Sweepstakes Casino Legislation 2026: New Jersey, Maryland & West Virginia Bills Tracked
New Jersey state senator Joseph Cryan introduced five gambling-related bills this session, and together they capture where a lot of state legislatures are focused right now: sweepstakes casinos, betting products regulators consider higher-risk, and how sportsbooks market to customers.
New Jersey’s Sweepstakes Casino Reversal and Sportsbook Ad Crackdown
S1500 would let sweepstakes casino operators apply for licenses through the Division of Gaming Enforcement, effectively reversing a ban New Jersey passed just last year. S2160 goes the other direction on risk, proposing to ban in-play microbetting, the wager-on-every-pitch-or-play products that have drawn scrutiny for how easily they can be automated or abused. S1170 would bar sportsbooks from offering player-specific college proposition bets. Two more bills, S2356 and S1444, target advertising the sponsors describe as deceptive or aimed at vulnerable bettors.
Maryland Joins the Sweepstakes Casino Prohibition Push
New Jersey isn’t alone. Maryland’s legislature has hearings scheduled in both chambers on a sweepstakes casino prohibition, and a separate bill, SB102, would give the Maryland Lottery and Gaming Control Agency authority to restrict how sportsbooks structure free-bet promotions. Mississippi, Florida, Indiana, and Virginia all have their own sweepstakes-casino bills pending, which puts the sweepstakes category (long a gray zone operating outside standard gaming licenses) under more simultaneous state pressure than it’s faced before.
West Virginia’s Sports Betting Tax Hike: HB4398
West Virginia’s HB4398 is a different kind of bill entirely: a straight tax increase, raising the state’s sports betting tax rate from 10% to 25%. If it passes, West Virginia would join a small group of states that have moved to capture more revenue from a sports betting market that’s matured well past its early-legalization growth phase in most jurisdictions.
Missouri’s Unusual Chiefs-Targeted Betting Bill
The oddest bill of the session might be Missouri’s. State senator Nick Schroer introduced SJR109, a constitutional amendment that would strip the Kansas City Chiefs organization of eligibility for a sports betting license. It’s a narrowly targeted measure that says more about a specific local dispute than about gambling policy generally, and a reminder that not every gambling bill in a given session is really about gambling.
Maine Moves the Opposite Direction on Tribal Online Casino Gaming
Maine, meanwhile, has already moved. Governor Janet Mills signed tribal online casino legislation in January, opening the door to expanded online gambling options tied to the state’s tribal gaming compacts. That’s a contrast to the restrictive mood showing up in the sweepstakes and advertising bills elsewhere.
None of these bills have passed yet, and legislative sessions being what they are, most won’t in their current form. But the pattern across five-plus states pushing on sweepstakes casinos and advertising practices in the same session is worth watching. It suggests state regulators are converging on the same targets even without coordinating directly, which tends to be how multi-state regulatory trends actually start.
[Reporting based on iGaming Business’s legislative tracking coverage. Bill numbers and status current as of publication; check official state legislature websites for the latest status before citing specific provisions.]