Sweepstakes casino ban tracker: every state law, effective date and status

Nine state statutes now prohibit the dual-currency sweepstakes model, a tenth is signed and counting down to November 1, and seven more states have shut the door through enforcement alone. This page tracks all 50 states plus DC in one table, cross-references which operators left where, and logs every change with a date. It is the living companion to our state-by-state legality guide — that page explains the law; this one tracks its movement.

What do the five statuses mean?

Every row below gets one of five statuses, and the distinction matters more than most coverage admits:

• Banned — a statute prohibiting the sweepstakes-casino model is on the books and its effective date has passed. Compliant operators have withdrawn.
• Ban enacted (pending) — a prohibition is signed into law but its effective date is still ahead. Play continues for now; exits are announced in the run-up.
• Enforcement-only — no sweepstakes-specific statute, but regulators or existing law have pushed operators out via cease-and-desist letters, licence actions or litigation. Practically closed, legally murkier.
• Watch list — ban bills filed, died or expected back, or a task force studying the question. Operators generally still serve these states.
• Legal — no prohibition and no active enforcement campaign we can document. Individual operators may still exclude the state by choice.

We cite bill numbers and dates in the table itself so you can pull the legislative text directly rather than take an affiliate's word for it. Where a date is an operator deadline rather than a statutory one, the note says so.

Which states have banned sweepstakes casinos?

Nine by statute: Montana (SB 555, October 1, 2025), Connecticut (SB 1235, October 2025), New Jersey (A5447, August 15, 2025), New York (S5935A, December 5, 2025), California (AB 831, January 1, 2026), Indiana (HB 1052, July 1, 2026), Maine (LD 2007, July 14, 2026), Louisiana (August 1, 2026) and Tennessee (SB 2136, 2026). Oklahoma follows on November 1, 2026, and seven more states are closed through enforcement alone.

Tally as of September 15, 2026: 9 banned · 1 enacted-pending (OK) · 7 enforcement-only · 8 watch list · 26 legal. Dates in the "Effective" column are statutory; dates in the notes are operator deadlines unless stated otherwise.

How does a state actually close to sweepstakes casinos?

Coverage tends to flatten everything into "banned," but the mechanics differ, and the mechanics decide what you experience as a player.

1. The statutory ban. A legislature defines the dual-currency model — Gold Coins for entertainment, Sweeps Coins redeemable for cash — and prohibits offering it. This is the cleanest form: there is a bill number, a signature date and an effective date, and operators leave on a schedule you can plan around. Montana's SB 555 was the template; California's AB 831 was the earthquake, both because of the market's size and because it swept in the affiliates who promote these platforms, not just the platforms themselves. New York went furthest of all: S5935A took hold on signature in December 2025, with felony-grade provisions arriving in April 2026 for those who operate or promote the model.

2. The enforcement squeeze. No new law — a regulator decides existing law already covers the product and starts mailing cease-and-desist letters. Illinois is the defining 2026 case: roughly 65 operators received IGB letters in May, and the exodus was immediate even though the legislature never voted. Louisiana ran the same play as a prelude, with 40-plus letters before its statute landed. The player-relevant difference: enforcement exits tend to come with shorter notice than statutory ones, because there is no future effective date to plan toward.

3. The operator self-exit. Nobody forces anyone out — a brand reads the temperature and withdraws. Delaware is the clearest current example: no statute, no C&D campaign we can document, and yet RealPrize wound down its SC play there with an August 21 cutoff and a September 21 redemption deadline. Self-exits are the hardest to predict from statute-watching alone, which is exactly why the operator cross-reference below exists.

Which sweepstakes operators left which states?

All of them left somewhere in 2025–26. LuckyLand shut down entirely; Wow Vegas now excludes fourteen states; Stake.us has made four rounds of exits this year and serves 28 states; Pulsz, McLuck, RealPrize and High 5 each left ahead of the Indiana, Maine and Louisiana deadlines; Modo.us stayed in California as a Gold-Coin-only product instead of leaving.

Statuses above tell you what a state permits; this table tells you what each brand actually did about it. It is kept in sync with our full reviews, where each exit is documented with its redemption deadline.

Two patterns are worth naming. First, exits cluster around effective dates: nearly every brand that left Indiana, Maine or Louisiana did so in the two to six weeks before the statute bit, with a redemption window published in advance. Second, corporate families move together — when B-Two pulled McLuck from Maine, its four sister brands announced the same date. If your brand's sibling just left your state, treat that as your notice.

Which states could ban sweepstakes casinos next?

Eight states sit between "legal" and "banned," and this is where affiliate coverage most often shades into wishful thinking. Our read: Florida's HB 189 and SB 1580 both died in the 2026 session, but the sponsors have signaled refiling, so Florida players should expect this fight annually. Texas, Ohio, North Carolina and Virginia have bill or task-force activity without a passed prohibition. Arizona and Georgia are quieter — study-stage at most — and Georgia actually saw a market re-entry in 2025. Delaware belongs on the list for the opposite reason: the state has done nothing, yet operators keep leaving, which tells you the industry's own lawyers see risk the statute books don't yet show. We do not predict votes; when a bill passes, it moves to the table above with its dates, and the changelog records the day we moved it.

What should you do if your state has banned sweepstakes casinos?

Here is the honest version, without the "you can still technically…" hedging that this corner of the internet specializes in:

• You can redeem during an announced window. Every documented 2026 exit came with one — typically two weeks to a month. If an exit affecting you is announced, start your redemption the same day; first-time redemptions include a verification step that eats into the window. Our redemption guide walks through it.
• You cannot expect a compliant operator to keep serving you, and you should be suspicious of any that does after your state's effective date. Post-deadline availability is a red flag about the operator, not a loophole for you.
• We will not point you offshore. Unregulated offshore casinos are the predictable next pitch for players in ban states, and they carry exactly the risks — no dispute recourse, no redemption guarantees — that these state laws were reacting to. If the model is banned where you live, the responsible options are the free-to-play Gold-Coin versions some operators maintain, or not playing. Our responsible play page is there if stopping feels harder than it should.
• Stranded balances are not always lost. New York's settlement forced VGW to reopen a year-long redemption window for players it left behind. If you missed a deadline, a complaint to your state AG's consumer division costs nothing and, on the New York precedent, occasionally works.

How often is this tracker updated?

This is a maintained page, not a published-and-forgotten one. Every row is re-verified at least monthly against primary sources — legislature sites, regulator announcements, operator terms — and within days of any signed bill, effective date, C&D wave or exit announcement. The stamp at the top reflects the most recent full re-verification; the log below records what changed and when, because a tracker that updates silently is just another affiliate page. Known upcoming date: Oklahoma, November 1, 2026 — expect that row and several operator rows to change through October.

FAQ

For the explainer behind these statuses — what "dual-currency" means and how the model works — read are sweepstakes casinos legal? and Sweeps Coins explained. For a per-brand, per-state answer in one click, use the state availability checker.