Maine’s sweepstakes casino ban takes effect this week, making it the eighth state to shut the door on the dual-currency gaming sites and the second to do it this summer alone. LD 2007, signed by Governor Janet Mills in April, outlaws sweepstakes-style casino platforms across the state starting July 14, with civil penalties running from $10,000 to $100,000 per violation.
The law is the latest domino in the fastest-moving crackdown in American gambling regulation. Twelve months ago, sweepstakes casinos operated in almost every state under a promotional-contest theory that had never really been tested. Today, eight states ban them outright, more are drafting bills, and for the first time, the technology vendors behind the sites are being dragged into court alongside the operators.
What Maine’s law actually does
LD 2007 targets platforms with a “dual-currency system of payment” that “simulates casino-style gaming.” That is the signature sweepstakes model: players buy bundles of a worthless-by-design gold-coin currency and receive a second currency as a bonus, which can be played on slot-style games and redeemed for cash prizes. The two-currency structure is what let operators argue they were running promotions rather than casinos.
Maine’s answer is blunt: if the product looks like a casino and pays out like a casino, it is covered, whatever the currencies are called. Enforcement lands on operators, with each violation carrying a five-to-six-figure penalty…