New York poker grew in basements and back rooms where the law could not easily follow. The game spread through clubs that rarely advertised, filled with players who treated secrecy as a condition of entry. For decades, the best card players in the country sharpened their skills in Manhattan before anyone outside the city knew their names.
The Mayfair Club and Its Lasting Mark
The Mayfair Club became the most talked about card room in New York, though it started with different games entirely. Founded around 1940 as a bridge and backgammon spot, the club eventually moved its attention to poker once demand grew. In 1988, the operation relocated to a subterranean space on East 25th Street where writer and director Brian Kopelman observed regulars like Joe Bagels. That man would later inspire the Joey Knish character in the 1998 film Rounders.
The roster of players who passed through the Mayfair reads like a list of future champions. Stu Ungar, Jay Heimowitz, Mickey Appleman, Howard Lederer, Jason Lester, Steve Zolotow, Paul Magriel, Dan Harrington, and Erik Seidel all spent time at those tables. Seidel and Ungar formed a friendship there, with Ungar mentoring the younger player in strategy.
The Backgammon Route to the Felt
Many of the players who defined New York poker came to the game sideways. Erik Seidel dropped out of school to play backgammon and earned an invitation to the Mayfair Club at 17 on the strength of that reputation alone. Stu Ungar built his name in gin rummy circles on the Lower East Side before he ever touched a deck of cards for hold’em. Paul Magriel was a world backgammon champion. These men did not arrive at poker through poker.
The Mayfair itself followed this pattern, operating as a bridge and backgammon club around 1940 before converting once players wanted to play poker instead. The skills transferred. Reading opponents, calculating odds under pressure, managing a bankroll across long sessions. A generation of future World Series bracelet winners learned these lessons at other games first, then carried them to the tables that would make them famous.
Proving Grounds for World Champions
The 1987 World Series of Poker offered proof that the Mayfair was producing serious contenders. Heimowitz finished 11th. Appleman took 8th. Harrington placed 6th. Lederer finished 5th. Three Mayfair regulars made the final table in a single year.
The following year, Erik Seidel reached the heads up match against Johnny Chan. He finished as runner up. Seidel went on to win 8 bracelets and remains among the all time leaders. Dan Harrington won the Main Event in 1995, then made back to back final tables in 2003 and 2004. Ungar himself won the Main Event 3 times, one of only 2 players in history to do so.
Giuliani and the End of an Era
From the 1980s through the late 1990s, police largely left the poker rooms alone. The Diamond Club and the Mayfair operated openly enough that serious players knew where to find action. That changed when Rudy Giuliani took office.
His administration’s Quality of Life campaign treated underground poker rooms as targets. Profiting from operating a card room was already illegal, and enforcement caught up. The Mayfair closed in 2000.
The Boom Years
Between 2003 and 2007, poker clubs opened all over the city. Loft spaces filled with 15 or more tables. These operations were supposed to be secret, but they carried names meant to attract players. Play Station, Straddle, Diamond Club, Brooklyn Players, the Aquarium. The scene expanded fast, then contracted when law enforcement pressure returned.
Legal Casinos Arrive Upstate
Voters approved Proposal 1 on November 5, 2013. This constitutional amendment allowed the state legislature to authorize up to 7 casinos for purposes including job growth, school funding, and property tax relief. Governor Cuomo signed the Upstate New York Gaming Economic Development Act on July 30, 2013, authorizing 4 new casino resorts.
Turning Stone had already opened in 1993 as the first legal casino in the state. Rivers Casino and Resort Schenectady opened on February 8, 2017, with over 1,150 slot and video poker machines, more than 65 table games, and a 16 table poker room. Texas Hold’em is the most commonly played game there. The law targeted areas in need of economic development, keeping casinos out of Manhattan.
The Online Poker Question
Senator Joseph Addabbo Jr. has pushed for online poker legalization for 3 consecutive years. He introduced SB 2614 on January 21, 2025. His office estimates that New York would receive approximately $1 billion in state tax revenue annually under conservative market projections. He has pointed to budget deficits coming in 2026 and 2027 as reason to act.
Assembly Bill A6030 would classify certain interactive poker games as games of skill rather than games of chance. A federal court ruling in U.S. v. DiCristina found that under federal law, poker is predominantly a game of skill. Current New York law defines a contest of chance as any game where the outcome depends in a material degree upon an element of chance, even if skill is also a factor.
Sweepstakes Casinos Shut Down
In June 2025, Attorney General Letitia James announced her office had stopped online sweepstakes casinos from operating in New York. The state gaming commission sent cease and desist letters to 26 platforms, including Chumba, Luckyland, and Zula Casino. These sites used virtual coins that could be exchanged for real cash.
Governor Kathy Hochul signed Senate Bill 5935 to ban sweepstakes casinos. An industry study estimated the New York market accounted for $762 million in 2024 sales. Virtual Gaming Worlds announced it would end Sweeps Coin access for New York players by August 1, 2025.
Where the Cards Fall Now
New York is one of 8 states considering online poker in 2025. Virginia, Massachusetts, Indiana, Maryland, Wyoming, Hawaii, and New Hampshire are also reviewing legislation. The constitutional restrictions on gambling in New York remain in tension with state budget pressures and the revenue that regulated gaming could provide.
The underground rooms are mostly gone. The Mayfair closed 25 years ago. But the players who came out of those rooms won bracelets for decades, and the legal arguments about skill and chance in poker continue working through the courts and the legislature.
Featured image credit: DepositPhotos.com
