The Oklahoma Legislature has voted to override the governor’s veto of legislation banning sweepstakes casinos, meaning the bill will become state law despite the governor’s veto.
Gov. Kevin Stitt vetoed Senate Bill 1589 on May 7.
One week later, on Thursday, the Senate first voted to override the veto, 34-10. Then the House followed suit with a 68-19 override vote of its own. That means Oklahoma is the third state to enact a law in 2026 that outlaws Sweeps Coin gameplay at sweepstakes casinos, joining Indiana and Maine — although the governors in both those states signed their respective bills.
SB1589 has an effective date of Nov. 1, 2026, so sweeps casinos have until then to either pack their bags and leave Oklahoma or at least to shut down Sweeps Coin gameplay, which is the problematic element of the platforms in lawmakers’ and regulators’ eyes, as Sweeps Coins can be redeemed for real money.
Gov. Stitt: SB1589 ‘criminalizes everyday apps people use for fun’
Stitt released his official reasoning for the veto prior to the Oklahoma Legislature overturning his decision.
“Oklahoma’s gaming laws must be clear, targeted, and fair. Senate Bill 1589 does not accomplish that end,” Stitt wrote. “This bill is so broad that it criminalizes everyday apps people use for fun. It also unnecessarily creates a new felony and extends criminal liability to businesses and service providers. That kind of vague and overbroad approach creates uncertainty for businesses operating in good faith and discourages innovation and investment in our state. Oklahoma can protect consumers without adopting criminal penalties that reach beyond the problem they are intended to solve.”
The main point of SB1589 is to prevent any entity other than Oklahoma tribes from — either now or in the future — offering any type of online gambling or online gaming that uses real money or anything “representative of value.”
It then defines what “representative of value” means:
“Representative of value” includes any and all currency used as part of a dual-currency system of payment that allows a person to exchange such currency for any prize, award, cash, or cash equivalent, or any chance to win any prize, award, cash, or cash equivalent.
The “dual-currency” language is widely understood to be targeting the Gold Coins and Sweeps Coins setup used by most traditional sweepstakes casinos.
Based on that wording, SB1589 doesn’t initially appear to put apps like Candy Crush at risk. But its wording is broad enough to raise questions about certain mobile-game mechanics, and that may be what Stitt is alluding to — and it’s long been a rallying cry for sweeps supporters lobbying against these types of bills.
While Candy Crush and similar mobile games generally avoid the elements that gambling laws focus on, players can spend money on extra lives, boosts, or other in-app perks. Plus, language like “any chance to win” and references to dual-currency systems could lead to scrutiny of certain randomized reward mechanics, like loot boxes or casino-style spin features, even if that was not the legislature’s intent with SB1589.
Override was successful by 1 vote
In Oklahoma, the legislature can override a governor’s veto with a two-thirds vote in both chambers — at least 68 votes in the House and 32 in the Senate.
So this was close.
Remember, the House voted to overturn Stitt’s veto with 34 votes in the Senate and 68 votes in the House, meaning the sweepstakes casino industry was one House vote away from a significant victory in Oklahoma.
This also means the anti-sweeps lobby was able to secure three yes votes between the original passage of SB1589 in the House and Thursday’s vote, as the bill originally passed in the House with 65 votes in early May.
Meanwhile, SB1589 actually lost votes in the Senate. It passed unanimously — 48-0 — in early March, but received 10 no votes in Thursday’s action.
Members of the pro-sweeps coalition, namely the Social Gaming Leadership Alliance, will no doubt use the words of Stitt to fuel their lobbying in other jurisdictions moving forward. It’s not at all insignificant that a sitting governor believed a sweeps ban bill “is so broad that it criminalizes everyday apps people use for fun.”
But those words carry much less weight after the legislature’s votes Thursday.
Impact of losing Oklahoma
In terms of actual impact on sweeps operators’ bottom line, Oklahoma isn’t a major loss. The greater loss here is how close the sweeps industry was to a governor-backed victory … and yes close doesn’t mean anything in the end.
Oklahoma ranks 28th in the United States with a population of 4.1 million. Entering Thursday, it was the 20th-largest state that doesn’t have some sort of official ban on sweepstakes casinos on the books.
Another state that has passed bills targeting sweeps casinos, Louisiana, ranks 25th with a population of 4.6 million. There, Gov. Jeff Landry is expected to allow both bills to become law. One officially classifies sweeps gaming as illegal “gambling by computer” and the other classifies gambling by computer as a racketeering crime. In tandem, the bills — House Bill 53 and House Bill 883 — may represent the strongest attempt at enforcement against Sweeps Coin gameplay we’ve seen to date.
