Sweepstakes casinos in Florida are one step closer to crossing their fingers that certain legislative language doesn’t apply to them.
That’s because Senate Bill 1580 — which tackles a wide variety of gambling issues, including a change in Florida’s definition of illegal online gambling — cleared its third Senate committee, the Rules Committee, via a 21-1 vote on Tuesday.
Soon SB1580 will likely hit the Senate floor for a full vote and, if it passes there, it will head over to the committee stage in the House. A nearly identical bill is also progressing in the House — House Bill 189. It has cleared three committees, too, but it hasn’t seen any action since mid-February.
However, both bills don’t have much time. Florida’s 2026 legislative session ends on March 13.
That’s a lot of ground to cover in a little more than a week.
How broadly would ‘thing of value’ be interpreted?
Here is the critical language in SB1580 that may affect sweepstakes casinos:
“Internet gambling” means to play or engage in a game in which money or other thing of value is awarded based on chance, regardless of any application of skill, which game is available on the Internet and accessible on a mobile device, computer terminal, or other similar access device and simulates casino-style gaming, including, but not limited to, slot machines, video poker, and table games.
The key question for sweeps casinos will be whether Sweeps Coins fall under the umbrella of “thing of value” in Florida. That distinction has been at the heart of the debate over sweeps gaming in the United States for the past two years.
Does playing casino-style online games with Sweeps Coins, which can be redeemed for money, constitute the equivalent of online gambling?
Sweeps platforms are adamant that their gameplay is not the same as online gambling, because Sweeps Coins cannot be purchased. Instead, players can receive Sweeps Coins via a variety of promotional methods, like social media contests, daily login bonuses, or as part of purchases of Gold Coins. Gameplay and reward redemptions, then, using these Sweeps Coins abide by state sweepstakes laws, operators argue.
On the other side, lawmakers, regulators, and stakeholders who have lined up against sweepstakes casinos contest that, because Sweeps Coins can be redeemed for real money at usually a 1 SC-to-$1 rate, gaming with them is essentially the same as gaming with real money.
That’s where the “thing of value” language comes into play.
Is this language broad enough to include Sweeps Coins as a thing of value? Is that what lawmakers intend? Is that how the state regulator and Attorney General will interpret the law if passed? Or is it too vague that it actually may benefit sweeps casinos?
Those are uncomfortable questions for sweepstakes operators who, with the losses of California, New York, and New Jersey, and with a significant presence of regulatory action in Illinois and Michigan, desperately do not want to lose another top-10 market in the U.S.
But those questions would get answered if SB1580 passes. And, if it does pass, it would take effect on Oct. 1, 2026.
Main focus is actually on illegal gambling houses
SB1580 is a massive bill that covers an array of gambling topics in Florida.
Overall, it strengthens Florida’s regulation and enforcement of illegal gambling. It expands the authority of the Florida Gaming Control Commission, revises employment and ethics rules for commissioners and staff, and enhances reporting and oversight requirements. It also increases criminal penalties for illegal gambling activities, including operating gambling houses, illegal slot machines, and online gambling. SB1580 creates new offenses, too, related to advertising illegal gambling and facilitating gambling operations, establishes procedures for regulatory waivers and machine approvals, and introduces a program allowing individuals to surrender illegal slot machines without prosecution.
But the main focus of the bill, based on testimony Tuesday from Sen. Jonathan Martin, a Rules Committee member and author of SB1580, is on statues related to illegal brick-and-mortar gambling houses.
“Illegal gaming is a growing predatory problem targeting vulnerable Floridians and current penalties are too weak to deter the operators,” Martin told his fellow committee members. “The [Florida] Gaming [Control] Commission has received over 9,300 complaints, and enforcement actions last year seized thousands of illegal machines and millions in unlawful proceeds.
“The goal is to protect communities, uphold legal gaming and integrity, and stop bad actors who profit from illegal operations.”
For what it’s worth, the primary sponsor of the House version of this bill (HB189), Rep. Dana Trabulsy, made it clear during a recent hearing for her bill that its primary intent also relates to these illegal gambling houses operating in Florida.
“This is really a consumer protection bill,” she said during a January hearing of the House Criminal Justice Subcommittee, “as well as cracking down on the bad guys.”
Could the Seminole Tribe of Florida get involved?
In effect, both SB1580 and HB189 ensure that no entity other than the Seminole Tribe of Florida can offer any form of online gaming — currently through Hard Rock Bet — either now or in the future.
So, although there hasn’t been much evidence of it as of yet, if push came to shove and SB1580 and HB189 were facing tight margins and an uncertain future, it’s reasonable to believe the Seminole Tribe would throw its lobbying weight behind either bill.
And all you need to do is look at California Assembly Bill 831 to see what the lobbying efforts of powerful gaming tribes can do in a state legislature. Few platforms in this country can unite both parties like advocating tribal rights and sovereignty.
But, again, that may ultimately prove irrelevant as Florida’s 2026 legislative session ends on March 13. Things need to move fast for any hope of SB1580 or HB189 passing.
