Sweepstakes Casinos in Maryland: The Bill That Passed the House 135–1 and Then Stopped

Maryland has no ban on sweepstakes casinos. It came closer to one than almost any state we track: the Maryland Illegal Online Gambling Enforcement Act cleared the House of Delegates 135 votes to 1, carried the sharpest definition of a sweepstakes game we have read anywhere, and never got out of the Senate. The definition is worth reading even though the bill is not law, because the sponsors intend to bring it back and because it turns on one word — exchange.

What the Act would have done

HB 1226 would have added a new subtitle to the State Government Article defining online gambling as the business of offering or accepting wagers through an online gaming system on any game, contest, lottery, promotion or contrivance — “including table games, slot machines, video poker, sweepstakes games, games of chance, and any other game typically offered in a casino”. Illegal, for that subtitle, is defined simply: “not expressly authorized by applicable law”.

Enforcement would have run through the Attorney General’s consumer protection division. A cease and desist order would give an operator ten days to block access from anyone physically located in Maryland, and the Attorney General would publish a list naming each operator and website that received one. A violation would carry up to three years or a fine of $50,000 for a first offence and $100,000 for each one after, with every wager offered or accepted counting separately. Supporting an operator indirectly — payment processing, hosting — would carry its own fines of $25,000 and $50,000.

None of that is law. It is what the House voted for.

The definition, and the one word it turns on

A sweepstakes game, under the bill, is a game, contest or promotion that does two things at once. It “utilizes a dual-currency system of payment allowing the player to exchange the currency for any prize, award, cash or cash equivalents, or chance to win any prize, award, cash or cash equivalents”, and it “simulates any form of gambling”, including casino-style games, lottery games and sports wagering.

Both limbs must be met. The second is easy to satisfy and catches everything that looks like a casino. The first is the real gate, and the operative word is exchange: the currency has to be convertible into something. Maryland’s drafting is broader here than Virginia’s SB 579, which asks only whether the currency can be exchanged for a prize. Maryland adds “or chance to win” one, which reaches a currency that buys entries rather than prizes.

That is a reading of a bill’s text, not a legal conclusion, and the bill is not law. We record it because the sponsors are expected to refile and because a definition drafted this carefully tends to be reused.

How far it actually got

HB 1226 was introduced and read for the first time on 11 February 2026 and assigned to Judiciary and Ways and Means. Judiciary reported it favourably with amendments on 21 March, the amendments were adopted, and it passed third reading 135 to 1. The Senate referred it to Budget and Taxation and set a hearing for 31 March 2026. Nothing after that appears in the bill’s history on the Commonwealth’s own system.

Its cross-file, SB 652, went in under Senators Waldstreicher and West and shows the same pattern: a hearing set for 11 March 2026 and no recorded action afterwards. Two vehicles, one Act, both stopped on the Senate side.

A 135 to 1 vote in one chamber is not a close call about the merits. Whatever stopped this bill, it was not disagreement in the House.

Can you still play a sweepstakes casino in Maryland?

Yes, in the sense that nothing in Maryland law bans them by name today. The Act that would have done it passed one chamber almost unanimously and then stopped, so what Maryland has is a drafted, voted, published definition sitting on a shelf with an expected refile behind it.

That is a thinner protection than it sounds. An operator reading only the statute book would conclude Maryland is quiet. An operator reading the House journal would conclude Maryland is one Senate committee away, with the Attorney General’s name already written into the enforcement clause and a ten-day geo-blocking order already drafted.

Sources

• Verified Maryland General Assembly, HB 1226, 2026 Regular Session — read 10 September 2026. Title, sponsors, committee assignments, the 135–1 third reading, the Senate referral to Budget and Taxation, the hearing set for 31 March 2026, the 1 October 2026 effective date and the cross-file to SB 652 are all taken from that page’s status and history.
• Verified Maryland General Assembly, HB 1226 third reading text (PDF, 14 pages) — read in full 10 September 2026. Every quoted definition, the cease and desist mechanism, the ten-day blocking window, the penalty figures and the separate-violation rule are quoted from that text.
• Verified Maryland General Assembly, SB 652, 2026 Regular Session — read 10 September 2026. Sponsors and the 11 March 2026 hearing as its last recorded action.
• Probable That neither bill was enacted. Both pages show a Senate hearing as the final recorded action and no further proceedings, which is what a bill left in committee at adjournment looks like. We did not separately confirm the 2026 session’s adjournment date against the Assembly’s calendar.
• Unverified Whether the Act will be refiled in the 2027 session, and in what form. Our tracker records a refile as expected; we have seen no filed 2027 instrument.
• Unverified Any Maryland enforcement action against an online sweepstakes operator under existing law. We found none.

Flickloot carries no affiliate links and takes no operator money.

Last verified: 2026-09-10 · status row last checked 2026-08-28. Flickloot corrects tracker pages in the same week a status changes. This page is a compliance reference, not legal advice.