According to the chairman of the Indiana Gaming Commission, nine states are either currently or expected to consider legislation targeting dual-currency sweepstakes casinos during the 2026 legislative session.
Nate Friend made that assertion Tuesday during the initial hearing for Indiana’s sweeps ban bill, House Bill 1052, during testimony to the House Public Policy Committee.
“Indiana is one of nine states tackling this issue during the 2025-2026 legislative session,” he said, “along with Maine, Arkansas, Maryland, Mississippi, Florida, Illinois, Ohio, and Massachusetts.”
Indiana, Maine, and Florida have already filed or pre-filed their bills. As we just said, Indiana’s bill had its first hearing on Tuesday, while Maine’s has its initial hearing on Jan. 14. The Florida bill does not yet have a scheduled hearing; that state’s legislative session begins on Jan. 13.
The carryover bills
Two of the states Friend listed — Ohio and Massachusetts — saw bills that would ban sweepstakes casinos introduced last year. These states both run two-year legislative cycles, so perhaps Friend was alluding to any continued activity on the 2025 bills.
Those bills, however, are not expected to progress very far.
Both pieces of legislation also legalize real-money online casinos — a form of online gambling expansion that has been met with significant resistance in both states.
In Ohio, efforts to pass House Bill 298 seemed to pretty much grind to a halt in October.
At that time, House Speaker Matt Huffman indicated as much in his comments to the Statehouse News Bureau and other reporters while discussing the broader outlook for gambling-related legislation in the state.
Huffman said HB298 and Senate Bill 197, another gambling expansion bill, both had not gained any meaningful traction, and he suggested that situation was unlikely to change.
“At some point, there is a saturation point,” Huffman said. “There’s a group of people who don’t gamble. There’s a group of people who do. Maybe some people participate in different ways.”
What’s more is, around the same time, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine told this to reporters at the state fair over the summer: “I’m not for [online gambling expansion]. Basically to put a casino in everybody’s hands, 24/7, I think is probably not a great idea and I think it will cause more pain and suffering in regards to addiction as far as gaming addiction. So I’m just not for it.”
In Massachusetts, even though House Bill 4431 had its reporting deadline extended to mid-March, vocal opposition to iGaming comes from positions of power in the state.
Like from Treasurer Deborah Goldberg, for instance, who chairs the state lottery commission.
She worries legalizing iGaming would “overwhelm” lottery marketing efforts.
“I don’t want to tell you what iLotteries did during Covid — Michigan, New Hampshire — while we had nobody being able to leave their house. And can you imagine the amount that we would have generated then?” Goldberg said at a Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce event in December, per WWLP.
“So, I would not like to see iGaming come.”
We’ll see, however, if Friend’s comments indicated other legislative efforts will come from Ohio and Massachusetts in the coming year.
The states to keep an eye on
As for the other four states Friend listed — Arkansas, Maryland, Mississippi, and Illinois — one just Friday filed a bill (more on that later) and all four states have established anti-sweeps climates so far via other actions as well.
Mississippi
Mississippi saw its sweeps ban bill fail to pass in 2025 mainly due to pushback against an amendment that added language to it legalizing sports betting. (But not before the Mississippi Senate passed the bill and sent it to the House.)
Still, the state established an anti-sweeps climate with a cease-and-desist the Mississippi Gaming Commission sent to Chumba Casino in June.
And on Friday, lo and behold: Mississippi Senate Bill 2104 was introduced, and it modifies current state law to include sweepstakes casinos under the umbrella of illegal gambling.
Here’s the specific language:
Any online, interactive, or computerized version of any game as defined in Section 75-76-5(k) or any other game of chance or digital simulation thereof, including, but not limited to, online race books, online sports pools, and online sweepstakes casino-style games, is hereby declared to be a gambling device, and the offering for play or operating an online or interactive platform that offers for play such games within the State of Mississippi shall be deemed unlawful under the provisions of this section.
SB2104 currently sits with the Senate Judiciary, Division B Committee.
Arkansas
Arkansas, which doesn’t begin its 2026 legislative session until April, considered a sweeps ban bill in 2025, but it didn’t make it to the finish line. It was one of the few states that saw a sweeps ban bill filed in 2025 that did not pass it.
Still, the appetite for ban was there at least in part last year, and the climate regarding the sweeps industry has grown progressively more sour since Arkansas’ 2025 bill failed.
Also, Arkansas is expected to consider legalizing iGaming in 2026 as well, so it wouldn’t be far-fetched to see a sweeps ban attached to an iGaming bill.
Maryland
Maryland also considered a sweeps ban bill but ultimately did not pass it in 2025. But the state still took restrictive action against sweepstakes casinos, as the Maryland Lottery and Gaming Control Agency issued cease-and-desist orders to VGW, the gaming operator behind Chumba Casino, LuckyLand Slots, Global Poker, and now LuckyLand Casino and United Slots, as well as Golden Hearts Gaming, Zula Casino, Stake.us, Fortune Coins, McLuck, and ReBet.
In addition, Maryland is also thought of as a potential state to watch for iGaming legalization. Its legislative session begins on Jan. 14.
Illinois
Like Maryland, Illinois begins its legislative session on Jan. 14.
The Illinois Gaming Board sent a statement this week to Sweepsy in which it made its position regarding sweeps casinos pretty clear:
“The Illinois Gaming Board (IGB) works to maintain the integrity and safety of Illinois gambling,” a spokesperson told Sweepsy. “Unlicensed sweepstakes operators and other forms of illegal gambling are not welcome in Illinois. “The IGB will continue to evaluate all available regulatory and law enforcement tools to respond to illegal gambling and protect Illinois patrons.”
Sweepsy requested comment from the IGB after a series of recent developments suggested that sweepstakes operators may be facing increasing scrutiny in Illinois.
One of those developments came when Tora Tora Casino informed Illinois players it would end operations in the state effective Jan. 10, citing compliance with state regulations.
At the same time, Evolution — a major supplier whose games are widely used by sweepstakes casinos — appeared to pull its products from the Illinois sweeps market. Sweepsy confirmed that Illinois users lost access to Evolution titles at Spinquest Casino on Jan. 1.
As of this writing, no bill banning sweeps casinos had been filed in Illinois. But Friend’s comments in Indiana, paired with the IGB’s statement, give an indication that legislation could be on its way in Illinois. Time will tell.
