Vermont Texas Holdem Poker Room Reviews

If you live in the state of Vermont, your options in respect to gambling are going to be very limited.

The only permitted forms of gambling in the state are lotteries, charity games, and pari-mutuel betting on horse racing. You won’t be able to find any casinos in the state, or any race tracks for that matter, so even though you can legally place bets on horse racing there isn’t anywhere to do so live in the state.

Below we list some of the various gambling options available to you in the state of vermont, as well as which surrounding states you could go to that offer a wider selection of options.

Charitable Poker

If you want to play in a live Texas holdem poker game in the state, you’ll need to find a game that’s running for charitable purposes and has been licensed with the authorities. You probably won’t be able to make much money from these games, and you also can’t profit from them at all if you’re running them.

They must be held completely for charitable purposes and all the money you make must go to the relevant charity. So, you can still find a game in this case but it won’t be anything like playing a cash game or tournament at an actual casino.

Bingo and Raffles

The same goes for charitable bingo games or raffles. These are legal under state laws and are probably going to be much more common than finding a charity poker game. Many community organizations that are not for profit will run bingo games regularly to raise money for themselves and for the charity they support.

These are completely fine under state laws and you can make some decent money in these games if you’re lucky enough to win. Of course, you’ll always lose in the long run playing bingo. Raffles can also be run by these same organizations, and by individuals who are wishing to raise funds for a charity. Once again, this is highly regulated by state authorities so make sure you’ve ticked all the boxes in this respect before running a raffle.

Lottery

The Vermont state lottery consists of a range of state based draws and games, as well as the large national lotteries such as Powerball and Mega Millions. They also offer scratch cards and pull tabs which are instant win games that the player can purchase and open, or scratch, and see if they’ve won straight away.

The lottery is run by the state government in Vermont and all profits go towards the state education fund. This raises a huge amount of money each year which is given out in the forms of scholarships, tuition assistance, materials assistance, and some money goes towards maintenance, running, and building of new educational institutions.

This really is a good thing and it’s great that the state has taken a sensible approach to the gambling that’s associated with lottery and appropriates the profits to worthy causes. This kind of approach can also be used in other forms of gaming, including poker, so let’s hope they continue to build on this in the future to allow for more live poker venues to open and offer games to residents and visitors alike.

Online Poker

Given the restrictions they have in respect to live poker games and gambling in general it’s fair to say that online poker won’t be regulated any time soon in Vermont. Particularly because the only accepted forms of poker are in a charity game, and we’re quite sure you couldn’t transition this sort of game into an online environment.

Like the rest of the US you can’t play at the main poker sites online and only some of the smaller and less credible off shore poker sites will allow US players to join and take to the felt. Even though this is technically illegal in some areas and grey in others, it would be unlikely that you’d ever get in trouble for playing. Online casinos are a little bit different, and you can join several reputable online casinos that accept US players.

Once again, the legislation has a few grey areas in this respect and there seems to be no movements by lawmakers to incorporate online laws into the book. Even still, it’s advisable to proceed with caution if you plan on playing your favorite casino games like blackjack, roulette, baccarat, or craps at an online casino.

Local Laws

If you do get busted taking part in gambling in the state of Vermont and you’re charged, then it’s unlikely you’ll get in too much trouble and you’d only receive a fine of $200, if anything at all. At the time of the writing of this law the sum of $200 was probably a substantial amount of money, now however; it’s just a drop in the ocean for most people, especially if they’re playing a high stakes no limit Texas holdem game.

Anyway, back to Poker. If you live in Vermont, you’ll still have several good options in respect to finding live poker action. First and foremost, you could always run a home game with your buddies.

Even though this is illegal under state law you most likely will never get into any trouble doing so as the authorities have bigger fish to fry, and usually don’t care too much about home poker games. The main thing you need to keep in mind if you do end up running or participating in a home game is that it becomes a commercial enterprise when the person running the game starts to make a profit from doing so.

So, if this is occurring in the home game that you sit in on, it might be time to assess your options and find a game where the person who holds the game isn’t making any money out of it.

Bordering States

After a home game, you’ll need to do some travelling to find a casino and a live poker game. Thankfully Vermont is quite small and you’ll never have to go that far to find one.

If you live in the south of the state, you can drive just a short distance and find poker in New Hampshire and Connecticut. Several poker rooms are also due to open at new casinos that are currently being built in Massachusetts. If you’re in the north of the state, you can take a trip up into Canada and find some excellent poker in and around Montreal. This is the home to the Playground Poker Room, which is widely considered the best in Canada.

If you’re in the east of the state your options are limited to New Hampshire, and in the west, you can shoot on over into New York to find some poker action. In the coming years, it’s likely that more casinos and poker rooms will open in upstate New York so the number of options there should improve dramatically soon. So, as you can see there are some great poker options which are still available to you by taking just a short drive.

Conclusion

If you live in the Green Mountain state your options are limited when it comes to finding any form of gambling, including Texas holdem poker.

Although horse racing betting is permitted, there’s nowhere to do it live. Thankfully you can play the lottery, bingo, and some charitable poker games.

You can also take a few risks if you like and play in a poker home game, which is illegal but usually accepted. After this we’ve outlined some other options for you to play poker if you’re willing to travel a bit.

The future of poker in the state doesn’t look great and it’ll really come down to neighbouring states offering more poker rooms, which is happening, for Vermont to pick up its act.

A few attempts have been made to legalise casinos but these have thus far failed miserably. So, in the meantime you should pair up with your mates for a home game, find a charity game, take a drive, or get your kicks out of the various lottery games that you can participate in.