Sweepstakes Casino Banned States: US Map 2026

Indiana, Maine and Louisiana just went dark for sweepstakes casinos. Oklahoma follows on 1 November. That is the second contraction in 12 months — and it is why every list of sweepstakes casino banned states currently disagrees.

What a sweepstakes casino actually is

A sweepstakes casino is not a state-licensed online casino. It is a dual-currency promotion. Players buy Gold Coins that have no cash value and can be used only for entertainment play. A second currency — Sweeps Coins, Stake Cash, or a similar token — arrives as a bonus or through a free mail-in request. That second currency can be redeemed for cash or prizes.

US gambling law usually needs three elements: a prize, a game of chance, and consideration. Operators argue they have removed consideration because anyone can request Sweeps Coins by mail without a purchase. Attorneys general and the 2025–26 statutes treat the redeemable coin as a wager. There is no federal licence for this product and no federal ban. The Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act only attaches if a state’s own law already makes the activity unlawful.

Chumba Casino launched in 2012 as a social casino. The redeemable sweepstakes overlay arrived later, around 2017. Pulsz launched in 2020, Stake.us in 2022, and McLuck in 2023. The product spread through states that had not licensed real-money iGaming. That is why a US gambling-history split still matters: licensed casinos in a handful of states, and this promotional model almost everywhere else — until the last two years.

Why the map is shrinking again

The first hard closures were not 2025 bills. Washington’s internet-gambling statute and a 2018 Ninth Circuit decision in Kater v. Churchill Downs treated even no-cashout virtual chips as a thing of value. Idaho’s constitution bars casino simulations and cash-prize redemptions. Michigan’s Gaming Control Board sent cease-and-desist letters in 2023 and 2024 under the Lawful Internet Gaming Act, which allows only licensed commercial and tribal internet gaming.

Then came the first statutory wave. Montana signed Senate Bill 555 on 12 May 2025. Connecticut followed with Public Act 25-112. New Jersey’s A5447 became law on 15 August 2025. Nevada raised unlicensed-gambling penalties through Senate Bill 256, effective 1 October 2025. New York Attorney General Letitia James announced on 6 June 2025 that 26 platforms were ending Sweeps Coin sales after cease-and-desist letters. Governor Kathy Hochul signed Senate Bill 5935A on 5 December 2025. California Governor Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill 831 on 11 October 2025; it took effect on 1 January 2026.

The 2026 wave is why the map is shrinking again. Indiana House Bill 1052 took effect on 1 July. Maine’s LD 2007 took effect in mid-July. Tennessee codified its December 2025 enforcement with Senate Bill 2136, signed 22 May. Louisiana’s House Bills 883 and 53 took effect on 1 August. Oklahoma Senate Bill 1589 survived a veto override on 14 May and goes live on 1 November. That is a second operational wipe, not a rerun of last year’s headlines.

US sweepstakes casino map, 13 August 2026

Affiliate pages currently publish banned-state counts from 8 to 21. They are counting different things. This map uses four tiers: a statute, constitution, or active regulator ban that has already taken effect; a signed ban that is not yet live; a gray band of attorney-general letters, cease-and-desist orders, or mixed operator exits without a dedicated dual-currency statute; and states where major operators still serve players.

Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont and Alabama are not on the closed list. Some brands geo-block them. That is a compliance choice, not a statewide sweepstakes statute.

The 13 states that are closed now

Maine’s effective date is the one detail trackers still argue about. Some dated the ban 14 July, 90 days after the 6 April signing. Gambling Insider later corrected its own date to 29 July, 90 days after the legislature adjourned on 29 April. The ban is live either way as of mid-August. Nevada is also a borderline case: Senate Bill 256 is an unlicensed-gambling penalty upgrade, not a statute that names dual-currency sweepstakes. Every major operator still blocks the state, so it sits in the closed column.

How those banned-state counts get so far apart

Count only the 2025–26 dual-currency statutes that are already in force and the total is nine: California, Connecticut, Indiana, Louisiana, Maine, Montana, New Jersey, New York and Tennessee. Add Washington, Idaho, Michigan and Nevada and the closed set is 13. Add Oklahoma and the enacted set is 14 — a figure some July trackers used, except those pages treated Oklahoma as already closed. Add every state Stake.us geo-blocks and the number jumps toward 21. Those are four different questions.

The gray band is where the next statutes are most likely to land. Arizona’s Department of Gaming has issued cease-and-desist letters, including to Pulsz in July 2026; McLuck still serves the state. Illinois sent more than 60 letters in February 2026; Stake.us later added Illinois to its excluded list, and McLuck did not. Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman sued VGW — the company behind Chumba Casino, Global Poker and LuckyLand Slots — on 17 June 2026, alleging illegal gambling and consumer-protection violations. VGW has not been convicted in that case. Iowa signed an enforcement-power bill, not a product ban. Maryland, Minnesota and Mississippi saw bills fail. West Virginia has no dedicated statute located, but the major brands have already left.

