Georgia Poker: Laws, Events, and Venues Explored

Georgia, a large Southern state on the East Coast, does not have legal gambling, unfortunately. In fact, they have a state constitutional ban on almost all gambling. Please note one thing: this US state is not to be confused with the Euroasian nation by the same name, which is actually the gambling hub of its region.

A prohibition written in a state constitution usually doesn’t mean the end to all live casino gaming in the US. That is because of the 1988 Indian Gaming Act, a federal law, which allows Native Americans to decide for themselves whether or not they want to operate casinos on their reservations. However, in Georgia, even that wasn’t enough to “save the day”: only a single Indian casino, the Emerald Princess Casino in Brunswick, GA, runs in the entire state.

What’s worse: they don’t even have a poker room. That’s right, there is not a single legal live poker room in Georgia. And the online poker situation isn’t any better either.

Despite all that, the “Peach State” has given poker many amazing, highly accomplished players.

One of the most influential players in poker history, Chris Moneymaker, was born in Georgia too. Even though media coverage of him likes to refer to him as “a simple accountant from Tennessee” when discussing his historic WSOP Main Event win, but that is because that’s where he was working at the time. He was actually born in Atlanta, Georgia.

You can read about him and a whole slew of other poker greats from the state of Georgia in the next section.

Famous Georgian Poker Players

As we wrote above, Chris Moneymaker is from Georgia. He won the 2003 WSOP Main Event for $2.5 million. He qualified for the tournament through an $86 online satellite. His story – the simple chubby amateur becoming the world champion and winning millions from just 80 bucks – captivated the nation. This ultimately led to the “Moneymaker boom”, an era in the early 2000’s when the traffic for live and online poker rooms shot up everywhere in the US – and then, in the whole world.

Currently Cary Katz tops the Georgia, USA all time money list on Hendon. He cashed for $30.730 million in live tournaments during his career. That is astonishing even for a pro – however, Katz is more of a recreational player. He made his millions through his student loan company. Then he made investments in the poker world as well, most notably, the online poker content streaming service PokerGO.

In September 2019, he took down the £250,000 buy-in Super High Roller Bowl in London for £2.1 million ($2.61 million), which is the biggest single live tournament score of his career to date.

Billy Baxter was born in Augusta, GA. He is a 7-time WSOP gold bracelet winner. Interestingly, all of his bracelets were won in lowball events.

Samantha Abernathy is a prominent female player from Atlanta, GA who is best known for making a deep run in the 2016 Aussie Millions Main Event, and for appearing on the TV show Poker Night in America on CBS Sports.