Blask data reveals the US sweepstakes casino segment is fracturing at its peak demand levels, with no single brand able to dominate in any state.
Indiana becomes the seventh US state to enforce an explicit legislative ban on sweepstakes casinos when new laws take effect on 1 July 2026.
According to Blask, Indiana was one of eight states where sweepstakes brands accounted for more than half of all measured iGaming demand in May 2026.
Across all 50 US states combined, sweepstakes casinos held a 23.5% share of iGaming demand, a significant footprint despite mounting legislative opposition.
Market pioneer Chumba Casino led the sweepstakes segment in 27 states as of May 2026, yet held under 50% of the sweepstakes Blask Index in every single one of them.
Sweepstakes casinos operate on two virtual currencies: Gold Coins, which carry no cash value, and Sweeps Coins, which can be redeemed for real money and obtained for free.
Because no purchase is required to win cash prizes, operators have long argued the model constitutes a promotion rather than gambling, though regulators across the country are increasingly rejecting that position.
New Jersey was the first state to enforce an explicit ban, which took effect on 15 August 2025, followed by Montana and Connecticut on 1 October 2025, then New York on 5 December 2025, California on 1 January 2026, and Tennessee on 22 May 2026.
Indiana’s ban joins that list on 1 July, while Iowa takes a different route on the same date, granting its regulator new powers to act against unlicensed gambling and illegal sweepstakes operations.
Maine’s ban follows later in July, with Oklahoma’s scheduled for 1 November 2026, further shrinking the addressable market for sweepstakes operators.
Demand for sweepstakes casinos rose 128 times since early 2020, with the boom igniting during Covid restrictions and continuing to climb through subsequent years.
As of May 2026, the Blask Index for the sweepstakes casino segment sat higher than demand for both traditional iGaming brands and prediction markets, with only unbranded demand, which is 85.2% Lottery, registering higher levels.
In eight states, including Alabama, Oklahoma, Indiana, Iowa, Utah and Wyoming, sweepstakes generated more demand than traditional iGaming and prediction markets brands combined.
Michigan recorded the lowest sweepstakes share at just 1.4%, while four additional states, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Connecticut and Maryland, each came in below a 5% share.
Chumba Casino, which launched its online sweepstakes product back in 2012, held 19.2% of the segment’s total US Blask Index in May 2026, down 3.1 percentage points from the same month in 2025.
The combined share of the top 10 sweepstakes brands in the segment’s Blask Index also declined sharply, falling from 71.8% to 59.2% over the same period, pointing to growing fragmentation across the market.
In states where Chumba Casino did not lead, Crown Coins topped 10 states, Lucky Rush led seven, Funzpoints led two, while Stake, Yay Casino, LuckyLand Slots, and Skills and Slots each led at least one jurisdiction.
A year ago, Stake dominated both Nevada and Washington’s sweepstakes markets, each with over 50% of the Blask Index, but has since dropped to second and fourth place in those states respectively.
Washington holds the highest concentration among any state, with the top 10 sweepstakes brands accounting for over 89% of that market’s Blask Index combined.
Blask’s analysis concludes that as bans continue to spread, user attention appears to be shifting toward prediction markets rather than traditional iGaming, making the long-term survival of sweepstakes demand the central question for the segment.
