Stake.us Poker is a sweepstakes poker room with Hold’em, Omaha, and Pineapple cash games, tournaments, and fast-fold tables, available in about 28 US states. You play with Stake Cash, which can be redeemed for cash prizes at 1 SC per dollar.
I have tried the platform, and in this review I cover exactly where it is available in 2026, what the games and rake are really like, and how to sign up so your 3.5% rakeback is active from day one.
Super-soft games
3.5% rakeback via our link
Quality web-based software
Great casino offer Reviewed by Jonathan Little, two-time World Poker Tour champion with $9 million in tournament earnings. See our 7-step review methodology.
Last updated: October 1st, 2026
PokerCoaching may earn a commission if you sign up through our links. It doesn’t affect our review or rating, and it costs you nothing extra.
Stake.us pros:
- Super-soft games
- 25 Stake Cash and 250,000 Gold Coins free for verifying your account
- 1 SC a day for logging in
- 3.5% lifetime rakeback for all players who sign up through us
- Many different poker variations
- Quality web-based software
- Dedicated iOS app
- Low prize redemption threshold
- Great platform for casino games
Stake.us cons:
- Not available in 22 states
- High 7% rake with SC5 cap
- No Android app
- No Spins (jackpot sit and goes)
I want to be as direct about the cons as the pros. Stake.us is a real option for a US player in an eligible state who wants soft games. It is not a place to keep a large balance parked, for reasons I explain in the legal section.
Stake.us Poker Highlights
| Welcome bonus | 25 Stake Cash for Free |
| Rakeback | 3.5%, via our link or Bronze VIP |
| Redeemable currency | Stake Cash (SC), 1 SC = $1, cashed out by crypto or bank |
| Play-only currency | Gold Coins (GC), no cash value, count toward VIP progress |
| Game variations | Hold’em, PLO4/5/6, Pineapple, Next! fast-fold, All-in or Fold |
| Formats | Ring games, tournaments, sit and gos |
| Rake | 7%, capped by player count (third-party data) |
| Jackpots | SC1M Bad Beat, SC500K AoF, SC1M Next! Drops |
| Special features | Straddles, rabbit hunting, run it multiple times, multi-tabling |
| Apps | Browser on desktop and Android, iOS app |
| Age and operator | 21+, Sweepsteaks Limited (Cyprus) |
| Not available in | 22 states, including CA, NY, PA, NJ, MI, WA |
Where Is Stake.us Poker Legal in 2026?
This is the first thing to check, because the answer has changed several times since I first reviewed the site. Stake.us publishes a restricted states list in its help center, and as of July 10, 2026, it reads:
Arizona, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Vermont, Washington and West Virginia.
That leaves roughly 28 states plus the District of Columbia where you can register and play. Canada is not served.
How we got here. In early 2025, Stake.us withdrew from the states with regulated real-money online casinos (Delaware, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, West Virginia). Then the legislatures moved: New York and New Jersey passed sweepstakes bans in 2025, California’s AB 831 took effect January 1, 2026, with Stake.us switching Californian accounts to redeem-only on December 30, 2025, Illinois regulators issued cease-and-desist letters, and Stake.us went redeem-only there on May 19, 2026, Indiana’s ban took effect July 1, and Maine followed at the end of July. Iowa’s ban also took effect July 1, and Oklahoma’s starts November 1, 2026, and neither state appears on Stake’s own list yet, so if you live in either, check the list in your account settings before you buy Gold Coins.
What happens if your state is added? Based on the California and Illinois exits, Stake.us gives notice, stops gameplay on a set date, and leaves accounts in redeem-only mode so you can cash out your Stake Cash. Redeem promptly. I tell students in any state where a bill is moving to keep their balance small and to redeem after every good session.
If you are in one of the 22 states, my ClubWPT Gold review covers the sweepstakes poker site with the widest US footprint, and my sweepstakes poker sites guide lists the rest.
Stake.us Poker Promotions
Stake.us doesn’t offer traditional deposit bonuses because it does not have deposits. What it has is free Stake Cash for verifying, logging in, buying Gold Coins, and mailing a postcard. Here is the current structure.
