Michigan Sweepstakes Laws: The Market a Regulator Closed Without a Bill
Michigan never passed a sweepstakes law. It never needed one. The state licensed online casino gaming in 2019 and restricted the licences to its three Detroit casinos and its federally recognised tribes — which made everyone else illegal by construction, and handed the Gaming Control Board a market it could close with letters.
| Sweepstakes-casino ban | None, and none pending — no bill targeting the model has been identified Probable |
|---|---|
| What closed the market | Michigan Gaming Control Board cease-and-desist letters, beginning October–December 2023 against PredictionStrike, Stake.us, and VGW — the operator of the largest sweepstakes brands |
| Legal basis | The Lawful Internet Gaming Act’s licensing wall, the Gaming Control and Revenue Act’s unlicensed-operation felony (up to 10 years, up to $100,000), and the Penal Code’s consideration-prize-chance prohibition |
| Where it stands | Enforcement is routine and continuing: 45 cease-and-desist orders to offshore operators in the four months to April 2026 alone |
| Prize-promotion filing | None. Michigan is not one of the three registration states — that list is New York, Florida, and Rhode Island |
| Status | enforcement |
| What defines it | Gaming board cease-and-desist campaign; no bill identified |
| Last verified | 2026-09-01 |
Three letters, and the biggest operator left
The Michigan story starts in the autumn of 2023, in the board’s post room rather than the legislature. Between 19 October and 5 December 2023, the MGCB sent cease-and-desist letters to three online gaming companies: PredictionStrike, a sports-stock platform; Sweepstakes Limited, the Cyprus company behind Stake.us; and VGW LuckyLand — the arm of VGW Holdings whose Chumba Casino and LuckyLand Slots brands effectively defined the sweepstakes-casino category.
The board’s framing of VGW’s violation is worth quoting, because it is the whole analysis in one sentence: “conducting illegal gambling by offering an internet game in which a player wagers something of monetary value for the opportunity to win something of monetary value.” No new definition, no dual-currency clause, no bill — the existing offence, applied. All three companies, in the board’s own words, “have each taken steps to prevent Michigan residents from gambling on their websites.” Industry reporting puts VGW’s full withdrawal of its brands from Michigan at the start of 2024.
Why a licensing state never needs a ban
Michigan legalised online casino gaming in December 2019 through the Lawful Internet Gaming Act. The structural detail that decided the sweepstakes question sits in the licensing rule: only casinos licensed under the Michigan Gaming Control and Revenue Act and federally authorised tribal casinos within Michigan can apply for an internet gaming operator licence. The set of lawful operators is closed. Anyone outside it offering casino-style play is not in a grey area — they are conducting an unlicensed gambling operation, which the Gaming Control and Revenue Act makes a felony punishable by up to ten years’ imprisonment or a fine of up to $100,000, or both.
That is why no Michigan sweepstakes bill exists: there is nothing for one to add. States like Montana and Oklahoma had to write dual-currency definitions into their codes because their existing law arguably did not reach the model. Michigan’s existing law reaches everything unlicensed, and the board treats the sweepstakes question as already answered. This is the same structural position as Rhode Island’s state-monopoly market, arrived at from the opposite direction — one state closed the set of operators at three casinos and its tribes, the other at one.
The enforcement has not slowed
The 2023 letters were the start, not the event. The board’s public record through 2025 and 2026 is a steady drum of cease-and-desist rounds against unlicensed operators of every kind — nine in February 2025, six in July, twelve in December — and in April 2026 the MGCB announced 45 cease-and-desist orders against offshore operators in four months, with escalation to the Attorney General available against any operator that ignores the 14-day compliance window. The named targets in the recent rounds are mostly offshore crypto-casinos rather than sweepstakes platforms, for the simplest reason: the sweepstakes operators had already gone.
Can you still play a sweepstakes casino in Michigan?
Not the ones that were here. Michigan never passed a sweepstakes law and never needed one: the board reached the model with the offence it already had, and the three operators it wrote to in 2023 — including the company behind the category’s biggest brands — took steps to exclude Michigan residents rather than contest it.
What governs is the general offence the board quoted against VGW: conducting an internet game in which a player wagers something of monetary value for the opportunity to win something of monetary value. There is no dual-currency clause to argue about and no definition drafted at the sector to find an edge in, which makes Michigan a harder state to be creative in than the ones that legislated.
The enforcement has not stopped, though its targets have changed — the recent cease-and-desist rounds name offshore crypto-casinos rather than sweepstakes platforms, because the sweepstakes platforms had already gone. A site being reachable from a Michigan address has never been evidence that it is lawful there.
same element: something of monetary value wagered for the chance to win something of monetary
value. The board’s own words against VGW. Flickloot has neither limb — Gold Coins cannot be
bought, so nothing of monetary value is wagered, and they cannot be redeemed, transferred, or
exchanged, so nothing of monetary value can be won. There is no consideration and no prize, and
without either the Penal Code’s own trio of consideration, prize, and chance does not assemble.
As everywhere on this tracker, Michigan law does not exempt the model — it never engages with it. This is our reading of the text, not a legal conclusion. Gold Coins are granted, never sold. No money, no purchases, no prizes, no redemptions, no transfers — they have no value of any kind. Play free at play.flickloot.com
Sources
- Verified MGCB news release, 18 January 2024 — “Michigan Gaming Control Board sends cease-and-desist letters to US, international internet gaming companies due to illegal operations”, at michigan.gov: the three letters and their dates (PredictionStrike 19 Oct 2023, Stake.us 2 Nov 2023, VGW 5 Dec 2023), the board’s characterisation of each violation, the three statutes relied on, the felony penalty, the licensing restriction to state-licensed and tribal casinos, and the statement that all three companies took steps to exclude Michigan residents.
- Verified MGCB news release, 7 April 2026 — “Michigan Gaming Control Board Issues Cease-and-Desist Orders to 45 Illegal Offshore Gambling Operators”, at michigan.gov. Its opening sentence carries the four-month framing quoted here: “over the past four months it has issued cease-and-desist orders to 45 offshore gambling operators”. The named operators are offshore casinos and sportsbooks, not sweepstakes platforms. Re-read 7 September 2026.
- Verified MGCB news release, 30 July 2025 — “MGCB Issues Cease-and-Desist Orders to Six Illegal Gambling Sites Targeting Michigan Players”, at michigan.gov: six cease-and-desist letters, the 14-day compliance window, and escalation to the Department of Attorney General.
- Probable That VGW completed the withdrawal of its brands from Michigan at the start of 2024 — industry reporting; the MGCB release states the companies “have taken steps” to exclude Michigan residents, not the completion date.
- Probable That no bill targeting the sweepstakes model has ever been filed in the Michigan legislature — an absence, consistently reported and consistent with the board’s enforcement-only record, but absences cannot be verified from a single document. Re-checked 7 September 2026: the MGCB’s own news archive carries no sweepstakes-specific action since the April 2026 round.
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