The 2024–2026 closing timeline

New York’s path shows how enforcement now precedes a statute. James’s office identified 26 platforms offering slots, table games and sports-style products with coins redeemable for cash or prizes. The named operators, including Chumba, High 5 Casino, McLuck, Fortune Coins, Global Poker, Jackpota and Zula Casino, ended Sweeps Coin sales in the state. Stake.us was not on that published list. The December statute then locked the exit in place and extended liability to processors, geolocation vendors and affiliates, with civil fines of $10,000 to $100,000 per violation.

"Online sweepstakes casinos are illegal, dangerous, and can seriously ruin people’s finances."
— Letitia James, New York Attorney General, 6 June 2025

Tennessee followed the same sequence in reverse order of publicity. Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti announced on 29 December 2025 that almost 40 operators had received cease-and-desist letters and had agreed to wind down. The named list included Stake, Chumba, WOW Vegas, Crown Coins, Hello Millions, Modo and McLuck. Senate Bill 2136 then wrote the dual-currency ban into statute on 22 May 2026.

"The only thing you can be sure about with an online sweepstakes casino is that it's going to take your money."
— Jonathan Skrmetti, Tennessee Attorney General, 29 December 2025

The California-sized hole

California was the largest single-state market the model ever had. An August 2025 Eilers & Krejcik report prepared for the Social Gaming Leadership Alliance projected $14.31 billion in 2025 US sweepstakes sales and $4.68 billion in net revenue after prizes. California accounted for $2.42 billion of those sales, or 17.3%, and $790.5 million of net revenue. Assembly Bill 831 made it a misdemeanor to operate an online sweepstakes game and reached payment processors, geolocation providers and affiliates. Stake.us, Pulsz, McLuck and Chumba exited before 1 January 2026.

The 2026 national total is not settled. A September 2025 Eilers vintage put 2026 net revenue at $3.6 billion, down from an earlier $4.6 billion case. In mid-2026 Adam Krejcik of the same firm posted a revision of $20.5 billion in player purchases and $6.6 billion net, even with California and New York offline. Those two vintages cannot be averaged into one number. The 2025 figures are the ones that can be tied to a published report.

The closed states are also a population story. Census Bureau Vintage 2025 estimates put the United States, including the District of Columbia, at 341.8 million people on 1 July 2025. Adding the 13 closed states produces 117.5 million residents, or 34.4% of that total. Include Oklahoma and the figure is 121.6 million, or 35.6%. Both shares are derived from those state estimates, not a Census product labelled “sweepstakes states.”

Operator lists versus the law

Stake.us is the most conservative major brand. Its help centre and version 18 terms, updated 10 July 2026, exclude Arizona, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Vermont, Washington and West Virginia. That is 22 states. Oklahoma is not on the list.

McLuck’s 13 July 2026 help article excludes 17 states: California, Connecticut, Delaware, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Tennessee, Washington and West Virginia. It still lists Arizona, Illinois, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Utah, Vermont, Alabama, Texas and Florida. Chumba’s terms, as crawled in mid-July, block Sweeps play in a similar set and uniquely keep Mississippi on the promotional-exclusion list. Gold Coin play can remain after Sweeps Coin redemption is cut. That is a product split, not a second legal map.

Copying Stake.us into a “banned states” graphic therefore overstates the law. Pennsylvania has licensed iGaming and no dedicated sweepstakes statute located for this article. Rhode Island and Vermont appear on Stake’s list and on McLuck’s available list. Utah has a broad gambling code; McLuck still serves it, and Stake does not list it as excluded. Crypto casinos such as Stake.com are a different product again: they are not the US sweepstakes site, and they are not a legal workaround for a state geo-block.

Where sweepstakes casinos are still legal in 2026

Texas and Florida remain the largest open markets. Florida’s 2026 ban bills died in March. Texas Senate Bill 517 failed in 2025. Minnesota’s dual-currency ban died in May 2026 after the attorney general had already sent letters to 14 sites. Maryland, Massachusetts, Mississippi and Virginia bills also failed. A Washington, D.C. proposal to legalise iGaming and ban dual-currency play had a hearing and has not been enacted.

That leftover map is now more valuable and more visible. California’s exit raised the share of national volume sitting in Texas, Florida, Georgia, Ohio and the Carolinas. Those legislatures are the next lobbying targets for the American Gaming Association and for tribal operators that already have exclusive or compact-protected casino rights. A state that is green on this map in August 2026 is not guaranteed to stay that way through 2027.

