In June 2025, the chief executive of the World Poker Tour got off a red eye flight and walked into a New Jersey Senate committee hearing to plead for his company's online business. "We have never had an issue. We have never had a lawsuit. We've never had a cease and desist," Adam Pliska told lawmakers, offering to work with them on regulation instead.[1] The committee moved the sweepstakes ban forward anyway, and both chambers passed it in a single day.[1] The WPT is the televised poker brand that helped ignite the poker boom in 2002, and it now finds itself the most visible corporate face of a legal fight playing out state by state across the country.[2]
- WPT's only political fight in 2025 was defending its own online sweepstakes business
- CEO flew overnight to plead with New Jersey lawmakers, and lost the same day
- No federal PAC and no federal lobbying registration for WPT or its owner
- Rather than exit California, it rebuilt the product around poker training credits
- The 2002 TV show that helped ignite the poker boom, now owned by a PE firm
Quick Take
The World Poker Tour's political activity is almost entirely a defense of its own online business model. Its ClubWPT Gold platform is a sweepstakes poker site, and in 2025 alone, Montana, Connecticut, New Jersey, New York, and California all enacted laws restricting the sweepstakes gaming model, several targeting the dual currency structure specifically, and Nevada enacted an enforcement law with felony penalties for unlicensed operators, forcing the platform out of state after state.[3][4][5] The bans have come from governors of both parties: California's AB 831 was authored by a Democrat and passed both chambers unanimously before Gavin Newsom signed it on October 11, 2025, while Nevada's crackdown was signed by Republican Joe Lombardo.[6][7] Rather than exit California, ClubWPT Gold rebuilt its product around poker training credits and stayed.[8][9] The company is privately held by Element Partners, which bought it for $105 million in 2021 after a bidding war with Bally's, and RedRightBuyer found no federal corporate PAC or federal lobbying registration for either the WPT or its owner.[10][11]
The Red Eye to Trenton
Pliska's June 2025 appearance before the New Jersey Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee was, by trade press accounts, the first time the World Poker Tour itself had taken action in a sweepstakes bill debate.[12]
His pitch was partly about money. Pliska noted that New Jersey does not collect sales tax on online sweeps coin purchases, unlike several other states, and pointed to that as untapped revenue.[12] He argued that a poker only product does not carry the same effect as a sweepstakes casino, and that the WPT drives players toward brick and mortar casinos, including the Borgata in Atlantic City, which the bill was written to protect.[12]
It did not work. There was effectively no debate. Bill A5447 passed both chambers the same day, the Assembly 69 to 10 and the Senate 34 to 5, and Governor Phil Murphy signed it on August 15, 2025. ClubWPT Gold withdrew from New Jersey, and players were left filing redemption requests that the operator acknowledged were running behind.[13]
A Map That Keeps Shrinking
New Jersey was one stop on a long list. Through 2025, ClubWPT Gold suspended coin purchases and pulled out of Connecticut and Louisiana in September, then shut off access in New York in December after Governor Kathy Hochul signed Senate Bill S5935A with immediate effect.[4][5] Montana had already enacted a ban earlier in the year, and Nevada enacted an enforcement law with felony penalties that took effect October 1.[3][7]
The pattern that matters politically is that this is not a partisan crackdown. California's ban was authored by Democratic Assemblymember Avelino Valencia and moved through the Legislature without meaningful resistance, clearing both chambers unanimously before Newsom signed it on October 11, 2025.[6][7] Nevada's came from a legislature that sent it to a Republican governor.[7] Tribal gaming coalitions and regulated casino interests have pushed for the bans in multiple states, and the fight has continued into 2026, with a Minnesota bill clearing its third committee unanimously in April.[14]
Twelve or more states considered such measures during 2025.[15]
Rewriting the Product to Stay in the Room
Where most sweepstakes operators announced exits, the World Poker Tour tried engineering its way through.
In September 2025, ClubWPT Gold eliminated its Gold Coins entirely, abandoning the dual currency structure that state bans were written to target. In its place, players buy hand analysis credits at 50 cents per hand, using a tool the company acquired when it bought the training site Upswing Poker from professional player Doug Polk, who is also a ClubWPT Gold ambassador. Every dollar spent on analysis also delivers a dollar in chips redeemable for cash and prizes.[8][16]
The company then said it would stay in California. Starting January 1, 2026, it introduced "California Game Days," capping the number of days on which players in the state can win redeemable chips at nine per month while play otherwise continues, a structure the trade press read as an attempt to fit the statute's carve out for promotions run on a limited and occasional basis.[9] "We are committed to continuing to operate in compliance with California law," the company said on its site.[17]
Whether the rebuild holds is unsettled. Minnesota lawmakers were told in April 2026 that single currency models like ClubWPT Gold's are precisely the loophole their bill leaves open.[14]
No PAC, No Federal Footprint
For all the legislative activity, the World Poker Tour's disclosed political spending is thin to nonexistent. RedRightBuyer's research found no federal corporate PAC registered to the World Poker Tour or Element Partners in Federal Election Commission committee records, and no federal lobbying registration for either entity.[11] The company is privately held and files no quarterly reports, so employee giving and ownership level donations are not aggregated in any public database.
