Short version: sweepstakes poker used to be the workaround for most of the country. Since 2025, eleven states have banned it, including California and New York, and the list grows every session.
What a sweepstakes poker site is
You buy play-money coins and get a second kind of coin thrown in free. The free coins can be played at the tables and cashed out for prizes. For years that structure kept these sites outside state gambling laws. Lawmakers have now started writing laws aimed squarely at it.
Where it has been banned
Eleven states have passed laws against sweepstakes gambling sites. Five took effect in 2025 and six in 2026:
| State | Ban in effect |
|---|---|
| Nevada | October 1, 2025 |
| Montana | October 1, 2025 |
| Connecticut | October 1, 2025 |
| New Jersey | August 15, 2025 |
| New York | December 5, 2025 |
| California | January 1, 2026 |
| Tennessee | May 22, 2026 |
| Indiana | July 1, 2026 |
| Maine | July 14, 2026 |
| Louisiana | August 1, 2026 |
| Oklahoma | November 1, 2026 |
Three more states had already shut these sites out without a new law: Michigan through regulator letters, and Washington and Idaho under existing gambling law. Bills in Florida, Minnesota, Mississippi and Virginia failed in 2026.
What players in those states are doing
- Licensed rooms, if you live in one of the six states that have them. See the state list.
- Live poker. Card rooms and casinos are untouched by these laws.
- Offshore rooms. These are not licensed in the US and come with risks a sweepstakes site did not have: no US regulator, and deposits mostly in crypto. Each state page lists which ones take sign-ups, and says so plainly when none do.