Legislative Whiff: How State House Infighting is Helping Save the Sweepstakes Industry

The first three months of this year have seen a continuation of the sweepstakes squeeze by legislators across the country, but as many states' 2026 legislative sessions are winding down, it’s possible that the sweepstakes operators may yet live to fight another day in many states where they were believed to be all but finished

Some of the biggest headlines had been coming out of Florida, where HB 189, an anti-sweepstakes casino bill had passed through three separate committees before running into the buzz saw that is the Tallahassee legislature. It would have made any online casino gaming not run by the Seminole Tribe a third-degree felony for operators, and even more startling, a second-degree misdemeanor for players. One of the first bills in the country to target Casino Sweeps players with fines and even jail time. 

By late February, it was clear that despite early progress, the bill was unlikely to pass by the March 13th deadline, and the bill was folded into a broader Senate Bill, SB1580, that had passed out of that body unanimously weeks previously. But some members of the house added a new rule as well. One that would have allowed land-based existing permit holders to move up to 1320 feet. 

You literally can’t make this stuff up. Members of the Florida House pulled a Florida man moment, and amended an anti-gambling bill with a provision that would let existing cardrooms or parimutual betting centers move a quarter mile away from their current location, closer to interstates for instance or deeper into residential neighborhoods. As one might have expected, the anti-sweeps bill that had at one time shown such promise did not get a floor vote before the legislature adjourned in Mid-March.

Mississippi also showed early promise. Its Senate Bill SB2104 would have explicitly made online sweepstakes casinos illegal. Not just say, slightly illegal, but racketeering charges with asset forfeiture and ten-year prison sentences for operators, illegal. It passed unanimously out of the Senate only to be met with silence by the House. The House, which would like to see mobile sports betting in the state, passed HB1581, which would have allowed people to bet on sports from anywhere in the state instead of just at local land-based casinos. 

Neither side blinked, so the house sweetened the deal by agreeing to cut the already low tax on land-based gaming revenue from 8% to 6% and taking the tax on online sportsbooks up to 22% if the Senate would reconsider, but they didn’t. So the House let the sweeps bill die without a vote before the March 3rd deadline. This same dispute over online sports betting also sank the anti-sweepstakes bill last year in the Magnolia State as well.  

Virginia was another classic case of legislative missteps. SB579 was gearing up for a fight. This Senate Bill had specific language in the bill that would have added operation, promotion or support of online sweepstakes games to the state's definition of illegal gambling. And like many other state bills, it also targeted Dual Currency Systems. But by mid-February the Senate Courts of Justice committee was already waiving the white flag.

They instead passed a bill calling for yet another working group from the already overworked Virginia Lottery Board to report its findings and recommendations on the topic by December 1, 2026, as well as continuing SB579 into 2027.

In Maryland, the issue has come down to the last minute, as midnight, Monday, 13 April, is the final Sine Die. HB 295 has been sitting in the Senate since it was passed out of the House on March 20th. A meeting was held in the Senate Budget and Taxation Committee on April 1st, and then it went quiet.

It’s possible the Senate is looking to trade on something in order to get final passage, but one would have thought that the Senate would have at least moved it out of committee and to the main floor with less than 24 hours to go. Many bills are passed on the last day in the Annapolis Capitol building, so anything is possible. Still, it looks as if here as well, what many thought would be a slam dunk for outlawing sweeps using multiple currency systems language and allowing up to three-year misdemeanor charges for operators will also fall apart at the last minute 

The Sweepstakes industry has spent a fortune on high gloss lobbyists and Political Action Committees attempting to persuade lawmakers that they are “social gaming”. But most of their legislative victories prove they didn’t actually need them. For the most part, they survived because legislators couldn’t resist the urge to brawl over local real estate perks or online sports betting leverage. 

It’s quite possible that 2026 won’t go down as the year of the sweepstakes squeeze after all, but instead of the legislative whiff. From quarter-mile real estate land grabs in Florida to Mississippi's sports betting hostage crisis, the anti-sweeps crowd has proven to be their own worst enemy. As long as lawmakers continue to see gambling enforcement as just one more bargaining chip, the so-called grey market doesn’t need a winning hand in the state house; they just need to wait for the legislative clock to strike midnight.