No club app guarantees your money. PPPoker, Suprema, ClubGG and X-Poker are software; the union behind your club is a business run by people, and those people hold your deposit, your players' balances and your weekly payout. When a union fails, the app does not refund anyone. That is why "which union is trustworthy" is the most common question we get from owners, and why the honest answer is not a list of names.
Names change. A union that paid on time for three years can stop in a bad month, and a new one can be run by people who ran a good one before. What does not change is the set of checks that separate a union you can verify from one you have to take on faith. We run unions on five apps and have taken in clubs that left failed ones, so the checks below are the ones we would run on ourselves if we were the club.
Why most "best union" lists are useless to a club owner
Most lists online are written for players, by affiliates, and rank unions by lobby size. Lobby size tells a club owner almost nothing. A union with a thousand tables and a payout that arrives "next week" is a worse place for your club than a union with sixty tables at your limits and a settlement that lands every Tuesday. Some of the sites publishing those lists also sell bots to the same clubs, which is worth remembering when they rate a union's "ecology".
The checks a club owner needs are about money, field and people, in that order.
Check 1: Settlement is a date, not a promise
Ask for the settlement cycle in writing: the cut-off day, the statement day, the payout day, the currency. Then ask two current club owners in that union whether the last four payouts landed on that day. A union that cannot name the day, or whose owners say "usually", has already told you the answer. Ours is one weekly statement per club and one USDT payout for every app under the agreement, on a fixed cut-off.
Check 2: The deposit has a stated purpose and a stated return
Every serious union takes a refundable security deposit from a club. The questions are what it is for and how you get it back. In our unions the deposit is the club's stop-loss: it caps the weekly minus and covers a shortfall if an owner does not. The amount is quoted per club from limits and activity, in writing, with the deduction trigger and the return conditions. A union that asks for a deposit before sending terms, or will not say what triggers a deduction, is asking you to fund it, not insure it.
Check 3: Real tables at your limits and your hours
Do not accept a daily average. Ask for the table count by discipline and limit during the hours your players actually play, and ask to see it yourself. We give incoming owners the ID of an active club inside the union so they can sit in the lobby and count. If a union refuses that, it is because the lobby at your hours does not look like the number they quoted.
Check 4: The deal is a band with conditions you can read
A headline percentage means nothing without three attachments: the volume bands that change it, the chip price with any rebate, and the renewal and chip fees. An 87 percent deal on a 100 ruble chip with a 5 percent rebate is a different number from 85 percent on a 1 ruble chip with free chips. We publish all of it per platform on the terms page for clubs and agents, dated and reviewed monthly, so an owner can compare before writing. Ask any union for the same four columns.
Check 5: Somebody answers at 3 AM and has a name
Chips and withdrawals move through people, which is why they take minutes in a club app instead of days in a poker room. The cost is that somebody has to be reachable. Ask who your manager is, whether they play the platform, and what happens when they are asleep. A union that routes you to a shared support account with a script will route your players there too.
Check 6: Bots and collusion have a process, not a policy
Every union says it fights bots. Ask what happens on the day you report one: who reviews the hands, how fast, and what the sanction is. The answer should be a same-day removal of a colluding pair or a flagged account, with the hands reviewed by a person. In our unions bot, RTA and chip-dumping screening runs across the whole union, and the outcome of a report is a removal, not a ticket number. A field that is soft by policy stays soft; one that is soft by luck does not.
Check 7: You can leave
Ask what happens when a club leaves: how the final statement is produced, when the deposit comes back, and whether the club and its members stay yours. On every app we cover the club, its ID and its agent tree belong to the owner. A union that implies otherwise, or that makes the deposit return conditional on something vague, is telling you that the exit will be expensive. How a clean exit works is covered in our guide to moving a club to another union without losing players.
Red flags that end the conversation
- Income promised in multiples: "double your rake in the first month". Rake depends on your players and your hours, and anyone promising a number for them is selling something else.
- Deposit requested before written terms.
- Chip price or rebate changed without notice. Your margin lives in that number.
- No existing owner will talk to you, or every reference is the same person.
- One person controls communication and payments with no second contact.
- Your balance is locked for a new reason each week.
- Free chips or a credit line offered to a club with no history. That is how a union buys a club it intends not to pay.
A test that costs one week
If the seven checks pass on paper, run a small live test before moving your whole club. Put a small group of trusted regulars in, play one full settlement cycle, and verify every step: deposit, play, statement, payout, reconciliation to the chip. A union that passes one cycle has not proven it will pass fifty, but a union that fails one has proven enough.
What this looks like inside RP Union
We publish our terms per platform with a review date. A written offer comes within one working day of your numbers. Setup is one to two days, with a named manager and a finance chat from day one. Settlement is weekly, in USDT, one statement per club across PPPoker, X-Poker, ClubGG, Suprema and Poker21+. The deposit is refundable and defined as the club's stop-loss. We hand you an active club ID so you can see the lobby before you decide. None of that makes us immune to the checks above; it is what lets you run them on us in a week. The full network is on the RP Union home page.
FAQ
Are poker unions safe for club owners?
No union is guaranteed by the app, so safety is something you verify, not a label. A union is as safe as its settlement history, its deposit terms and the people answering your messages. Run the seven checks on this page and a one-week live test before moving your club; a union that passes all of them is as safe as this business gets.
How do I know if a poker union is a scam?
The clearest signs are a deposit requested before written terms, promised income multiples, chip prices that change without notice, references who are all the same person, and balances locked for a new reason each week. Any one of those is enough to stop; two or more means leave the conversation.
What should a union put in writing before I join?
The rake split and the volume bands that change it, chip price with any rebate, renewal and chip fees, the settlement cut-off, statement and payout days with the currency, the deposit amount with its deduction trigger and return conditions, and which union lobby your club joins. If any of those is missing, ask; if it stays missing, that is your answer.
Which unions are the most reliable in 2026?
Reliability is a property of a union's settlement record this year, not of a name, and lists that rank unions by lobby size are written for players rather than owners. Ask two current club owners in any union whether the last four payouts arrived on the stated day. That one question outranks every ranking.
Can I test a union before moving my whole club?
Yes, and you should. Place a small group of trusted regulars for one full settlement cycle and verify deposit, play, statement, payout and reconciliation. Through RP Union you can also watch the live lobby from an active club ID before placing anyone.
If you want to run these checks on us, send your platform, active players, monthly rake and current deal to @rpunion on Telegram and ask for the active club ID. If your players are on Suprema, the Suprema Poker union page describes that field.
18+. Running a poker club carries real financial risk. Verify before you deposit and play responsibly.