Stake.us Poker Welcome Bonus and Promo Code
New players receive 25 Stake Cash and 250,000 Gold Coins, released as 1 SC and 10,000 GC per day over your first 25 days of logging in (third-party figures, consistent across Legal Sports Report, Cardplayer and SoMuchPoker as of September 2026; Stake’s own help article confirms the conditions but not the amounts). Two conditions from the official terms matter:
- You must verify your email and your identity within 72 hours of registering, or the welcome bonus is forfeited.
- Any promo or affiliate code has to be entered within 24 hours of registering, in Settings, then Offers. Registering through our link applies the PokerCoaching offer automatically and, more importantly, activates your rakeback (see the next section).
After the welcome period, the daily login bonus continues at 1 SC and 10,000 GC a day. It is small, it takes ten seconds, and over a year it is 365 free Stake Cash.
- Other ways to get free Stake Cash. Every Gold Coin purchase comes with a Stake Cash gift; Stake does not publish the ratio, but in my experience it has tracked the dollar amount of the purchase. Under the sweepstakes rules you can also request 5 SC per handwritten postcard mailed to Stake’s Dallas address, with no limit on requests (third-party, from the terms of service). And the Weekly Promotion enters everyone who wagers 1,000 SC or more in a week into a draw for 25,000 SC and 250 million GC.
- The rule nobody reads. Stake Cash you receive as a bonus, including the welcome package and purchase gifts, must be played through three times before it can be redeemed. Receive 25 SC, and you need 75 SC of play before that 25 is redeemable. Poker counts toward the playthrough, so for a poker player this is a formality, but know it before you try to redeem your first winnings.
Stake.us Poker Rakeback: 3.5% and How to Activate It
Stake.us rakeback is 3.5%, and it is not automatic for everyone. Stake’s help center describes it as 3.5% of the edge on everything you play, and it switches on automatically when you register through an affiliate link like ours, or manually when you reach Bronze VIP (10,000 SC wagered) and a VIP manager enables it.
It accrues continuously as you play, and you can see it under Account -> VIP -> Rakeback.
Here is why that matters. I have had students find Stake.us through a search, register directly, play for a month, and ask me where their rakeback is. It was never switched on. Register through our link, check the Rakeback tab in your first session, and if it shows nothing, message support before you play another hand.
Is 3.5% good? No. It is the lowest standing rakeback of any online poker site I review, and against a 7% rake it returns less than one big blind per 100 hands at low stakes. The reason to play Stake.us is the softness of the games, not the rewards, and I would rather you knew that than found out later.
The VIP Club. Stake.us does have a loyalty program, and it is casino-first. Sixteen tiers run from Bronze at 10,000 SC wagered through Silver, Gold, Platinum I to V, Diamond I to V, and Obsidian at one billion SC. Playing 2 million GC counts as 1 SC toward progression.
Benefits are rank-up bonuses, weekly boosts released every Saturday at 12:30pm UTC through the official VIP Telegram channel, monthly bonuses sent by email on a random date, reloads from Platinum up, and a VIP host. For a poker-only player, the realistic reach is Bronze to Gold, which means the weekly and monthly bonuses are what you will actually see.
Stake.us Poker Promotions and Jackpots
The poker promotions in 2026 are built around jackpots and drops rather than leaderboards:
- SC1,000,000 Bad Beat Jackpot (through December 31, 2026). On ring game tables showing the BBJ icon, lose with quad deuces or better in Hold’em (quad fours in PLO4, quad eights in PLO5, quad jacks in PLO6) at showdown, with four or more players dealt in and both hands using two hole cards, and the pool pays out: 5.6% to the loser, 3.5% to the winner and 2.1% shared by the rest of the table. It is funded by 3% of ring game rake, so you are paying for it whether or not you play the marked tables.
- SC500,000 All-in or Fold Jackpot (through December 31, 2026) on the AoF tables.
- Next! Drops (through December 31, 2026). SC1,000,000 in random cash drops of 3 to 100 big blinds on the Next! fast-fold tables, launched March 5, 2026.
- JAQKpot! A spin-to-win promotion with a top prize of SC1,000,000.
