Florida is now on the offensive against sweepstakes casinos.
In lawsuits filed early Wednesday morning, Florida Attorney General Jason Uthmeier sued two megabrands in the sweeps gaming industry: VGW and Stake. VGW is the company behind Chumba Casino, Global Poker, LuckyLand Casino, and soon-to-close LuckyLand Slots, while Stake is the company behind Stake.us.
“These so-called ‘sweepstakes’ and ‘social casinos’ are illegal online gambling operations,” Uthmeier said in a press release announcing the lawsuits. “If it looks like a casino, takes real money like a casino, and pays out like a casino, it is a casino — and it is illegal under Florida law. These companies have been preying on Floridians, including minors and seniors, with deceptive marketing, and 24/7 access, while dodging our state’s licensing, taxation, and consumer-protection requirements. They must be stopped.”
Uthmeier’s office alleges VGW and Stake are violating Florida’s gambling laws and the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act.
Digging into the lawsuits
Uthmeier begins his 74-page lawsuit against VGW and his 64-page lawsuit against Stake in the same way: He claims both are operating illegal online casinos in Florida, despite their claims that they aren’t, which Uthmeier calls a “carefully constructed facade.”
“They call them ‘sweepstakes’ casinos as if that’s some sort of talismanic cure-all,” Uthmeier said in the release. “But if it looks, swims, and quacks like a duck, it’s a duck. Defendants’ ‘sweepstakes’ casinos violate Florida laws, harm Florida citizens, and deprive the State of licensing, taxation, and other revenues from gambling entities that the State properly regulates.”
In addition to targeting VGW and Stake, Uthmeier’s lawsuits also target payment processors — including Yodlee, Trustly, Worldpay, Praxis, and Breeze Labs — that worked with both operators.
Both lawsuits argue that the dual-currency model — non-redeemable Gold Coins paired with redeemable Stake Cash or Sweeps Coins — amounts to gambling under Florida law. Both also accuse the companies of deceptive marketing and seek forfeiture of gambling-related funds, disgorgement, consumer restitution, civil penalties, and injunctions.
The differences are primarily in the factual allegations and the scope of the defendants targeted.
The VGW lawsuit focuses heavily on how its sweepstakes model operates across Chumba Casino, LuckyLand Slots, LuckyLand Casino, and Global Poker. It emphasizes allegations that VGW deceptively markets its platforms as “free,” “100% safe” and “100% legal,” while players could purchase Sweeps Coins and redeem winnings for cash. (Technically, players buy Gold Coins and those purchases come with bonus Sweeps Coins, but the lawsuit alleges that practice essentially amounts to purchasing Sweeps Coins.)
The lawsuit also highlights VGW’s enormous scale, alleging more than $5 billion in 2025 revenue, including $3.7 billion from Chumba Casino.
The Stake lawsuit goes further into the ecosystem surrounding Stake. It targets Stake.us, Easygo, Kick Streaming, and individual founders Bijan Tehrani and Ed Craven. The complaint devotes significant attention to celebrity endorsements, influencers, livestreaming on Kick, high-roller content, gambling leaderboards, and responsible-gambling tools. It also alleges Stake allowed gambling on credit, failed to honor self-exclusion efforts, and offered services to minors.
Kentucky and Florida may be setting a new trend
With his lawsuits, Uthmeier appears to be following the lead of Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman, who filed lawsuits against VGW, Kalshi, and Polymarket in his state in June.
In other words: Kentucky may have changed the playbook for sweepstakes casino enforcement.
Instead of sending sweeps casinos a cease-and-desist letter and waiting for them to decide whether to comply, Coleman and now Uthmeier went straight to court against the operators.
Cease-and-desist letters have become a common enforcement tool against sweeps casinos. Some operators leave a state after receiving one, while others continue operating or ignore the warning entirely.
By filing immediately instead of waiting to judge a response to a cease-and-desist, Kentucky and Florida have forced VGW (and also Stake in Florida) to make a more consequential decision: Fight the allegations in court, or leave the states.
VGW has not yet responded to Sweepsy‘s request for comment regarding Wednesday’s Florida lawsuit. However, in response to the Kentucky lawsuit, a VGW spokesperson said:
“We respectfully reject the Kentucky Attorney General’s claims and plan to vigorously defend this lawsuit. We have lawfully operated in the US for more than a decade, delivering online Social Plus games to millions of Americans who value the freedom to enjoy the free, fun entertainment that this lawsuit effectively targets. With values including ‘our players come first’ and ‘we do what’s right’, we pride ourselves on creating not only the best games, player experiences and entertainment, but ensuring this is done safely and responsibly with robust consumer protections.”
VGW has consistently argued that its model is legal because Sweeps Coins cannot be purchased directly and can instead be obtained through free methods and promotions.
Florida is one of the most vital remaining markets for sweeps operators
Beyond attempting to shut down VGW and Stake in Florida, the lawsuits were likely also filed to serve as a warning to the sweeps industry.
By targeting two of the sector’s largest operators — and seeking significant financial penalties and disgorgement — Florida is signaling that it intends to aggressively enforce its gambling laws against sweepstakes casinos. The probable hope from Uthmeier’s office is that its actions nudge other operators to voluntarily leave Florida rather than risk facing similar legal action.
Florida is vitally important to sweepstakes casinos. With more than 23 million residents, it’s the third-most-populated state in the country, making it the second-largest market where Sweeps Coin gameplay remains available. Texas is the largest, and that state has not launched any crackdowns on sweeps casinos yet.
Five of the country’s 10 largest states have already outlawed (or effectively outlawed) Sweeps Coin gameplay:
- California (#1) banned Sweeps Coin gameplay through Assembly Bill 831, which took effect Jan. 1.
- New York (#4) followed suit after Gov. Kathy Hochul signed legislation banning sweeps gaming in late 2025.
- Pennsylvania (#5) has a regulated real-money iGaming market, so many sweeps operators elect not to offer Sweeps Coin gameplay.
- Illinois (#6) firmly asserted itself as an anti-sweeps zone when the Illinois Gaming Board issued cease-and-desist orders to more than 60 operators in February.
- Michigan (#10) has taken an especially aggressive stance. The Michigan Gaming Control Board has issued numerous cease-and-desist orders against sweeps operators and has shown little indication that it plans to stop.
And four of the five states just outside the top 10 — New Jersey, Washington, Arizona, and Tennessee — have all either banned Sweeps Coin gameplay via new legislation or existing state laws, or attempted to boot sweeps casinos out of the state via cease-and-desists.
All that makes Florida’s current position particularly significant, and precarious, for the sweeps industry.
