Does DealMeIn handle money?
No. Never. DealMeIn does not receive, hold or move money, and has no connection to payments between players.
What the app does is record numbers and display them: who bought in, how many rebuys were taken, and what the prize pool therefore comes to. Settling up happens outside the app, between you.
Do we have to play for money?
No. DealMeIn has its own points system, and plenty of clubs use it with no stakes at all — you play for placement and ranking. Set the buy-in to zero and that’s it.
It is often the simplest way to run a club, and the whole league side works exactly the same.
Is this a gambling service?
No. DealMeIn is an organisational tool for home games and groups of friends — a digital version of the sheet somebody always ended up keeping by hand.
If you do play for stakes, staying within the rules where you live is your responsibility. The app keeps track of the numbers; it does not decide what is allowed.
What about the prize pool it shows?
It is a calculation based on the buy-ins you recorded yourselves — a number on a screen, so everyone sees the same thing and nobody has to do sums in their head. It is not an account, and there is no money in it.
What do Norwegian rules say about home poker?
If you play for money in Norway, the rules for private poker games apply, and they apply per game night: play must happen in a private home without a professional character, with at most 20 participants, and the highest stake is 1000 kroner per player per gathering. There is also an 18-year age limit, and playing on credit is not allowed. Read more at Lotteritilsynet.
As always: the app records the numbers — keeping the game within the rules is your responsibility. If you play on points, none of this comes up.
And the league pot?
Same thing. In a prize league, a share of each tournament pot is noted into a shared league pot, and the league page shows what has accumulated and where it came from. It is a ledger of numbers you recorded yourselves — not an account. When the league is settled, the app shows the distribution; the actual settling up happens outside the app, between you. See Leagues.