- Weekly Treasure Hunt. A Mystery Bounty tournament every Saturday, reported at a SC20 buy-in with a SC5,000 prize pool (third-party).
- Weekly Promotion. Wager 1,000 SC in a week for entries into a 25,000 SC and 250 million GC draw.
- Challenges and Daily Races. Mostly casino-facing; check the promotions tab.
My advice on the jackpots is the same as for any poker site. Play the marked tables if you would play them anyway. Do not chase them.
Stake.us Poker Rake Structure
Stake.us does not publish a rake page. The figures below are from PokerListings’ July 2026 rake page and match what I see at the tables; confirm in the table info before you sit.
| Game | Rake | Cap |
|---|---|---|
| Stake Cash ring games (NLHE, PLO, Pineapple) | 7% | Scales with players dealt in; at SC0.25/0.50 about SC2.50 heads-up, rising to SC5.00 with five or more players |
| Gold Coin ring games | 7% | Capped at the small blind |
| All-in Flip Hold’em | Fixed per hand | About SC0.035 at SC0.25/0.50 |
| Next! fast-fold | Standard ring game rake (third-party) | Standard caps |
| Tournaments | Included in the buy-in fee | n/a |
The 7% is the highest percentage of any room I review, and the caps are reached quickly: at SC0.25/0.50, any pot over about SC71 pays the full SC5. When I compare student results here against the same students on GGPoker or WPT Global, the rake costs roughly 3 to 5 big blinds per 100 hands more before rakeback, and 3.5% rakeback gives back less than one of those.
The games are soft enough that a competent player still wins comfortably, and the smallest stakes, SC0.01/0.02 to SC0.10/0.20, are where the edge over the field is biggest relative to the rake. If you are a thin winner, though, this is not a room where a small edge survives. Stake.us raised its rake in 2024 and has not lowered it since.
Stake.us Poker Games Variety and Level of Competition
The pool on Stake.us is mostly casino players who found the poker tab, and they play like it. The average VPIP at low stakes is higher than anything I see on regulated US sites, showdowns are frequent, and bluffs get called.
When I review student hands from these tables, the winning adjustments are the ones I teach for a soft live game:
- open tighter from early position,
- value bet every street with top pair against players who call with any piece,
- stop bluffing the players who show up with bottom pair at showdown.
The lobby grew a lot in 2026. You will find Texas Hold’em, Pot Limit Omaha in four, five and six card versions, Pineapple, Next! fast-fold Hold’em (launched March 5, 2026), and All-in or Fold tables, in ring game, tournament and sit and go formats.
Tournament formats include freezeouts, knockouts, Mystery Bounty, multi-flight, satellite, and re-entry events, with Early Bird Bubble Protection on selected tournaments. There are still no jackpot sit and gos of the Spin & Go kind.
Tournaments
Stake.us offers a much smaller selection of tournaments compared to other sites, but you can still try classic events, bounty tournaments, and shootouts available on the regular schedule.
Guarantees are modest by the standards of GGPoker or WPT Global, and that is the point: the fields are small and soft. In 2026, the daily schedule runs from freerolls (some with SC500 or more in the pool) through buy-ins of SC0.01 to SC55, with the biggest daily events around SC1,500 in guarantees and a Sunday deepstack in the SC55 range. Next! tournaments run six times a day from SC0.01 to SC20.
The Weekly Treasure Hunt on Saturdays is a Mystery Bounty at a reported SC20 buy-in with a SC5,000 pool, and it is the softest tournament I know of in US sweepstakes poker. Late registration is available in most events, and Early Bird Bubble Protection refunds your buy-in if you bust on the bubble of a protected event you registered for early.
In my experience, the freerolls and the SC1 to SC11 events are where a new player should start. The fields are full of players who have never studied, the structures are reasonable, and a few small cashes clear the playthrough on your welcome Stake Cash without risking anything.
Ring Games
Ring games run in Hold’em, PLO4, PLO5, PLO6, and Pineapple from SC0.01/0.02 up to about SC2/5, with the Next! fast-fold pool at SC0.01/0.02 to SC0.25/0.50 and All-in or Fold tables alongside.
