Legal online since March 2022. Arkansas has an unusual rule — mobile sportsbooks must give the casinos at least 51% of revenue — which kept the national brands out for years. That finally changed in March 2026, when FanDuel and DraftKings launched after accepting the split. Age 21.
Legal. Arkansas has three commercial casinos — Saracen in Pine Bluff, Oaklawn in Hot Springs, and Southland in West Memphis. Only Saracen runs a live poker room; the other two offer house-banked poker-style games, not real player-versus-player poker.
Legal, and historic. Oaklawn in Hot Springs is a major thoroughbred track that still hosts the Arkansas Derby each spring. Online horse betting is available through Oaklawn Anywhere, and the wagering age is 18.
Legal and regulated since 2017. Traditional fantasy contests operate under state law — but Arkansas takes a hard line on prop-style pick’em games, sending cease-and-desist letters to PrizePicks and Underdog in 2024. The two are still operating while the dispute plays out.
Legal, and state-run since 2009 to fund college scholarships. The lottery doesn’t sell tickets online itself — but courier apps like Jackpocket operate here, buying real tickets on your behalf.
Grey area. Arkansas has no law licensing or banning sweepstakes casinos. A 2025 bill would have made them a felony, but it was withdrawn, and no new ban has been filed since.
Not legal. A 2025 bill would have let the three casinos run online gambling, but it was pulled amid opposition from Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders and the attorney general. No new bill has advanced. Offshore sites operate with no state oversight.
Not legal online, and Arkansas isn’t part of any multi-state network. Live poker means one room: Saracen in Pine Bluff. Offshore sites serve residents with no state licensing or protection.
FanDuel and DraftKings launched in Arkansas in March 2026, four years after mobile betting began — having agreed to hand the casinos at least 51% of revenue, the rule that had kept them out. April became the state’s first 100-million-dollar handle month.
The Racing Commission awarded the fourth license to the Cherokee Nation for a resort in Pope County, but voters passed Issue 2 in November 2024 — repealing it and requiring local approval for any new casino. A federal judge upheld the measure in 2025; the tribe is appealing.
Online sportsbooks went live in early 2022, starting with Southland’s Betly app — but only casino-branded apps, because of the 51% revenue rule.
Retail casino gaming and sports betting began in 2019 at Oaklawn and Southland, the two existing racetracks, with Saracen following in Pine Bluff.
Arkansas voters passed Amendment 100, authorizing four commercial casinos — two at existing racetracks and two new ones — with about 54% of the vote.
Arkansas passed the Paid Fantasy Sports Act, bringing daily fantasy under state oversight.
Voters approved a state lottery to fund college scholarships, and it launched later that year — Arkansas’s first modern legal gambling beyond the racetrack.
Arkansas is a young casino state still drawing its boundaries. Voters only legalized commercial casinos in 2018, and the fight over how far gambling should go is very much live. There’s legal sports betting and three casinos — but online casino and online poker are not legal, and one of the state’s four authorized casino licenses was taken back by voters.
That fourth license is the defining Arkansas story. The Racing Commission awarded it to the Cherokee Nation for a resort in Pope County, but a rival campaign — funded largely by the Choctaw Nation of neighboring Oklahoma — put a measure on the 2024 ballot that repealed the license and now requires a countywide vote before any new casino can be built. It passed, a federal judge upheld it in 2025, and the Cherokee project is dead at the trial level even after the tribe spent more than 60 million dollars. Arkansas is unlikely to add a fourth casino any time soon.
Online casino has run into the same wall. A 2025 bill would have let the three existing casinos offer online gambling, but Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders and the attorney general opposed it, and it was pulled before a hearing. Full-iGaming states like Pennsylvania, Michigan and New Jersey license online casinos; Arkansas has stopped at retail, and shows no sign of moving. For online casino games and poker, residents use offshore sites, which carry no state licensing or protection.
One bright spot for poker players is real, if singular: Saracen in Pine Bluff runs the state’s only live poker room. Players in nearby Tennessee and Mississippi have their own destinations, but Arkansans at least have one genuine room at home — plus the big tribal card rooms across the line in Oklahoma.
The practical reality: Arkansas has legal sports betting — now including FanDuel and DraftKings — three casinos, and one genuine poker room at Saracen. For online casino and online poker there’s no legal route, and the state just spent two years fighting over whether to even add a fourth casino.
Three casinos, legal mobile sports betting, and exactly one live poker room. But no legal online casino or online poker.
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Solid all-rounder — poker + sports + casino with the best card deposit rates
Good — Poker + casino + sportsbook under one roof, crypto-first
Good — Best US poker site, solid casino, crypto-first
Strong casino library with 500+ games, fast crypto, but no poker room
Ignition’s sister casino — great for slots and blackjack, fast crypto payouts
Good casino, no poker — best for slots and blackjack variety
Ignition family casino — strong table games, fast crypto, slots-focused branding
Solid all-rounder — poker + sports + casino with the best card deposit rates
Good — Poker + casino + sportsbook under one roof, crypto-first
Good — Best US poker site, solid casino, crypto-first
Best US MTT schedule and rakeback — but ongoing bot/RTA concerns at mid-stakes
ACR’s sister site — same network, same games, rakeback option
Subscription sweepstakes poker from the official WPT — novel legal structure, thin games.
Solid all-rounder — poker + sports + casino with the best card deposit rates
Good — Poker + casino + sportsbook under one roof, crypto-first
Polished app and strong brand, but thin video poker, no 24/7 support, and state-variable game counts hold it back from the top tier.
Slickest casino app in US regulated gaming on the surface — but Trustpilot sits at 1.2/5 on consistent complaints about slow withdrawals, poor support, and bet-grading disputes.
Arkansas came late to casinos. Voters legalized commercial gambling only in 2018, through Amendment 100, which authorized four casinos: two at the state’s existing racetracks — Oaklawn in Hot Springs and Southland in West Memphis — and two brand-new ones, in Pine Bluff and Pope County.
Three of the four are open. Oaklawn is a storied thoroughbred track that added a casino; Southland, a former greyhound track, is now one of the region’s biggest gaming floors; and Saracen in Pine Bluff is run by the Quapaw Nation. Note that these are commercial casinos under state license, not tribal casinos in the usual sense — Arkansas has no tribal gaming under federal compacts.
The fourth casino is the one that never got built. After the Racing Commission awarded the Pope County license to the Cherokee Nation, voters passed a 2024 measure repealing it and requiring a local vote for any new casino. The courts have upheld that so far, so for now Arkansas has three casinos, not four — and for poker players, only Saracen’s room matters. Neither Oaklawn nor Southland spreads live poker, whatever older listings suggest.
The Arkansas Racing Commission, under the Department of Finance and Administration, licenses the state's casinos, sportsbooks and fantasy operators, with responsible-gaming requirements at each property.
Daily fantasy is regulated by the state, and online horse-race betting runs through the regulated Oaklawn Anywhere platform. Consumer protections apply to the licensed products.
No Arkansas protection. Offshore casino and poker sites are unlicensed here, with no fund segregation and no dispute recourse. Sweepstakes sites are likewise unregulated.
Our guidance: Arkansas’s legal options are the licensed sports apps, the three casinos, and Saracen’s poker room. Online casino and poker aren’t legal — if you play offshore, understand there’s no state oversight. Note that Arkansas doesn’t yet have a statewide self-exclusion list; a program has been proposed but isn’t in effect, so for now you self-exclude with each casino directly.
If gambling stops being fun — or you're chasing losses — free, confidential help is available 24/7.
Primary sources cited throughout this guide.
