Most coverage of the sweepstakes crackdown sorts states into two boxes: legal, or banned. Reading the operators' own published sweepstakes rules through July 2026 produces a third box, and it is the one most players actually land in.
Bucket one is a full exit. The brand blocks the state outright, so there is no account, no Gold Coin play and no redemption. Bucket two is a Gold-Coin-only downgrade. The brand keeps the state open for play but withdraws the redeemable currency, so nothing that happens at the table can turn into money. Bucket three is an open state, where both currencies still function.
What the rules documents said in July 2026
Fortune Wins Casino, rebranded from Fortune Coins on April 7, 2026, blocks California, Idaho, Michigan, New York and Washington outright in its sweeps rules version 4.5, dated July 24, 2026, with California and New York added on June 8, 2026. Ten further states are Gold Coin only in the same document: Louisiana, Tennessee, Nevada, Delaware, Connecticut, Illinois, Maine, Indiana, New Jersey and Montana. Iowa is not restricted.
MODO's own terms, refreshed May 29, 2026, block only Washington outright. Sixteen states sit in the downgrade tier, including Arizona, California, Connecticut, Indiana, Maine, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Tennessee and West Virginia. Indiana and Maine were moved into that tier on May 29, 2026 rather than closed.
Zula Casino's rules version 2.5, published July 24, 2026, block five states and downgrade ten. Sportzino's version 2.3, dated July 23, 2026, block six and downgrade ten. These figures come from each operator's own published sweepstakes rules, read on the dates given. Those documents are versioned and replaced in place rather than archived, so we record the version and the read date instead of a permanent link.
Why the distinction is not academic
A downgraded state is not a banned state, and it is not a normal one either. A player there can register, buy Gold Coin packages and play indefinitely with no path to a prize at any point. The lobby screen rarely says so. The information lives in a rules document that changes without notice, sometimes twice inside two months.
Jackpota is the clean counter-example. It hard-exited Indiana and Maine on June 2, 2026, closing both currencies at once and ahead of those states' bans, which at least leaves no ambiguity about what a player is buying.
How we handle these lists
Every state list on this site carries a date on the page and is re-verified monthly, because these lists move faster than any static article can. Where an operator's site blocks automated checks, we say so and hedge rather than publishing a number we could not read. The full board is in the 50-state data matrix, and each change is logged in the change log.