What a ban does to an existing account

Bans target operators, not players. Residents are not prosecuted for having held a Chumba or Stake.us account. The practical effect is a wind-down. Purchases stop first. Most brands then open a short redemption window — often 30 to 60 days — and then geo-block the state. Miss the cutoff and the Sweeps Coin balance is gone. In August 2026, RealPrize and LoneStar told Delaware players that Sweeps Coins would end on 21 August, with redemptions accepted until 21 September. That Delaware exit is an operator decision, not a new statute.

A VPN does not fix this. Stake.us terms treat location spoofing as a material misrepresentation. Operators check GPS, Wi-Fi and IP at login. The usual result is account closure and forfeiture. Identity checks at cashout are often stricter than at deposit, which is why a late redemption can fail even when the window is still open. Anyone who needs to evaluate a site’s cashout process can use the same casino security checks that apply to licensed books: know-your-customer documents, payout rules, and a working self-exclusion path. The responsible gambling tools that licensed markets require are not guaranteed on these platforms.

The other side of the argument

The industry’s trade groups say the product is a legal sweepstakes, not a casino. The Social and Promotional Games Association said after the New York letters that sweepstakes promotions are not gambling under federal law and were then permitted in most states, including New York. New York later passed a statute that rejected that reading. Former VGW chief executive Ben Reichel told the Washington Post in 2024 that the board had been cautious because sweepstakes had never been used to promote social casino games, then became “confident of the legality of the model.”

The closest court language is older, and it is not about Chumba. Internet-café cases from the last decade treated phone cards and “free” entries as a label on a wager. In Telesweeps of Butler Valley v. Kelley, a federal judge wrote that inserting a step between payment and the chance to win “merely elevates form over substance.” That café line is what attorneys general are now applying to the online dual-currency model. There is still no US appellate opinion that directly decides the modern online product on the merits. Settlements, statutes and letters are not that opinion.

Licensed casinos and many tribal governments want the model gone. It pays no state gaming tax, holds no licence and, in compact states, sits outside exclusivity deals. The American Gaming Association, the licensed commercial industry’s trade group, published research on 31 July 2025 stating that 90% of sweepstakes users consider the activity gambling, 68% play primarily to win real money, and monthly player counts are twice as high in states without prohibitions. That poll was commissioned by a competitor to the sweepstakes operators. It is still the most-cited consumer survey on the product.

"These operators present themselves like legal, regulated platforms – but they operate outside the law and regulation. There are few if any responsible gaming tools, no regulatory oversight, and no consumer protections. It’s a dangerous subterfuge that puts players at real risk."
— Tres York, vice president of government relations, American Gaming Association, 31 July 2025

Daily fantasy sports is a weak comparison. Fantasy operators had a federal statutory hook and then received state licences. Sweepstakes casinos are being prohibited, not folded into iGaming. A few lawmakers have floated a licence-and-tax path. Those bills have not been the ones that passed. The regulation debate in this market is still a ban debate.

FAQs

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Sources

• Assembly Bill 831 — California Legislature
• Attorney General James Stops Illegal Online Sweepstakes Casinos — New York Attorney General, 6 June 2025
• Senate Bill S5935A — New York State Senate
• Tennessee Attorney General's Office Cracks Down on Illegal Online Sweepstake Casinos — Tennessee Attorney General, 29 December 2025
• Assembly Bill A5447 (2024–2025) — New Jersey Legislature
• Kentucky attorney general sues prediction markets, online sweepstakes — Louisville Public Media, 17 June 2026
• Cease and Desist Letters — Illinois Gaming Board
• RCW 9.46.240 — Washington State Legislature
• Idaho Constitution, Article III, Section 20 — Ballotpedia reprint of the official text
• Sweepstakes Casino Monthly Update May 2026 — Gambling Insider (Tennessee, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Iowa)
• House Bill 1052 — Indiana General Assembly
• Restricted states on the platform — Stake.us Help Center
• Terms & Conditions — Stake.us
• Can I play from anywhere? — McLuck Help Center
• U.S. Population Growth Slows (CB26-20) — U.S. Census Bureau, 27 January 2026
• AGA Research Reveals Consumers Know Sweepstakes Casinos Are Gambling — American Gaming Association, 31 July 2025
• A focus on sweepstakes — KPMG, June 2025
• Sweepstakes Casino Monthly Update June 2026 — Gambling Insider, 25 June 2026
• The casino in your pocket — The Washington Post, 27 November 2024
• Sweepstakes Casinos Face Long Legal Odds — Forbes / Daniel Wallach, 11 December 2024
• Kater v. Churchill Downs Inc., 886 F.3d 784 — U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, 28 March 2018