As pirates, you might not expect us to be particularly law abiding. However, our “Letters of Mark” from the US Coast Guard and New York State authorities, allowing us to share our own brand of pirate activities on the Hudson River, do require us to ask all passengers to follow the laws of the United States and the State of New York.

Where wagering activities are concerned, these laws seem to change regularly, so you might want to familiarize yourself with them to be sure, however, our (non lawyer) understanding of the current state of legal affairs is that you may legally play games for money between people on equal footing. That is, there should be no “house” that has any different rules or takes any sort of additional cut, vig, or rake on wagers made, or charges a fee for participating in the game. Additionally, the more skill based a game is, the more likely it is to be deemed completely legal for wagering purposes that take place outside of a licensed casino. That doesn’t mean that a private wagering game may not have elements of chance, but skill of play should generally overcome chance in repeated play.

For example: Poker contains elements of chance as the cards are dealt to players randomly, however, courts have repeatedly recognized it as a legal game of skill, because skilled players can be shown to win consistently over unskilled players, even when only a relatively small number of hands are played in succession.