No, you cannot play online poker legally in Wisconsin.
The state’s law prohibits gambling over the Internet, and home games are also not permitted. Wisconsin does have a few poker bars, and players are allowed to participate in live games in these poker rooms.
Why Not? What Are the Online Poker Laws in Wisconsin?
Playing poker is legal in Wisconsin as long as it is done in any of the state’s 11 tribal casinos with poker rooms. Organizing or participating in poker anywhere else apart from these locations is considered illegal according to the state’s laws.
Wisconsin law does not permit playing any “game of chance” over the Internet. Currently, the only exception to this rule is parimutuel betting. Considering the law's stance on Wisconsin online poker, state-regulated online poker is still a long way off.
As a workaround to this problem, poker enthusiasts in Wisconsin turn to offshore sites that allow them to play poker online for real money. Sites like Ignition, Bovada, and ACR Poker welcome players from Wisconsin and other parts of the country to play online poker for real money. However, doing so carries inherent risks.
Although players are unlikely to get into legal trouble for playing poker on these sites, MyPokerCoaching does not recommend playing on offshore sites. Offshore sites are unregulated locally, which means they’re immune from local laws and not governed by the same standards as state-sanctioned operators.
As a result, players have no guarantees of playing a fair game on these sites. There’s also a real risk of losing your money, as many of these sites often get shut down unexpectedly, with no legal recourse for players.
Instead, you can try playing on a sweepstakes poker site that operates entirely legally; just use a different method for organizing the games.
