Sweepstakes Casinos in New Hampshire (2026)

Are sweepstakes casinos legal in New Hampshire?

Yes. New Hampshire has no statute, regulation or pending bill aimed at online sweepstakes casinos, and every major dual-currency brand accepts New Hampshire players. The state has spent its recent legislative energy expanding its charitable casinos and debating regulated online casino games, not restricting sweepstakes.

New Hampshire’s gambling offence, RSA 647:2, applies when a person risks something of value on a future contingent event outside their control in return for a promise of something of value if the event turns out a particular way. That is the familiar three-part test of consideration, chance and prize. Sweepstakes casinos are built to fail the first part: Sweeps Coins, the currency that can be redeemed for cash prizes, are given away free with purchases of Gold Coins, through daily logins and by mail-in request, so nothing of value is risked to obtain them. New Hampshire has never challenged that structure, and the Lottery and Gaming Commission, which oversees every regulated form of gambling in the state, does not treat sweepstakes casinos as within its remit.

Two related debates are worth knowing about. In January 2025 Senator Tim Lang filed SB 168, which would have licensed three to six online casino operators under the Lottery Commission, open to players aged 18 and over and taxed at 45 percent of revenue, with a launch date of January 1, 2026. The Senate Ways and Means Committee narrowly recommended it, but Lang tabled the bill in March 2025 after the state’s charitable gaming venues objected, and no online casino bill advanced in 2026. Separately, the 2025 state budget expanded what those charitable venues can offer. We are not lawyers; read each site’s New Hampshire terms before you play.

Recent developments

• December 30, 2019: DraftKings launches as New Hampshire’s exclusive online sportsbook under a Lottery Commission contract, making New Hampshire the first state to go live online before retail.
• 2021: HB 626 allows charitable gaming venues to install historical horse racing machines, the slot-like terminals that transformed the venues’ economics.
• January 2025: SB 168, the online casino bill, is introduced and referred to Senate Ways and Means.
• March 2025: Senator Lang tables SB 168 after opposition from charitable gaming operators, ending the 2025 effort.
• June 2025: Governor Kelly Ayotte signs HB 2, the budget trailer bill. It lets the charitable casinos install video lottery terminals without a cap, allows high-stakes poker and table game tournaments, creates a single statewide self-exclusion list and renames the regulator the New Hampshire Lottery and Gaming Commission.
• 2025-2026: no bill targeting sweepstakes casinos is filed in either session and no regulator warning is issued, while neighbouring Connecticut and New York ban the model and Maine follows in 2026.

How New Hampshire law treats sweepstakes and gambling

RSA 647:2 makes unlawful gambling a misdemeanour for the participant and treats running an unlawful gambling business as a felony. Nobody has been charged in connection with an online sweepstakes casino, because a free-entry promotion does not meet the definition of gambling in the first place. Legal gambling is set out in separate chapters: RSA 284 for the lottery and pari-mutuel wagering, RSA 287-D for charitable gaming and RSA 287-I for sports wagering. The New Hampshire Lottery and Gaming Commission licenses and audits all of it, including the charitable venues’ historical horse racing machines and new video lottery terminals.

Sweepstakes casinos, by contrast, answer to no New Hampshire regulator. Consumer complaints about a site’s promotions go to the New Hampshire Department of Justice Consumer Protection Bureau, which enforces the state’s consumer protection act against deceptive advertising and promotions.

What New Hampshire players should check

• Age: New Hampshire allows lottery play, sports betting and charitable gaming at 18, and most sweepstakes casinos accept New Hampshire players at 18. VGW’s brands, including Chumba Casino and LuckyLand Slots, require 21.
• Location: operators verify your state by geolocation. Massachusetts, Vermont and Maine commuters should note that Maine is now blocked by the major brands, so an account used from Maine will be restricted.
• Identity checks: expect KYC verification before your first prize redemption.
• Redemption limits: New Hampshire sets no cap on sweepstakes prizes; the minimums, maximums and processing times you see are the operator’s own rules.
• Taxes: New Hampshire has no state income tax on gambling winnings, having repealed its 10 percent tax in 2011, but federal income tax still applies and operators issue tax forms above the federal thresholds.

Other legal ways to play in New Hampshire

New Hampshire has no commercial or tribal casinos, but its charitable gaming venues have grown into small casinos in their own right. Around 16 licensed venues, from Nashua and Manchester to Salem, Seabrook, Dover and Keene, offer table games, poker rooms and historical horse racing machines, with video lottery terminals arriving after HB 2. A share of every venue’s revenue goes to rotating New Hampshire charities.

The New Hampshire Lottery, founded in 1964 as the first modern state lottery in the country, sells draw games and scratch tickets and has offered online instant games through its iLottery platform since 2018. DraftKings is the sole online sportsbook and also runs a handful of retail sportsbooks. Daily fantasy sports have been regulated since 2017. There is no legal online casino or online poker in New Hampshire; SB 168 would have changed that and did not pass.

Staying up to date

We monitor every New Hampshire session for sweepstakes or online casino bills, Lottery and Gaming Commission guidance and each operator’s New Hampshire policy. The casino list and legal status on this page are updated as soon as anything changes, and the review date in the header shows when we last checked.