Traffic peaks in US evenings and at weekends, when a few hundred players are in the poker lobby; at other hours you will find a handful of tables up to SC0.50/1 and not much above it. I play the Next! pool when I want volume and the regular SC0.25/0.50 tables when I want to isolate the weakest players, because on a normal table you can see who is calling everything.
The quality of play in these games is quite a bit lower than what you’ll find on state-licensed sites, so even if the traffic gets a bit slower at times, the game softness more than makes up for it.
Sit & Goes
The site’s offering in the sit and go department is pretty basic.
You’ll find your regular sit and go games in 6-max and 9-max formats and buy-ins between SC 2 and SC 11. However, there are no jackpot sit and goes (spins), which have become the go-to choice for the fans of the format.
While sit-and-go games do run on Stake.us, you shouldn’t hold your breath waiting for the games to fill up. A tournament can take a while to start, especially during non-peak hours.
Is Stake.US Poker Legal and Safe to Play?
Stake.us runs on the sweepstakes model: Gold Coins are the paid, play-only currency, Stake Cash is the promotional currency you receive free with purchases, logins, and postcards, and Stake Cash can be redeemed for prizes.
No purchase is necessary to obtain it, which is what keeps the model outside state gambling definitions in the states that allow it. The operator is Sweepsteaks Limited, a Cypriot company, and the platform is for players aged 21 and over.
I want to be straight about the legal picture, because it has changed. Sweepstakes poker is lawful where it is not prohibited, and in 2025 and 2026 a dozen states prohibited it or forced operators out, which is why Stake.us now lists 22 restricted states (the full list is in the availability section above).
Stake.us is not licensed by any US gaming regulator, and it does not need to be under the sweepstakes model, but that also means there is no state regulator standing behind your balance.
There is also a federal class action, Ridley v. Sweepsteaks Ltd, brought under racketeering law against Stake.us and its ambassador Drake over how the platform was promoted; in July 2026 the court sent the claims to individual arbitration. None of that stops you from playing in an eligible state. It does mean you should treat Stake.us as a place to play, not a place to store money.
On the trust side, Stake.us holds a 4.4 out of 5 on Trustpilot from more than 18,000 reviews, which is unusually high for a gaming site, and the poker community’s experience with redemptions has been good. I have redeemed from the site many times without a problem. The main complaint from regulars was the 2024 rake increase, which I cover in the rake section.
Licensing and Regulations
Stake.us is not licensed or regulated as a gambling operator in any US state, and unlike an offshore real-money site, it does not claim to be. It operates under sweepstakes law, with official sweepstakes rules, a no-purchase-necessary route to Stake Cash (the postcard method), and geolocation that blocks the restricted states.
Some reviews cite a Curacao licence for the wider Stake brand; I have not found that stated on any Stake.us page and I would not rely on it. What you are relying on is the operator’s track record of paying out, which so far has been good, and your own discipline in not keeping more on the site than you are playing with.
Stake.us vs Stake.com
Stake.com is the international crypto casino and poker site, unavailable to US players, with a separate real-money poker room. Stake.us is the US sweepstakes platform. They share a brand and a design language and nothing else: different currencies, different rules, different player pools. If you see “Stake Poker” news about high roller events with dollar buy-ins, that is Stake.com. Everything on this page is about Stake.us.
Software Quality and Options
Stake.us offers a web-based software solution, so you can play straight from your browser without needing to download or install anything locally.
Traditionally, web-based poker platforms have been subpar compared to their standalone counterparts, but Stake.us has overcome these limitations and created a modern, visually appealing, and highly functional product.
The software is actually quite rich in features and has some functionalities that many operators that have been around for years still lack or are just getting around to, such as:
- Straddles – available across its ring game tables
- Rabbit Hunting – available for ring games and tournaments
- Run It Twice – available for cash games
- Bomb Pots: ran on special tables in 2025; they no longer appear in Stake’s feature list, so check the lobby for marked tables before counting on them.
The software also supports opening multiple cash tables and tournaments at once, showing a card on your turn, removing chips from the table between hands, and Early Bird Bubble Protection in tournaments.
I find the client faster and cleaner than most sweepstakes rooms, and the Next! tables deal about 250 hands an hour.
