A group of Minnesota legislators have introduced separate bills that would ban prediction markets and sweepstakes casinos as the state considers the idea of legalizing sports betting this year.
Sens. Jordan Rasmusson, John Marty, Erin Maye Quade and Matt Klein are four of the five sponsors of both Senate File 4474 and SF 4511, which were each filed officially on Monday and have been referred to separate committees.
SF 4511 would make it a felony crime to offer markets for trading on sports, casino-style games, politics, people and more, while SF 4474 would make Minnesota the latest state to ban online dual-currency games that simulate casino-style or other forms of gambling.
Minnesota targets sports and ‘casino-style’ prediction markets
SF 4511 would amend state law, which notes that securities and futures commodities are not bets, to carve out an exemption to that rule for “wagers, bets, trades, contracts, or financial positions” on various categories.
The bill specifically lists contracts that relate to the outcomes of specific athletic or sporting events, or to specific events within athletic or sporting events, among those that would be banned. It also names contests or casino-style gaming, “including an outcome that relates to a game, scheme, or promotion where a prize or something of value is awarded based on skill, merit, performance or chance, regardless of whether an entry fee is required.”
Offering contracts on people, political events such as elections or government actions, catastrophe, war, terrorism and death would also be made a felony crime.
Strict limits on prediction market advertising
Notably, Minnesota’s prediction markets bill also tackles the marketing or promotion of prediction markets head-on.
Advertising these categories of markets as legal in Minnesota would also be a felony crime. So too would advertising them via broadcast between the hours of 8 a.m. and 10 p.m. local time or during broadcasts of live sporting events, or displaying ads on public property or via any medium for which 10% or more of the audience is “reasonably expected” to be people under the age of 21.
Like the sweeps ban, the prediction markets bill targets supplier and affiliate partners as well as operators. Those entities would be guilty of a felony if they continued to facilitate any of the listed categories of event contracts after being issued a cease-and-desist letter by Minnesota’s Attorney General.
Any person or entity convicted under the terms of the bill would be prevented from obtaining a gaming license in the state for 10 years.
That bill would be effective Aug. 1, 2026, if passed and signed into law.
States and Congress launch legislative efforts
The Minnesota senators are the latest state lawmakers to try to impose legislative bans or restrictions on prediction market platforms that operate in their state. Active bills have also been filed in jurisdictions including New York, Hawaii and Illinois, while several bills have been filed in Congress in recent weeks.
Meanwhile, in Iowa, a bill that proposes to require platforms like Kalshi to pay $10m for a license to do business and pay 20% tax on event contracts revenue was unanimously approved in the Senate Ways and Means Committee on March 11.
Operating, supplying to or advertising sweeps would be felonies
Meanwhile, SF 4474 would make it a felony to offer or promote sweeps, or to supply services like games, payment processing or geolocation tools to sweeps operators.
The bill defines an “online sweepstakes game” as an online game, contest, or promotion that utilizes a dual-currency system and simulates casino-style or another form of gambling. It would ban any person or entity from operating or promoting such games in Minnesota, and specifically lists financial institutions and payment processors, geolocation providers, gaming content suppliers, platform providers and media affiliates alongside operators.
SF 4474 also lays out a specific definition of “dual-currency” as a system of payment that allows a person to participate in a simulated gambling program for direct or indirect consideration with the chance to win a prize, cash or cash equivalent. It specifies that “dual-currency” does not include a contest for which no consideration is given, either directly or indirectly.
Numerous states banned online sweepstakes gaming in 2025, and Indiana Gov. Mike Braun signed into law the first state sweeps ban of 2026 on March 12.
Minnesota mulls tribal sports betting model
The bills to crack down on two unregulated forms of gaming come while Minnesota legislators again consider legalizing online sports betting through a new tribal-focused bill.
SF 4139 would allow state regulators to issue 11 sports wagering licenses for the state’s gaming tribes, who would be able to partner with commercial sportsbooks. That bill would also ban prediction markets, as well as other things such as prop bets on college sports and push notifications that encourage inactive users to gamble.
