Ban state

Maine Sweepstakes Laws: LD 2007 and the Dual-Currency Test

Maine’s LD 2007, enacted as Chapter 645, bans online sweepstakes games by defining them: an online game that simulates casino gaming and uses a dual-currency system of payment. Its definitions of consideration reach tokens received free through a bonus or promotion, not only tokens that are bought.

Statute	LD 2007 (S.P. 825), Public Law 2025, chapter 645
Signed	6 April 2026, Gov. Janet Mills
Effective	Mid-July 2026 — non-emergency legislation, roughly 90 days after adjournment
What it defines	An online sweepstakes game: online, uses a dual-currency system of payment, and simulates casino-style gaming. “Direct consideration” includes a token “received through a bonus or promotion”
Status	ban
What defines it	Dual-currency test; consideration includes bonus or promotional tokens
Last verified	2026-09-13

The argument Maine adopted

The dual-currency defence has always rested on a formal separation: the player buys Gold Coins, which have no redeemable value, and receives Sweeps Coins free of charge as a promotional bonus. No purchase necessary, therefore no consideration, therefore no gambling.

Maine’s answer is written into its definitions, and it closes both sides of that separation. “Indirect consideration” is a token that “is provided for free through a promotion or bonus or with the purchase of a related product, service or activity” and that “may be exchanged for a prize, award, cash or cash equivalents or a chance to win” one. “Direct consideration” is a token “that may be purchased by a person or received through a bonus or promotion”. A free promotional coin is therefore not outside the Act merely because it was free.

Why the effective date has no single day

LD 2007 was not passed as emergency legislation. Under Maine’s constitution a non-emergency act takes effect roughly ninety days after the legislature adjourns, which placed this one in the middle of July 2026 rather than on a date any source could print in advance. Operators who were waiting for a headline date to plan against did not get one, and the ban arrived anyway.

That is worth stating plainly rather than smoothing over. A tracker that invents a precise day to look authoritative is a tracker that will eventually be precisely wrong.

Why this drafting spreads

LD 2007 does define the thing it bans. An “online sweepstakes game” is any game, contest or promotion that is available on the Internet, “uses a dual-currency system of payment”, and simulates casino-style gaming. What makes the drafting worth watching is the width of its consideration definitions, which take the no-purchase-necessary route off the table as a defence on its own.

Its consideration definitions are among the broadest we have read. Whether other states copy them is a prediction, not a finding.

Can you still play a sweepstakes casino in Maine?

Maine’s prohibition of online sweepstakes games is law. It reaches an online game that simulates casino-style gaming and uses a dual-currency system of payment, and its definitions count coins received through a bonus or promotion as consideration, not only coins that are bought — so the free-coin structure most sweepstakes casinos rely on is written into the definition rather than left outside it. The Legislature published no single operative day; on the ninety-day computation it fell in mid-July 2026.

A site being reachable from Maine is not evidence that it is lawful there.

What Maine does not prohibit. The ban reaches an online sweepstakes game, and that term requires a dual-currency system of payment. Flickloot has one currency, which cannot be bought, redeemed, transferred or exchanged for any prize, cash or chance. We flag the point that cuts against us rather than gloss it: Maine’s “direct consideration” includes a token “received through a bonus or promotion”, so a free coin is not outside the definitions just because it is free. Whether a single, non-exchangeable currency is a “dual-currency system of payment” is not settled by the text. Flickloot operates in Maine. 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 Maine Legislature, LD 2007, S.P. 825, as enacted: Public Law chapter 645, approved 6 April 2026 — read 13 September 2026. The definitions of direct consideration, indirect consideration, dual-currency system of payment and online sweepstakes game are quoted from that text.
Verified Signed 6 April 2026 by Gov. Janet Mills; non-emergency, effective approximately 90 days after adjournment.
Probable No single operative day was published by the Legislature or reported by trade press; mid-July 2026 is the ninety-day computation. Confirm against the enacted chapter law before relying on it.

Flickloot carries no affiliate links and takes no operator money.

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Last verified: 2026-09-13. against Public Law chapter 645; the operative date remains a computation. Corrected 13 September 2026: this page previously said Maine’s ban reaches only purchased value and that LD 2007 does not define a sweepstakes casino; the Act’s consideration definitions reach tokens received through a bonus or promotion, and it defines an online sweepstakes game. Flickloot corrects tracker pages in the same week a status changes. This page is a compliance reference, not legal advice.