In a bid to crack down on unauthorized gambling in the state, Mississippi’s lawmakers are the latest to put online sweepstakes gaming in the crosshairs.
Sen. Joey Fillingane and Sen. David Blount’s SB 2104 proposes revising the statutory definitions of an illegal gaming device to include “online sweepstakes casino-style games.” It would ban such products and increase punishments for offering or promoting them.
If approved and signed by the governor, Mississippi would become the latest U.S. state to outlaw online sweepstakes gaming, effective July 1, 2026.
Mississippi tries again after sports betting stalled 2025 bill
SB 2104 is not Mississippi legislators’ first effort to ban online sweepstakes gaming.
The state’s senate was actually the first U.S. legislative chamber to approve a sweeps ban when it greenlit a 2025 version from Fillingane and Senate Gaming Committee Chair Blount in February last year, which Fillingane said was a collaboration between the Mississippi Gaming Commission (MGC) and the state’s licensed brick-and-mortar casinos.
However, that push later died in conference after being approved in the House with a key amendment that added legal online sports wagering to the legislation.
Promoting sweeps would be a felony
Just as in the 2025 bill, Fillingane and Blount name online sweepstakes casinos in the legislation but do not explicitly define them. In several cases, other states’ legislators have used definitions specifying that they are targeting dual-currency sweeps that offer the chance to win cash or other prizes of real value, but the Mississippi proposal does not include the dual currency note.
In a senate session last year, Fillingane swept sweeps and offshore unlicensed casinos together under one umbrella in addressing the kind of gaming platforms he wanted to stamp out, name-checking the likes of VGW’s Chumba Casino alongside Caribbean-based sites like Bovada and BetUS. That garnered pushback from sweeps operators, who labeled it an unfair characterization.
After the 2025 legislative effort fizzled out, the MGC sent cease-and-desist orders to several operators last June, including the three named above. VGW subsequently ended Sweeps Coin play in Mississippi later last summer.
Even without clearly defined parameters for what it counts as a sweeps game, SB 2104 would make it a felony crime to operate any online platform that facilitates illegal wagering, including sweeps casinos. Punishments could include up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $100,000. It’s not only sweeps operators targeted; promoting online sweepstakes casinos would also be a felony crime with the same potential punishments.
Mississippi adds to 2026 efforts
After a 2025 in which around half a dozen states passed legislation to ban online sweepstakes and several others took lesser enforcement action against the vertical, four states have introduced bills to ban sweeps so far in 2026.
Indiana lawmakers debated legislation to prohibit sweeps during a committee hearing last week, mulling whether prohibition or legalization and regulation would be the best course of action. Maine legislators will hear a bill in an initial committee session on Jan. 14, while a bill in Florida would criminalize various forms of unregulated online gaming. Legislation filed in Virginia last week also names sweepstakes as a form of gaming that would be rendered illegal without a license if online casinos were authorized.
Mississippi SB 2104 has been referred to the Senate Judiciary Division B Committee, which Fillingane chairs.
