I'm thinking of doing some poker nights, and was wondering if there's an easy way to electronically pool the money of people playing (with smartphones or w/e), and then when they settle at the end of the night, I can just transfer them how ever many chips they have left, back.

I would prefer not to have thousands of dollars in cash in my house at any given time, due to reasons such as theft, and additionally it's probably easier to convince police (if they tried to bust it) that it is a friendly game if there's no cash around.

Do you want this app to actually transfer money? If not, how would the money flow? Are they playing on credit, or paying you some other way and you would hold it between games?

The only options I can think of are online "wallets" like PayPal, most of which explicitly reserve the right to hold onto your money and kill your account if you're using it for gambling purposes. Personally, that's way too much of a risk for me to take with everyone's money.

There's also Bitcoin, which does offer immediate transactions and some shield from the prying eyes of the law (but caveat emptor, I'm not a lawyer, and all that). However, it's not the most user-friendly system, its price is known to fluctuate quite a bit, and everyone would have to be willing to put money in it.

Honestly, if you're running a raked game or anything where you'd have to worry about the police, you're probably better off taking the risk with cash. Firstly, don't ever let the police in or even open the door, so having cash on hand shouldn't matter. Either they have enough evidence for a warrant, in which case you're likely cooked, or you refuse entry without a warrant.

It's really robbery you're worried about, and that's something to think about. But what's the alternative to risking a few thousand in cash? Creating a detailed set of transaction records for every time everyone bought in or cashed out? Seems like a huge liability to have something like that floating around.

So keep using cash. People trust it more anyway. Just be careful with how you handle it, and don't be foolish about whom you let into the game.

For transparent records a Google doc can be setup by you as read only for people to see. For transferring money there are a few options out there. Google wallet, some online bank pays, square reader etc. At least some with fees, and having both parties on the same system maybe another wrinkle unless you act as a clearinghouse

If you were going to make this work, you would need for the players to send the money that they are planning on using prior to the start of the game. The players would not be able to draw more chips than they had transferred. You would transfer winnings only after the game and players would have to reload their account prior to the next game. All of this demands a large amount of trust and familiarity between the host and the players.

I play in a home game that permits this, though I personally wouldn't recommend it. Players buy in with fixed amounts, and the bank creates a ledger in iPhone Notes with "Jim T. $200" for example for each buy-in. Some players are buying in with cash (so no entry), some may want future buy-ins on temporary credit.

They hand over credit cards as security deposit/reminder. Nobody gets a card back without settling up.

At the end of the night, winners cash out less their credit buy-ins on the ledger. Losers Venmo their shortage to the winners (who have a shortage in payout due to less cash in the bank). Takes maybe 10 minutes at the end of the night.

This obviously relies on 100% trust among the group. Friendly game only, never a raked game, new players play cash-only or have another player literally vouch for their action.

I personally would not do this in a game where there was a police or security concern. For police, it won't matter, for the reasons Jim explained. For robbery, you're talking about guys with guns taking a big risk to get money they think you have. I'd rather have a game that was a nightmare logistically to rob than one that didn't have cash once guys with guns showed up and didn't believe we didn't have any.

Maybe I'm looking at this the wrong way but you want to have money on hand if you get robbed. I can just picture two guys holding you down while the third says " stop with this BS of no cash on hand, tell us where the money is or we break another finger"

If robbery is a concern, invest in deadbolts, stronger doors and videocams.

I think that would work. Send the buy-in to the host before the game. The buy-in is worth a certain number of chips at the game.

You'd just have to trust the host.

After the game each player turns in his chips to the host, who sends money equal to the value of the chips.

Buzz

Lots of games are played where people settle up at the end of the night by writing checks. That's why I asked OP what his needs are. Too bad he hasn't returned to this thread.

Bitcoin.

Check out venmo

Doesn't the value of bitcoin vary too much to rely on?

I think in the course of an evening you would be fine without too many fluctuations.

Or it's possible that everyone comes out a winner




or loser

How can you use bitcoins this way? Can you buy them that night, then turn them back into cash at the end? Is there a fee on either or both ends of that transaction?

I always thought you had to buy and hold the bitcoins for the longer term, then you're at the mercy of the market.

You can directly exchange BTC using the peer-to-peer client, and it's generally immediate or at least very fast (few hours). You can pay a small fee to expedite the transaction, but it's not required.

However, cashing out BTC is a little less simple, if you don't want to involve a bank and lots of nosy paperwork. You can directly buy things with it from a lot of websites, but you'd have to sell it to someone in person to get cash in your hand with no middle-man.

This is one of the reasons I shrugged off BTC as an option. It's not really worth the trouble you'd go through to use it for this purpose.

Right, and that means that the change in value over one evening it not relevant. You have to commit to bitcoin as a currency for more than poker, or you might as well be playing for matchsticks...rather expensive matchsticks.