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State law

Indiana's sweepstakes-casino ban is in force, with poker carved out

House Bill 1052 added Indiana Code 4-33-10-7 effective July 1, 2026. Civil penalties reach $100,000 per violation, and sweepstakes poker was written out of the prohibition.

Indiana's ban on dual-currency sweepstakes games took effect on July 1, 2026. House Bill 1052, signed by Governor Braun on March 13, 2026, adds Indiana Code 4-33-10-7 and prohibits operating a sweepstakes game that uses a dual-currency model, the structure behind Chumba, Pulsz, McLuck, WOW Vegas and the rest of the vertical.

The enforcement number is the part operators reacted to. Civil penalties run up to $100,000 per violation, which in a business built on volume is not a cost of doing business.

The poker carve-out

Sweepstakes poker is exempt. Global Poker and ClubWPT Gold, which use a sweepstakes structure but deal a peer-to-peer game rather than house-banked slots, are outside the prohibition as written. That distinction matters for anyone reading a blanket headline and concluding that every promotional-currency product in Indiana is now unlawful. It is not.

How operators responded

Responses were staggered rather than simultaneous, and they were not uniform. Jackpota closed Indiana outright on June 2, 2026, ahead of the effective date, ending Gold Coin play as well as redemptions. MODO moved Indiana into its Gold-Coin-only tier on May 29, 2026, which keeps the games playable in the state while removing any redeemable currency. Fortune Wins Casino and Zula Casino also list Indiana as Gold Coin only in their current published rules.

That split is the general pattern of the 2026 sweepstakes wave. A statewide ban does not reliably produce a statewide exit; it more often produces a downgrade that leaves the app installed and the prize path removed.

What this does not change

Indiana's regulated online sports betting market, live since 2019, is unaffected. Indiana still has no state-regulated online casino. The bill addresses sweepstakes-model products specifically, and nothing in it authorizes iCasino or alters retail casino law.

Sources

Published by the Casinos Legal USA desk. We do not use named bylines. This article reports public statutes, regulator actions and operator documents as of its publication date; where an operator site could not be verified directly, the text says so. Information only, not legal, financial or gambling advice. See our editorial standard.