What is documented is state level advocacy conducted in the open, by the CEO, on the record, in committee hearings.[12] The company's public positioning has been to ask for regulation and taxation of its model rather than prohibition of it.[1][12]
The Show That Started the Boom
Steven Lipscomb founded the World Poker Tour in March 2002, and the show debuted on the Travel Channel the following year, becoming a primary catalyst of the early 2000s poker boom.[18][2] The format built a television series around the final tables of high stakes tournaments, and the tour has since broadcast in more than 150 countries and territories.[19]
Today the business runs on three legs: the main live tour and the lower buy in WPT Prime series, the television and content operation, and the online platforms. ClubWPT launched in 2008 as a subscription sweepstakes poker club; ClubWPT Gold launched at the start of 2025 as a full sweepstakes poker room.[12]
The season closes each December with the WPT World Championship at Wynn Las Vegas, a $10,400 buy in event.[20] The 2025 edition drew 1,865 entries and an $18,277,000 prize pool, down from 2,392 entries the prior year.[21] Season 24 opened in January 2026 with stops in Florida, Cambodia, Las Vegas, Cyprus, and California.[22]
One episode from 2025 drew scrutiny across the poker world: a ClubWPT Gold promotion offering a $1 million bonus to qualifying World Series of Poker bracelet winners became the center of a controversy after the winner of one event took the title in a heads up match his opponent was alleged to have thrown, a claim that prompted an investigation.[3]
Four Owners in Twelve Years
The WPT was founded under Lakes Poker Tour, a subsidiary of Lakes Entertainment, whose founder Lyle Berman served as executive chairman of the publicly traded WPT Enterprises.[18] Chinese firm Ourgame International later acquired the business, and in December 2018 Black Ridge Acquisition Corporation bought WPT Enterprises together with Allied Esports in a $213.8 million deal, folding the tour into the Nasdaq listed Allied Esports Entertainment.[23]
The most recent sale turned into a bidding war. Element Partners, a privately held Pennsylvania investment firm, agreed in January 2021 to buy the WPT for $78.25 million. Bally's Corporation made an unsolicited $100 million bid for all of Allied in March 2021, then revised down to $90 million for just the WPT; Element countered at $90.5 million. Bally's came back at $105 million, Element matched it, and Allied's board unanimously approved Element's offer, determining Bally's competing bid was not a superior proposal.[10][24] The sale closed in July 2021, and Element Partners has owned the World Poker Tour since.[10]
Adam Pliska, who has led the company since 2009, remained chief executive officer through the ownership change and still holds the role.[25][22]
Where to Find Them
The World Poker Tour's live schedule, results, and televised episodes are at worldpokertour.com. Its online products, ClubWPT and ClubWPT Gold, operate in most but not all US states, with availability shifting as state laws change; the company posts current state eligibility on the platforms themselves.[9][12]
Footnotes
[1] PokerScout, "World Poker Tour CEO lobbies against New Jersey sweeps ban but fails to prevent it passing," July 2025. https://www.pokerscout.com/world-poker-tour-ceo-lobbies-against-new-jersey-sweeps-ban-but-fails-to-prevent-it-passing/
[2] PokerOffer, "World Poker Tour (WPT Global) 2026 Full Event Guide," April 30, 2026. https://thepokeroffer.com/wpt-world-poker-tour/
[3] SBC Americas, "ClubWPT Gold sweepstakes promo at center of WSOP bracelet controversy," June 26, 2025. https://sbcamericas.com/2025/06/26/clubwpt-gold-sweepstakes-promo-at-center-of-wsop-bracelet-controversy/
[4] Pokerfuse, "ClubWPT Gold Pulls Out of Two States, Ends All Gold Coins Games," September 10, 2025. https://pokerfuse.com/latest-news/2025/9/clubwpt-gold-pulls-out-two-states-teases/
