After California, the South Moves to Close the Sweepstakes “Gray Area”
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While states like Virginia and Illinois are debating how to bring online poker under some sort of legal umbrella, other parts of the US are moving in the opposite direction. Last month, we discussed California bringing an end to sweepstakes games. This time, it’s Tennessee and Mississippi.
In both states, lawmakers have introduced bills designed to explicitly ban the sweepstakes poker model. Until now, these platforms mostly existed in a legal gray area across the US, but if these new bills pass, that gray area could be gone once and for all.
This article is intended to tell you what these bills actually propose and what the reality of them being signed into law would look like.
Mississippi and Bill SB 2104
The gambling ecosystem in Mississippi has been dominated by its retail casinos. For all these years, online expansion has been a slow uphill battle and now it’s facing Bill SB 2104. However, this isn’t the first time Mississippi has put sweepstakes poker up for debate. Last year, a similar attempt to ban sweepstakes failed because it got tangled up with the broader and more divisive debate over online sports betting.
This time around, Senators Joey Fillingane and David Blount reintroduced Senate Bill 2104 as a “standalone” measure. Because they stripped out sports betting, the bill passed the Senate unanimously and is now moving to the House with more momentum than it had in 2025.
What SB 2104 Would Actually Do
If SB 2104 becomes law, it would update the state’s definition of illegal gambling to explicitly include sweepstakes-style platforms.
- The Penalties: We are talking about fines up to $100,000 and potential felony charges that carry prison terms of up to 10 years.
- The “Asset Forfeiture” Clause: Beyond fines, the bill allows for the forfeiture of assets for those found violating the law.
- A Wider Net: Crucially, the liability isn’t just on the site owners. The bill extends to those who market or promote these sites, meaning affiliates and influencers are in the crosshairs.
Tennessee and House Bill 1885
Across the state border in Tennessee, the approach to sweepstakes is slightly different. House Bill 1885 doesn’t treat sweepstakes only as illegal gambling. It designates them as a violation of the state’s Consumer Protection Act instead.
Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti has already signaled he isn’t waiting for the bill to pass to take action. In December, he sent cease-and-desist letters to 40 different operators. As Skrmetti put it:
The only thing you can be sure about with an online sweepstakes casino is that it’s going to take your money… They avoid any oversight that could ensure honesty or fairness.
Under HB 1885, violations could trigger fines of more than $15,000 per infraction, which is a massive financial hammer to swing at anyone still operating within Tennessee borders.
For now, the bills are still making their way through the respective state houses. But with unanimous support in the Mississippi Senate and an active Attorney General in Tennessee, the “sweepstakes era” in the South appears to be nearing its end.
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