US Gambling Law Updates: Change Log

2026-08-25

Colorado's sports betting deposit cap and credit card ban are now in force

Senate Bill 26-131 took effect August 12, 2026. Licensed Colorado sportsbooks are capped at six deposits per 24-hour period, cannot accept credit card funding, cannot send push notifications or texts soliciting a bet or deposit, cannot market to anyone under 21, and cannot use terms like "bonus bet" or "no sweat" in advertising. The Colorado Gaming Control Commission can fine a violation up to $25,000. Governor Jared Polis signed the bill June 1, 2026.

Affects: Colorado

Colorado Politics, Bettors Insider, EatWatchBet and World Casino Directory coverage of the signing and effective date, as cited in the linked article. The bill's enrolled text was not directly reachable during this pass; earlier-draft provisions reported elsewhere were not carried into this entry.

2026-08-13

Sweepstakes offers are now hidden from readers in states that restrict promoting them

The site now checks which state a reader is browsing from and withholds sweepstakes brand cards and outbound sweeps links from anyone in a state where our own state data records the vertical as closed. That is the fifteen states already listed here: California, Connecticut, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Maine, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Washington. Nothing about a state's status changed and no new research went into this; what changed is that the reader sees the outcome instead of an offer they could not use. Four of those statutes name promotion, not just operation, as the conduct they reach: New York Senate Bill 5935A, chapter 605, which sets penalties of $10,000 to $100,000 per violation; California AB 831, which adds Penal Code section 337o; Connecticut Public Act 25-112, which covers conducting or promoting; and Montana Senate Bill 555 through MCA 23-5-154, on advertising an illegal gambling enterprise. Where cards are withheld, a note now says so and links to the state page rather than leaving a blank space. Individual brand exclusion lists are applied the same way, so a reader in an open state no longer sees a card for a brand whose own rules bar them. If we cannot tell where a reader is, everything renders as before: we would rather show an offer to an unknown visitor than hide the site from someone we mislocated. None of this is legal advice, and it does not change what any state page says about that state's law.

Affects: California, Connecticut, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Maine, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Washington

No new sources. Every state named here was already recorded as closed to sweepstakes in lib/state-verticals.ts with its statute and effective date, and the brand exclusion lists come from the operators' own published rules as cited in each brand entry.

2026-08-06

Louisiana's sweepstakes acts are now in force, with racketeering exposure attached

Two Louisiana acts took effect on August 1, 2026. House Bill 53 became Act 48, signed May 11, 2026, and adds certain gambling crimes as predicate offenses for racketeering. House Bill 883 became Act 182, signed May 15, 2026, and provides for enforcement against illegal online gambling. Both list an effective date of 08/01/2026 on the legislature's own bill status pages. Louisiana was already recorded here as closed to sweepstakes on the strength of the Gaming Control Board's cease-and-desist orders and the attorney general's opinion; what changed is that the statutes are in force with dated act numbers rather than pending. Most major brands, including WOW Vegas and Chumba, had already restricted Louisiana before the effective date, so this was not the mass exit Indiana and Maine saw earlier in 2026. Anyone in Louisiana still holding a balance on a site that has not blocked the state should redeem rather than wait.

Affects: Louisiana

Louisiana Legislature bill status pages for HB53 (Act 48) and HB883 (Act 182), 2026 Regular Session, for act numbers, signing dates and the 08/01/2026 effective date; trade coverage for the practical market picture. Penalty figures reported by trade outlets are not independently confirmed: the legislature publishes the enrolled text and digest as PDFs we could not parse.

2026-08-03

Five brands added: Hard Rock Bet Casino, CoinsBack, Rolla, Chanced and BetRivers.NET

Tranche four closes the gap against competitor brand lists. Hard Rock Bet Casino joins the regulated casino listings as a separate product from the Hard Rock Bet sportsbook: Seminole Hard Rock Digital runs the sportsbook in roughly ten states including Florida, but the online casino is licensed only in New Jersey and Michigan, and its welcome terms are published on the operator's own newsroom. CoinsBack, Rolla and Chanced join the sweepstakes listings, all three with caveats recorded in their reviews. CoinsBack and Rolla are MW Services Limited brands, the same Gibraltar operator as WOW Vegas, which halted Louisiana operations on July 11, 2025 under a cease and desist, faces a roughly $13.5 million Louisiana Department of Revenue claim and a federal class action in Illinois, and pulled Sweeps Coin play from Illinois in May 2026. Chanced, operated by Gold Coin Group LLC, complied with the New York attorney general's June 2025 cease and desist, exited Louisiana in July 2025 and was named in the Illinois Gaming Board's February 2026 letters. BetRivers.NET joins the social listings as Rush Street Interactive's play-for-fun site, where virtual credits carry no cash value and there is no redemption path at all. Two candidates were refused. Go Go Gold was rejected as unverifiable: no operator-controlled domain could be established, every live Go Go Gold web property found was a parked page, a domain sale listing or a third-party review site, and the only verifiable app publisher contradicts the operating company named across those reviews. theScore Bet Casino stays unlisted because Penn Entertainment's US online casino is Hollywood Casino branded, so listing it would duplicate an operator already covered.

