Many users have found they cannot access the new play money version of poker in the game because of legal restrictions in their country.

Poker in Red Dead Redemption 2

Gamers were excited last week when a new patch was released for Red Dead Redemption 2 which included an online poker game within it. However, some discovered they were unable to play poker because of the country they were located in.

The currency you use to play poker in the game cannot be exchanged for real cash, but that wasn't enough for it to avoid being restricted in countries with strict gaming laws.

Players who had sent support requests to Rockstar got the following message:

We are sorry to let you know that the availability of Poker in Red Dead Online is dependent on regional laws and regulations and may not be available to all players. In short, poker won’t be available in countries where online gambling is restricted or illegal. We apologize if this had caused any inconvenience.

Although you cannot technically engage in any real money gambling in Red Dead Redemption 2, and some of the affected countries did actually allow online gambling in some other form, this is likely the developers playing things very safe. In recent years the ethics of ingame currency which can be used for purchases in the real world have come under scrutiny, especially when there is the potential for gambling.

Rockstar has flirted with the idea of hosting a real money casino in their flagship game Grand Theft Auto (something we once did an April Fool joke about), but it appears that idea has been shelved.

Would it be bad for poker to have real money games within Red Dead Redemption? Let us know in the comments: