an accurate email and phone number where you can be reached.
Step 3. Deposit Your Funds
Now your account needs money. Before you do that, make sure to read about the welcome bonuses for new users, because that is usually a one-time offer based on the amount of your initial deposit. Once you are prepared to do that, head to the deposit or cashier section and make that first deposit.
Step 4. Begin Playing Poker
Now that your account is created and has money, you are ready to start playing poker. You will have to download some software for your desktop or mobile device’s operating system before you get started. But after that quick step, you will be ready to start playing poker cash games and tournaments for real money.
Is playing poker online safe in Alaska?
Yes, we suggested poker sites where Alaskan players can win real money online. These sites are trustworthy and have been in the business for many years. They have a proven track record of paying customers on time and in a variety of ways, including crypto (Bitcoin, Ethereum, etc.). You can feel safe playing these sites today. Just remember to budget and bet responsibly when it comes to online poker.
FAQs – Playing Online Poker in Alaska
Can I bet online in Alaska?
Yes, but only at offshore sportsbooks, as most gambling activities are not legal in Alaska. You can do Daily Fantasy Sports online with DraftKings and FanDuel. But for other types of casino gaming and sports betting in Alaska, you must use an offshore sportsbook and casino.
Can I play online poker in Alaska?
Yes, you can play online poker (cash games and tournaments) in Alaska with the use of an offshore casino site with a poker room like Bovada, BetOnline, Everygame or SportsBetting. There are no regulated, licensed operators for online poker in the state.
Are there poker rooms in Alaska?
No, since Alaska has determined poker to be a game of chance instead of a game of skill, it does not operate any legal poker rooms in the state. You will have to settle for social games of poker at a private residence with people you know.
Are there gambling casinos in Alaska?
There are tribal casinos located in Alaska, but they do not have traditional slot machines or card games. You can only play electronic bingo games, pull-tab games and participate in raffles.
What is the safest online poker site for U.S. players?
There are tribal casinos located in Alaska, but they do not have traditional slot machines or card games. You can only play electronic bingo games, pull-tab games and participate in raffles.