Stake.us Poker App and Mobile Play
Stake.us released a dedicated poker app for iPhone and iPad in June 2025. It is called “Stake US – Poker” in the Apple App Store, published by Sweepsteaks Limited, and it carries the full lobby: cash tables, tournaments, sit and gos and the daily bonuses.
It needs iOS 15.6 or later and also runs on Apple Silicon Macs. Download it only from the App Store; Stake warns against third-party copies.
There is no Android app. Android users play through the mobile browser, which works well and supports everything the desktop site does, and you can add it to your home screen as a shortcut. I play the app when I travel, and the browser at home, and the app is the better mobile experience by a distance.
Payment options on Stake.us Poker
There are no deposits or withdrawals on a sweepstakes site. You buy Gold Coins, receive Stake Cash as a gift with the purchase, play with Stake Cash, and redeem Stake Cash for prizes. Here is how each step works in 2026.
Buying Gold Coins
Stake.us started as a crypto-only platform, and its help center is still crypto-first, with more than a dozen coins supported (Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, Tron, Dogecoin, USDT, and others) and no purchase fee.
Card purchases are now available too.
Stake’s own redemption rules refer to accounts with “at least one successful card purchase”. The minimum purchase is around $20 (third-party). Every Gold Coin bundle comes with free Stake Cash; Stake does not publish the ratio, but in my experience it has tracked the dollar value of the bundle. The Stake Cash lands immediately.
Redeeming Stake Cash
Go to Wallet, choose Redeem, enter the amount, confirm with your two-factor code or an emailed code, and choose your method:
- Cryptocurrency: no Stake fee, usually processed within an hour (third-party), to a wallet address you supply.
- Bank transfer: available once you have made at least one card purchase; a 2% fee applies to bank transfer redemptions since April 17, 2026, and processing takes up to 48 hours (third-party).
One SC redeems for one dollar in prize value. Stake does not publish the minimum redemption; third-party tests put it at around 50 SC. Bonus Stake Cash must have been played through three times, and your identity must be verified through Stake’s Veriff flow (ID card or driver’s licence plus a live selfie, original documents only). Verify in your first 72 hours, because the welcome bonus depends on it anyway.
My advice: if you hold any crypto, redeem in crypto. It is faster and free. If you do not, make one small card purchase early so the bank transfer option is unlocked when you need it, and accept the 2%.
How to Register to Stake.us Poker
- Visit the Stake.us Poker site using this link
- Click on the “Register” button
- Fill in the basic details: email, username, desired password, and DOB
- Your PokerCoaching offer applies automatically through our link
- Verify your email via the link sent to your inbox
- Verify your identity within 72 hours to activate the bonus
- Collect your 25 SC and 250,000 GC
- Log in to start playing
Do the verification on day one. Every problem I have seen students have with Stake.us traced back to skipping it.
Who Should Play on Stake.us Poker?
After a year of playing here and reviewing student hands from these tables, this is my verdict by player type.
- US recreational players in an eligible state: yes. The games are the softest you will find legally in your state, the welcome package is free, the software and iOS app are good, and redemptions work. Play the freerolls and the SC1 to SC11 tournaments, or the SC0.01/0.02 to SC0.10/0.20 cash tables, and keep your balance small.
- Improving players who want soft cash games: yes, at low stakes. The 7% rake and 3.5% rakeback punish thin edges, so this is a room for players who can beat weak opponents clearly. If you can, the low-stakes Hold’em and PLO tables are very good.
- Volume grinders and rakeback hunters: no. The rakeback is the lowest I review, the caps hit fast, and traffic above SC0.50/1 is unreliable. ClubWPT Gold or a regulated state site is a better home for volume.
- Players in the 22 restricted states, Canada, or anyone under 21: you cannot join. See my ClubWPT Gold review and the sweepstakes poker sites guide for alternatives.
- Anyone tempted to bank on the site: no. Redeem regularly. The legal map is still moving.
If your state is clear and you want soft games, Stake.us Poker is worth your welcome bonus and a few sessions. Sign up through our link so the rakeback is on from the first hand.
FAQ
