New York Sweepstakes Laws: The Statute That Legalised Our Model
New York sweepstakes laws target the redemption mechanic and say so in terms — Section 912 excludes any game that awards no cash prizes or cash equivalents.
| Statute | S5935A, enacted as Chapter 605 — adds §912 to the Racing, Pari-Mutuel Wagering and Breeding Law |
|---|---|
| Signed | 5 December 2025, Gov. Kathy Hochul |
| Effective | Immediately — no wind-down period |
| Penalties | $10,000 to $100,000 per violation; loss of a gaming licence or of eligibility for one |
| Reaches | Operators, financial institutions, payment processors, geolocation providers, gaming content suppliers, platform providers, media affiliates |
| Enforcement | State Gaming Commission; State Police; Attorney General |
| Prior action | 26 cease-and-desist letters from AG Letitia James, 6 June 2025 |
| Status | In force |
The enforcement came first
The decisive event in New York was not the signature. Attorney General Letitia James named 26 operators in June 2025, and all 26 agreed to stop selling Sweeps Coins to New York players. VGW completed its exit on 1 August 2025 — four months before the bill reached the Governor’s desk. The statute ratified a market that enforcement had already cleared.
The supply chain is the target
Section 912 does not stop at operators. Payment processors, geolocation providers, content suppliers, platform providers and media affiliates are all named. An affiliate marketer with no gaming licence and no New York office is inside the perimeter. California copied this structure a month earlier; expect every subsequent ban to copy it too.
The sentence that matters
The statute states that a sweepstakes game shall not include a game which does not award cash prizes or cash equivalents. The legislature drew the line at redemption, deliberately, and left the play-only social casino standing.
The dual-currency industry spent five years arguing that Sweeps Coins were not a thing of value. New York’s answer was to write into law that a game without them is not the thing being banned.
Registering a sweepstakes in New York
Two different New York statutes are routinely confused, and they do not govern the same
thing. S5935A, above, governs sweepstakes casinos. General Business Law §369-e
governs prize promotions of the ordinary commercial kind — the giveaway attached to a
product, the entry form, the draw. A business running a promotion in New York is almost
always asking about §369-e, not about §912.
The filing requirement engages when the total announced value of the prizes offered is in
excess of five thousand dollars. Below that figure, no filing is required.
| Trigger | Total announced prize value above $5,000 |
|---|---|
| Filed with | The Secretary of State — in practice the Department of State, Division of Corporations, State Records Bureau, One Commerce Plaza, 99 Washington Avenue, Albany NY 12231 |
| Deadline | At least thirty days before the promotion begins |
| Fee | $100, non-refundable, accompanying each statement |
| Security | A trust account, or a bond with sufficient sureties equal to the total value of all prizes offered, in favour of the people of the State of New York, filed at the same time as the statement |
| After the promotion | Within ninety days of completion, file a certification listing the name and address of every winner of a prize worth more than $25 |
| Penalty | Failure to file the statement is a class B misdemeanor. So is failing to keep the required records or post the required notices. |
The bond is the part operators underestimate. It is not a percentage of the prize pool
and it is not a deposit against claims — it must equal the full announced value of every
prize offered, and it must stay at that level for as long as the promotion runs.
The obligation does not end when the promotion does. The ninety-day winners’ certification
is a second filing, and the statute treats failing to keep records the same way it treats
failing to file in the first place.
value of the prizes offered. Flickloot offers no prizes: Gold Coins cannot be bought, won,
redeemed, transferred or exchanged, so there is no announced prize value for the threshold
to measure. The statute does not exempt the model — it never engages with it. That is the
same structural reason the §912 exclusion applies, arrived at from the opposite direction.
Sources
- Verified New York S5935A (2025-2026), signed 5 December 2025 as Chapter 605 — NY State Senate bill text and sponsor memo.
- Verified Office of the NY Attorney General, “Attorney General James Stops Illegal Online Sweepstakes Casinos” (6 June 2025).
- Verified iGaming Expert / ESI reporting on the signature, penalty range, and supply-chain liability (December 2025).
- Verified New York General Business Law §369-e (Article 24-A),
“Use of games of chance in selling commodities” — statutory text: $5,000 threshold, thirty
days’ notice, $100 filing fee, trust account or surety bond equal to total prize value,
ninety-day winners’ certification, class B misdemeanor for failure to file. - Verified New York Department of State, “Games of Chance Registration” —
filing route, the $100 non-refundable fee, the requirement to attach a Certificate of Deposit or a
Games of Chance Surety Bond for the total prize amount, and the ninety-day Certification of Winners
for prizes over $25. - Unverified Surety bond premiums are commonly quoted at
roughly 2% of the bonded amount. This is market pricing reported by bond brokers, not a
statutory figure, and it varies by applicant credit.