Sweepstakes Casinos in Arkansas (2026)

Are sweepstakes casinos legal in Arkansas?

Sweepstakes casinos are legal to play in Arkansas, and every major brand accepts Arkansas players. No Arkansas statute mentions online sweepstakes casinos, neither the Racing Commission nor the Attorney General has issued a cease-and-desist letter to one, and the only bills that would have banned them, HB 1861 and SB 524 in 2025, were withdrawn within weeks of being filed.

Arkansas defines gambling in the traditional way: betting money or anything of value on a game of chance. Title 5, Chapter 66 of the Arkansas Code makes keeping a gambling house a felony and betting on games of chance a misdemeanor, and Amendment 100 to the state constitution limits legal casino gaming to the venues voters approved in 2018. Sweepstakes casinos sit outside those rules because players can obtain Sweeps Coins without paying, through daily bonuses, social media giveaways and mail-in requests. Without consideration, the three-part test of consideration, chance and prize is not met. Arkansas also regulates promotional sweepstakes generally through its Prize Promotion Act (Title 4, Chapter 102), which requires clear disclosure of odds and prizes and bans misleading prize notices, but that law does not restrict the dual-currency model.

Recent developments

• March 2025: HB 1861 and its Senate companion SB 524 are filed with bipartisan support from 14 legislators. They would let the state’s three casinos run online casino apps and would make operating a dual-currency sweepstakes casino a felony, a pairing of legalisation and prohibition that several states tried in 2025.
• Late March 2025: Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Attorney General Tim Griffin and Senate President Pro Tempore Bart Hester signal opposition. A senator tells reporters the bill has no chance of passing. SB 524 is withdrawn the day after it is introduced.
• April 7, 2025: sponsor Representative Matt Duffield pulls HB 1861 from the House Judiciary Committee agenda before it is heard. The committee refers the subject for interim study.
• 2025 regular session ends: no gambling expansion or sweepstakes bill passes.
• April to May 2026: the fiscal session, which is limited to budget matters, adjourns sine die with no gambling legislation. Nothing has been filed for the January 2027 regular session yet.
• 2026: no enforcement action against any sweepstakes casino; all major brands continue to accept Arkansas players.

How Arkansas law treats sweepstakes and gambling

Arkansas has no gaming commission of the kind found in other states. The Arkansas Racing Commission licenses and regulates the three casinos and their sportsbooks under Amendment 100, the Office of the Arkansas Lottery runs the Arkansas Scholarship Lottery, and the Attorney General enforces the Deceptive Trade Practices Act and the Prize Promotion Act. Operating an unlicensed gambling business is a felony under Title 5, Chapter 66; betting on games of chance is a misdemeanor punishable by a fine, but we are not aware of any Arkansas resident being prosecuted for playing at an online sweepstakes casino. The state’s position on new forms of online wagering has been to oppose expansion rather than to pursue players.

What Arkansas players should check

• Age: most sweepstakes casinos accept Arkansas players aged 18 and over; Stake.us requires 21. Arkansas casinos and sportsbooks are 21+, and the lottery is 18+.
• Eligible states: Arkansas appears on almost every operator’s list, but check the terms before buying Gold Coins, since brands drop states at short notice.
• Location and identity: sites geolocate you and require KYC verification before your first redemption. Using a VPN breaches the terms and forfeits balances.
• No state cap: Arkansas imposes no prize registration threshold or redemption limit, so operator limits are the only ones that apply.
• Taxes and protection: prizes are taxable income for federal and Arkansas purposes, and because sweepstakes casinos are unregulated in Arkansas there is no state agency to arbitrate a payout dispute; complaints go to the Attorney General’s consumer protection division.

Other legal ways to play in Arkansas

Amendment 100, approved in November 2018, turned Oaklawn in Hot Springs and Southland in West Memphis into full casinos and authorised new ones in Pine Bluff and Pope County. Saracen Casino Resort opened in Pine Bluff in 2020, while the Pope County licence was repealed by voters through Issue 2 on November 5, 2024, a result Attorney General Griffin defended in court. All three casinos offer slots, table games and retail sportsbooks; retail sports betting began in July 2019 and mobile betting launched in March 2022 under Racing Commission rules that let each casino run up to two online brands, with Betly, BetSaracen and Oaklawn Sports the result. The Arkansas Scholarship Lottery has sold tickets since 2009, and charitable bingo and raffles are permitted. Arkansas has no legal online casino, and the 2025 attempt to create one is the only serious proposal to date.

Staying up to date

We monitor Arkansas bill filings, Racing Commission and Attorney General announcements and every operator’s Arkansas terms. The legal status on this page and the list of casinos open to Arkansas residents are updated as soon as anything changes, and the review date in the header shows when we last checked.