Introduction: Mississippi’s Roadblock in Banning Sweepstakes Casinos
At every turn these days, it feels like some form of gambling is right in front of our faces. With sports gambling legalized in 2018, many states have welcomed the additional revenue that these regulated platforms bring. However, not all forms of gambling across the country are legal or even regulated, and that has become a major cause of concern for lawmakers across the United States. One of those forms of gambling takes place at sweepstakes casinos, which have become the target of several states looking to crack down on gambling that falls into the gray area of the law. In Mississippi, the state introduced Senate Bill 2104 (SB 2104) to ban sweepstakes casinos from operating within its borders. However, the proposed Bill keeps failing because the House and Senate cannot agree on certain language.
What Are Sweepstakes Casinos?
Sweepstakes casinos have grown rapidly in popularity over the past few years. They have also come more into the public eye because regulated gambling platforms and several states view these institutions as falling into a legal gray area, as they do not align with the regulations each state has in place for gambling. Sweepstakes casinos offer their users many of the table and slot games that players would find at a traditional casino across the country. With a wide variety of options available to its customers, including slot machines, table games, peer-to-peer poker, and other casino-style games, users can enjoy these games for cash prizes or entertainment.
Dual-Currency System
Users of sweepstakes casinos play on these platforms using two types of coins, Sweepstakes Coins or Gold Coins. When using Sweepstakes Coins, players can win cash or prizes; when playing with Gold Coins, they play for entertainment purposes only. Players obtain these coins either through signing up for daily bonuses, participating in promotions offered by these platforms, or earning daily rewards. Sweepstakes casinos operate using “no purchase necessary" language, which, along with the use of dual currencies, has allowed them to operate in the legal gray zone when it comes to what is considered legalized and fully government-regulated gambling in each state. What makes these online platforms fall into the legal gray area of gambling laws is that they eliminate the purchase requirement, which is common with the definition of what gambling is. Since these operators use the dual-currency system and free ways for customers to play on their platforms, they are now falling out of what states say that traditional gambling is.
Why Sweepstakes Casinos Are Controversial
Sweepstakes casinos have become a source of pushback from lawmakers for several reasons. Firstly, these platforms traditionally lack clear regulations for customers who play on them. As a result, regulators across many states are looking to enforce regulations on these platforms. While state-regulated sportsbooks and casinos offer many easy-to-find, easy-to-read guidelines for their offerings, sweepstakes casinos do not need to make their rules and regulations as clear. Certain elements, such as consumer protections, including responsible gambling resources and age verification, are not as accessible. The age verification is considered a big missing requirement, as this has the potential to lead to problem gambling with underage youths. This is a main reason why age verification is mandated by regulated casinos and sportsbooks. Many lawmakers feel that through these platforms, users in their state are participating in a form of gambling that is not properly licensed or regulated. Across the country, many state governments are pushing back, questioning the legality of sweepstakes casinos in their court systems.
Sweepstakes Casinos’ Response
Sweepstakes casinos argue that they fall under the category of Sweepstakes Laws and are not required to follow the same rules and regulations as state-to-state regulated gambling laws. The “no purchase necessary” language, along with the dual-currency system, gives the platforms the ability to run under sweepstakes laws, which states are now pushing back against as violations of traditional gambling laws. Sweepstakes casinos view their offerings as entertainment and not gambling, which has now become a huge concern to lawmakers across the country who are challenging their legality and where they should fall under state gambling regulations.
States Banning Sweepstakes Casinos
Several states across the country have already outright banned sweepstakes casinos through legislation that has passed through the legal system, and there are ongoing state-by-state legislative updates as states push back against their operations. States that have banned sweepstakes casinos from operating include California, Connecticut, Delaware, Montana, Nevada, and New York. One state looking to challenge the way sweepstakes casinos operate is Maine, where lawmakers recently moved to ban dual-currency Sweepstakes Casinos.
When the Indiana Senate approved an anti-sweeps bill, it became one of the first states to ban sweepstakes casinos from operating, with a caveat to the current gaming offerings. Indiana allowed sweepstakes casinos to offer peer-to-peer poker. The state believed that this form of gambling is a game of skill, while the other games offered are those of chance.
Louisiana has proposed harsher penalties for sweepstakes casinos, with the goal of imposing racketeering charges on companies that violate the state’s current regulated gambling laws. While the proposed Maryland Bill banning Sweepstakes Casinos passed the deadline for their potential legislation to take effect this year, if the state is to ban these platforms from operating, it will have to wait until 2027.
Many states have sent cease-and-desist orders to these platforms in an effort to stop them from offering these gambling-type services. While other states have allowed them to continue, or they haven’t expressed an opinion on their legality. The growing number of states looking to prohibit sweepstakes casinos from operating within their borders shows regulators continue to push back against offering gambling platforms that don’t fall under their outlined set of laws.
Introducing Senate Bill 2104
Mississippi joined the growing list of American states looking to ban sweepstakes casinos with its introduction of SB 2104 in 2025. The Bill also aimed to update the Mississippi Code of 1972 to include a ban on online betting and gaming devices. The Bill proposes to upgrade penalties for those who operate these platforms from misdemeanors to felonies, to prosecute violators of this Bill, and to allow the state to seize assets from those who continue to operate these types of online-gaming institutions. The state is hoping that, through SB 2104, those who fail to comply could face up to 10 years in prison, and that the Mississippi Gaming Authority would be given the right to seize the assets of platforms that offer these potentially prohibited forms of gambling.
SB 2104 Setbacks
Many setbacks have occurred since the introduction of SB 2104 in 2025. The original Sweepstakes ban advanced out of the Senate; however, when it reached the House Gaming Committee, lawmakers wanted to include certain legislation in the Bill regarding regulations on sports betting in Mississippi. As a result, a disagreement arose between the Senate and the House Gaming Committee, causing the Bill to stall until the two legislative branches reached an agreement.
What’s Next for SB 2104?
With the March 3 deadline for committees to make amendments to proposed Bills from other parts of Congress that passed, Mississippi will have to wait until its next legislative session to return to its plan to ban Sweepstakes Casinos. Tying up sports betting language in a Bill to ban sweepstakes casinos complicated matters and led to the Bill stalling. It appears the best direction for the state would be to pass two separate Bills, with one focusing on sweepstakes casinos and the other on sports betting. It is possible, though, that while Mississippi is at an impasse on how to address this issue, sweepstakes casinos can also adjust their operations, which could be problematic in the long term for the state as it tries to reach a conclusion.
What the Future Holds for Sweepstakes Casinos in Mississippi
While Mississippi is looking to join a long list of states with bans on sweepstakes casinos, it is currently locked in a legal battle. Until the state can get on the same page about how to address the issue, it will remain unresolved. Eliminating sports gambling from a sweepstakes casino ban seems like the best way for the state to move forward. With other states already banning this type of online gambling and others issuing cease-and-desist orders, it is likely only a matter of time before Mississippi bans these platforms from operating. A potential problem is that the longer the state takes to reach an agreement on the legalities of sweepstakes casinos, the more these platforms will continue to operate and adapt how they describe or structure their operations. However, it appears the process in Mississippi could take much longer than in other states to become an official law that bans them, until the different bodies that make these types of legal decisions get on the same page.
