ClubWPT Gold Officially Debuts in Canada, Québec Not Included

After a prolonged rollout and multiple delays, ClubWPT Gold has finally opened its virtual poker room to Canadian players. The World Poker Tour’s sweepstakes-based poker site went live north of the border on October 30, marking its first step beyond the United States, and filling a vacuum left by Global Poker’s recent departure from Canada.

Québec is the only province not included in the launch, but every other Canadian player now has access to ClubWPT Gold’s suite of games, tournaments, and sweepstakes prizes. 

ClubWPT Gold initially promised a simultaneous U.S. and Canadian debut when it entered beta in early 2025. While American players were granted access almost immediately, Canadians were told their launch was “on the horizon.” That horizon kept shifting, until now.

The platform now accepts Canadian sign-ups and allows cross-border play with U.S. users, offering ring games and tournaments that share the same prize pools. Ontario's inclusion is especially notable, as the province typically restricts online poker to locally licensed operators. ClubWPT Gold sidesteps that restriction by operating under sweepstakes law, not real-money gaming regulation.

ClubWPT Gold previously ran on a dual-currency model, using Gold Coins for social play and Sweeps Coins for games that awarded redeemable prizes. But earlier this year, several U.S. states, including Connecticut, New Jersey, and Montana, banned platforms using that structure.

To adapt, ClubWPT Gold scrapped the Gold Coin system entirely. Instead, players now purchase access to a poker training tool that analyzes their gameplay. Every dollar spent on training earns them the equivalent amount in chips, which can be used to enter sweepstakes-eligible games and tournaments.

This shift helped ClubWPT Gold steer clear of these new restrictions. It also laid the groundwork for the platform’s expansion into Canada, which maintains a lighter-touch approach to sweepstakes gaming. 

While the Canadian rollout has been largely smooth, there's still some hiccups. The downloadable version of ClubWPT Gold doesn’t yet support Interac payments, a preferred method for many Canadians but transactions work as expected through the browser version on both desktop and mobile.