[5] Pokerfuse, "ClubWPT Forced Out of New York as Sweepstakes Ban Signed Into Law," December 8, 2025. https://pokerfuse.com/latest-news/2025/12/clubwpt-forced-out-new-york-sweepstakes-ban/
[6] Chad Holloway, PokerNews, "California Bill to Ban Sweepstakes Poker Sites Passes," September 20, 2025. https://www.pokernews.com/news/2025/09/gavin-newsom-to-sign-sweepstakes-poker-site-ban-49670.htm
[7] Poker.org, "Sweeps poker banned in California, but ClubWPT Gold vows to stay," October 14, 2025. https://www.poker.org/latest-news/sweeps-poker-banned-in-california-but-clubwpt-gold-vows-to-stay-a0zII8A7MMFf/
[8] Card Player, "ClubWPT Gold Will Continue California Operations Despite Ban," October 17, 2025. https://www.cardplayer.com/poker-news/clubwpt-gold-stays-california-despite-ban
[9] Pokerfuse, "ClubWPT Gold Unveils California Game Days to Stay in the State," December 30, 2025. https://pokerfuse.com/latest-news/2025/12/clubwpt-gold-unveils-california-game-days-stay/
[10] Gaming Intelligence, "Allied Esports completes WPT sale to Element Partners," July 13, 2021. https://www.gamingintelligence.com/finance/manda/141620-allied-esports-completes-wpt-sale-to-element-partners/
[11] Federal Election Commission, committee search, accessed July 29, 2026 (no World Poker Tour or Element Partners committee found). https://www.fec.gov/data/browse-data/?tab=committees
[12] SBC Americas, "NJ Legislature Takes a Minute to Ban Sweepstakes Casinos," June 30, 2025. https://sbcamericas.com/2025/06/30/new-jersey-passes-casino-ban/
[13] Pokerfuse, "New Jersey Players Left With No Sweepstakes Poker as ClubWPT Gold Exits," August 22, 2025. https://pokerfuse.com/latest-news/2025/8/new-jersey-players-left-no-sweepstakes-poker/
[14] Sweepsy, "Minnesota Sweeps Ban Bill Still Active, Passes 3rd Committee," April 10, 2026. https://www.sweepsy.com/news/minnesota-ban-passes-3rd-committee/
[15] Sweepsy, "SPGA: We Welcome and Share Common Values With The SGLA," June 8, 2025. https://www.sweepsy.com/news/spga-welcomes-sgla-sweepstakes-casinos-advocacy/
[16] Eric Raskin, Casino Reports, "ClubWPT Gold Unveils Work-Around For Laws That Would Ban Sweepstakes Poker Sites," September 25, 2025. https://www.casinoreports.com/clubwpt-gold-work-around-sweepstakes/
[17] Pokerfuse, "ClubWPT Gold Plans to Stay in California Despite Sweepstakes Ban," October 14, 2025. https://pokerfuse.com/latest-news/2025/10/clubwpt-gold-plans-stay-california-despite/
[18] WPT Enterprises, Inc., SEC Form 10-K for fiscal year 2007, filed March 2008. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1283843/000104746908002502/a2183467z10-k.htm
[19] Allied Esports Entertainment via Business Wire, "Allied Esports Entertainment Completes Sale of World Poker Tour to Element Partners LLC," July 12, 2021. https://markets.financialcontent.com/dailytimesleader/article/bizwire-2021-7-12-allied-esports-entertainment-completes-sale-of-world-poker-tour-to-element-partners-llc
[20] World Poker Tour, "WPT World Championship Returns to Wynn Las Vegas This December," August 7, 2025. https://www.worldpokertour.com/press-release/wpt-world-championship-returns-to-wynn-las-vegas-this-december
[21] Pokerfuse, "WPT 2026: The Ultimate Player Guide," accessed July 29, 2026. https://pokerfuse.com/live-poker/world-poker-tour/
[22] PokerStrategy, "First 2026 World Poker Tour stops announced," December 23, 2025. https://www.pokerstrategy.com/news/world-of-poker/First-2026-World-Poker-Tour-stops-announced_138662/
[23] Jennifer Newell, Legal US Poker Sites, "Element Partners to Pick Up World Poker Tour for $78M," January 19, 2021. https://www.legaluspokersites.com/news/element-partners-wpt-78m/24186/
[24] CardsChat, "Element Partners Again Increases Offer for World Poker Tour," April 2021. https://www.cardschat.com/news/element-partners-again-increases-offer-for-world-poker-tour-99036/
[25] Card Player, "World Poker Tour Sold To Element Partners For $78 Million," January 19, 2021. https://www.cardplayer.com/poker-news/25627-world-poker-tour-sold-to-element-partners-for-78-million
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