Affects: New Jersey, Michigan

Operator sites and terms where reachable, hardrock.bet newsroom for the casino welcome offer, Apple App Store publisher lookups for operator identity, and dated trade-press coverage of the Louisiana, New York and Illinois enforcement actions.

2026-07-28

LuckyLand Slots is shutting down, with hard redemption deadlines

VGW announced on July 28, 2026 that LuckyLand Slots is closing. Gold Coin purchases stop on August 3, the games go offline on August 24, and the final date to redeem outstanding Sweeps Coins is September 14. Anyone holding a balance should redeem before that last date rather than waiting. Note that LuckyLand Casino is a separate brand and is not part of this closure, and that VGW's other sites including Chumba continue to operate. We have kept LuckyLand Slots off our brand listings rather than sending readers to a service that is winding down.

VGW operator announcement, July 28, 2026; confirmed during the tranche-three verification pass.

2026-07-26

Registry expansion: 34 brands staged across casino, fantasy, sweepstakes and social

Added staged coverage for 34 additional brands from tranche-one candidate research: 15 regulated iCasino skins, 7 daily fantasy operators, 11 sweepstakes casinos and 1 social casino. Every entry's destination was fetched and confirmed live before staging. All new entries carry status "staged" (hidden from the site) pending offer verification, logo scraping and a status flip; none are offshore. 29 unlicensed offshore operators from the same research pass were kept out of the brand registry entirely and logged instead in lib/warnings.ts for future verdict pages.

research/brand-candidates.json (tranche one); see reports/brand-batch-1-report.md.

2026-07-24

Full July 2026 re-verification of the 50-state matrix

Re-checked every state's online casino, sports betting and sweepstakes status against regulator pages and statute text. All statuses and dates across the site trace to this pass; see the data matrix for the full board.

Internal review, sources cited per state page.

2026-07-01

Indiana's sweepstakes-casino ban takes effect

House Bill 1052 (Indiana Code 4-33-10-7) bans dual-currency sweepstakes games statewide, with civil penalties up to $100,000 per violation. Sweepstakes poker (Global Poker, ClubWPT Gold) remains exempt.

Affects: Indiana

https://sportshandle.com/indiana-sweepstakes-casino-ban-2026/

2026-05-15

Iowa gives regulators cease-and-desist power over sweepstakes casinos

Senate Bill 2289 does not ban sweepstakes casinos outright, but grants the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission authority under Iowa Code 99F.4 to issue cease-and-desist orders and seek injunctions against unlicensed operators starting July 1, 2026.

Affects: Iowa

https://www.covers.com/industry/iowa-governor-signs-bill-giving-regulators-power-over-sweepstakes-casinos-may-19-2026

2026-04-06

Maine sweepstakes-casino ban signed

Legislative Document 2007 bans operating or promoting dual-currency online sweepstakes games, effective roughly 90 days after signing, around mid-July 2026. Maine's separate iCasino authorization from January 2026 remains pre-launch with no operators live yet.

Affects: Maine

https://www.thesocialcasino.com/maine-sweepstakes-casino-ban-july-2026/

2025-12-01

Missouri launches online sports betting

Retail and online sports wagering both launched at 12:00 a.m. on December 1, 2025, following voter approval of Amendment 2 in November 2024.

Affects: Missouri

https://www.stl.news/missouri-online-sports-betting-to-begin-dec-1-2025/

2025-12-01

New York bans online sweepstakes games

Senate Bill 5935, signed by Governor Hochul in December 2025, prohibits operating or promoting online sweepstakes games effective immediately, with penalties from $10,000 to $100,000 per violation.

Affects: New York

https://legiscan.com/NY/text/S05935/id/3225387

2025-10-01

Connecticut and Montana sweepstakes-casino bans take effect

Connecticut's Public Act 25-112 makes operating a dual-currency sweepstakes platform a Class D felony. Montana's Senate Bill 555, the first explicit statewide sweepstakes-casino ban in the country, also takes effect the same day.

Affects: Connecticut, Montana

https://www.yogonet.com/international/news/2025/06/17/108479-connecticut-enacts-ban-on-online-sweepstakes-casinos-as-states-move-to-tighten-regulations