How Sweepstakes Casinos Use Legislation in Their Favor
This article was last updated: 29 May 2026
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This article was last updated: 29 May 2026
Over recent years, sweepstakes casinos have filled the void caused by bans on online casinos. As of 2026, only eight states allow legal real-money online casinos. And in a country like the US, where gambling is a huge part of the culture, this has inevitably led to the climb of sweepstakes casinos instead.
For those not in the know, sweepstakes casinos like Chumba and Stake.us are big hits up in North America. Even rapper Drake spends most of his time advertising the ‘Stake’ brand on Instagram as part of a reported $100 million-a-year marketing deal. Simply put, these new types of casinos are huge and have garnered millions of players following the recent hype wave.
So, what is it that sweepstakes are doing that’s got them so popular in the US?
It’s everything to do with the unique business model that these online casinos follow, which effectively allows players to play any of the casino games they like for free. The way this works is players sign up, receive ‘Gold Coins’ and ‘Sweeps Coins’ for free, and then use them across available games. The Gold Coins are purely for entertainment purposes, while the Sweeps Coins can be redeemed for prizes whenever a player is able to win enough of them.
Legally, any sweepstakes-style platform has to provide at least one Alternative Method of Entry (AMOE) to be in with the chance of winning prizes. This is why sweepstakes casino platforms are regularly handing out free coins to players, and you can even send them mail-in requests asking for free Sweeps Coins. The prizes can range from casino to casino, but most offer cash transfers, gift cards, and occasionally even cryptocurrencies as part of their prize pools.
What sweepstakes casinos are doing here is using a virtual dual-currency model with free-to-play elements, completely compliant with sweepstakes laws. And because there’s no real-money gambling involved, it means these sites avoid gambling classification, unlike BetMGM, FanDuel, and other popular online casino sites in the US. It’s a smart legal loophole that’s allowed sweepstakes casinos like Stake.us to completely take over the iGaming scene.
Although operators from this full list of sweepstakes casinos appear the same as online casinos, even offering the same games, there are some key differences that set them apart:
| Sweepstakes Casinos | Regular Casinos |
|---|---|
| ✔ Free-entry with the option to purchase additional coins | ✔ Real money bets required to play |
| ✔ Use virtual coins | ✔ Use real money |
| ✔ Exchange Sweeps Coins for gift cards, cash transfers, and other prizes | ✔ Can only win real money through direct wagering |
| ✔ Legal in 33 US states | ✔ Legal in 8 US states |
| ✔ Focused on social interaction, tournaments, leaderboards, and prize redemption | ✔ For gamblers with intention to win money and cash rewards |
The social sweepstakes casino market is currently valued at just over $9 billion and will likely reach close to $13.5 billion by the time 2031 arrives.
The market is booming, so global expansion was the next logical step for sweepstakes casinos, which they’ve already started to do. For the past half-decade, these sites have almost exclusively operated in the US, but expansion to Canada, Germany, Australia, and potentially other nations as well is already happening.
For example, with Australia, the newly launched Roo Vegas, an Australian-based sweepstakes casino from Zoom Net Services Limited, has just hit the market and it’s expected that at least a handful of other new operators will also be arriving soon.
It’s the same in Canada, where legislation is also in favor of sweepstakes casinos and means they can operate in most regions outside of Ontario.
Whereas traditional online casinos are largely limited in terms of where they can expand due to gambling regulations, sweepstakes casinos have this legal “grey” area that they can move around in and it’s working extremely well for their global expansion.
One of the big reasons why sweepstakes casinos are also expanding to different nations at the moment is because a growing number of US states have issued bans against them.
New York, California, New Jersey, Indiana, Maine, and several others have all passed anti-sweepstakes casino bills over the past year, leading to these sites becoming outright banned or at least heavily restricted in certain places.
It’s caused significant disruption to the sweepstakes casino market, with player counts down and projected revenue also taking a hit.
The sentiment from these states is that sweepstakes casinos mimic real-life gambling too closely and function just like regular online casinos, having simply replaced real money with virtual coins instead.
Attorney General James from New York claims “Online sweepstakes casinos are illegal, dangerous, and can seriously ruin people’s finances,” and that the state’s decision to ban these sites was done to “protect New Yorkers.”
The recent wave of states banning sweepstakes casinos is forcing industry change, including minimum player age increases and the recent expansion to other countries.
With everything going on with sweepstakes casinos at the moment, the big question is whether these casinos are actually safe for users or not.
What is obvious is that they are technically much safer than regular online casinos, as players are given a solid free-to-play option with Gold Coins and there’s a no-purchase required model in place, meaning you never have to deposit your own cash for coins if you don’t wish to.
The issue comes from the fact that sweepstakes casinos offer tons of prizes, so players are constantly chasing ‘Sweeps Coins’ in order to win these prizes.
When players run out of coins, they often turn to the virtual shops inside sweepstakes casinos, where coin packages containing Sweeps Coins can be purchased for real money.
Players who are able to make responsible purchases are completely safe here, but those with previous gambling problems could find themselves in a situation where they keep purchasing coin packages in a reckless manner, something that has already led to several lawsuits been filed against sweepstakes casinos from players who lost control and feel like they were misled.
Just like with your classic online casinos, sweepstakes casinos require a level of self-control and responsible gambling behavior.
Throughout 2026 and beyond, it’s largely expected that sweepstakes casinos will continue to take their global expansion up a gear.
Canada, Australia, and other countries will be the focal point of this, and you wouldn’t want to rule out a potential expansion to the UK as well.
These casinos will no doubt still be a force in the US, too, where the billion-dollar sweepstakes casino market remains a hit and popular streamers on Kick and Twitch continue to use them.
However, recent state bans in the likes of California and New York mean that sweepstakes operators have had no choice but to start expanding elsewhere and potentially prepare for further large-scale changes to US laws that could potentially restrict their operating model further.
From a player perspective, though, sweepstakes casinos are safe and can serve as a nice free-to-play alternative for the more casual players in the iGaming world.
