A bill that would allow Iowa’s gaming regulator to send cease-and-desist orders to sweepstakes casinos just received the assignment for its first legislative hearing.
House Study Bill 586 is set for a hearing before the House State Government Committee at 12 p.m. local time on Jan. 29. It has a twin bill in the Senate — Senate Study Bill 3040 — that has not yet been slated for a hearing with its committee, the Senate State Government Committee.
This bill was pre-filed by the Iowa Department of Inspections, Appeals and Licensing ahead of the Iowa Legislature’s 2026 session start date of Jan. 12. Of note: This bill is just for enforcement capabilities; it doesn’t address the actual legality of sweeps casinos.
What HSB586 would change
Under current state law, the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission has no legal authority to take any type of actions against entities that don’t hold a license with them. At the moment, IRGC Administrator Tina Eck told Iowa Capital Dispatch, the only real recourse the agency has against entities it deems “bad actors” is to send out public notices alerting Iowa residents and warning them to avoid engaging with such sites.
HSB586 would change that.
In the bill, there is specific language that would allow the IRGC “to take any other action as may be reasonable or appropriate to enforce this chapter and the commission rules, including but not limited to issuing cease and desist orders and obtaining injunctive relief against a person offering games of chance, gambling, sports wagering, or illegal sweepstakes in this state without holding an appropriate license issued by the commission or otherwise being specifically authorized by law.”
There are similar language additions regarding other areas of what the regulator deems as unlicensed online gambling, including pari-mutuel betting and advanced deposit wagering.
Eck told Iowa Capital Dispatch that the main bad actors the IRGC has come across in Iowa are spam sites posing as a casino’s online site, offshore sports betting sites like MyBookie and Bovada, and cryptocurrency sweepstakes sites. She never specifically mentioned traditional sweeps casinos, but the language in HSB586 clearly covers such gaming.
“We have a strong regulatory system that ensures the games are fair,” Eick told Iowa Capital Dispatch. “We hold those [regulated] operators accountable. Their information and their funds are secure, and then they have responsible gaming, self exclusion programs in place, and then we tax them. They pay their fair share of taxes to Iowa.
“The bottom line is, illegal gaming undermines the public trust and puts Iowans at risk.”
The next Arizona, Maryland, or Louisiana?
If HSB586 passes, Iowa would be poised to potentially follow in the footsteps of states such as Arizona, Maryland, and Louisiana. In those jurisdictions, the state gaming regulators have taken it upon themselves to send cease-and-desist orders out to sweeps operators, even though lawmakers in those states have not passed legislation outright outlawing sweeps gaming.
The Arizona Department of Gaming sent their orders out in a series of batches over the course of 2025. The Maryland Lottery and Gaming Control Agency also issued a bunch of cease-and-desists in 2025 including VGW, Golden Hearts Gaming, Zula Casino, Stake.us, Fortune Coins, McLuck, and ReBet. And in June, the Louisiana Gaming Control Board sent out 42 cease-and-desists to a range of operators, including a large number of sweeps gaming sites.
This type of approach is effective on a small scale, but it ultimately doesn’t do as much as legislation when it comes to entirely preventing Sweeps Coin gaming from taking place in a state.
There are more than 200 sweepstakes casinos currently on the market and more popping up by the week. So, ultimately, this type of regulatory cease-and-desist action becomes a game of whack-a-mole — with only those receiving the cease-and-desist orders being effectively forced out of the state. Yes, many reputable operators will see a heavy presence of cease-and-desists in a market and, even if they didn’t receive one, realize it may be smart to pull Sweeps Coin gaming out of the state. But that’s certainly not a universal response.
Still, HSB586 passing in Iowa would be seen as a loss for the sweeps gaming industry as, despite Iowa’s small market size, any reduction in the total addressable market will be felt in the post-California and post-New York era of Sweeps Coin gaming.
