On August 19, 2026, Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier filed two lawsuits against two prominent online sweepstakes casino operators. Stake.us was named in one suit, while VGW (Chumba Casino) was named in the other.
Uthmeier filed both lawsuits in the Hillsborough County Circuit Court in Florida’s Tampa metropolitan area. The Florida AG’s filing states the dual-currency model of the companies’ sweepstakes sites is used to disguise unlicensed and illegal online gambling.
The court document described the dual-currency system of Gold Coins and Sweeps Coins as a workaround of Florida’s ban on online gambling. While announcing the lawsuits, the Florida AG stated, “If it looks like a casino, takes real money like a casino, and pays out like a casino, it is a casino.”
James Uthmeier’s lawsuits target the financial institutions and payment processors associated with VGW and Stake.us. Third-party providers like Trustly, Praxis, Yodlee, Breeze Labs, and Worldpay are named as co-defendants.
The suits aim to recover “every dollar” Florida players lost through the online sweepstakes business. They call for forfeiture of prior winnings and civil penalties of $15,000 per willful violation of the law.
As of August 24, none of the major operators have exited the Florida market in response to the lawsuits. As Florida is the second-most critical market to many sites (after California), the main operators affected appear to be mounting a legal defense.
Currently, Chumba Casino, LuckyLand Slots, and Global Poker all remain active in the state. LuckyLand Slots is winding down operations for a September 14, 2026 shutdown date. Players with accounts should wind down their activity at the site before that date.
Meanwhile, LuckyLand Casino, a successor site to LuckyLand Slots, continues to operate in Florida.
Just Slots, another successor to LuckyLand Slots, is active in Florida as a “play for fun” social casino site. VGW designed it to avoid the dual-currency system that many regulators find controversial.
Other top sweepstakes casino sites not named in the lawsuits also remain active. For instance, Crown Coins, which surpassed Chumba Casino for online search traffic in August 2026, still accepts play from Florida players.
So do other top brands like Pulsz, Hello Millions, and McLuck. For now, it seems all of the most famous sites remain active in the Sunshine State.
Some operators have anticipated trouble for the existing dual-currency system. Following a strict ban on dual-currency gaming in Indiana, several sites switched to a single-currency “for entertainment” social casino model.
Brands like A1 Development’s Funrize and TaoFortune, and Utech Solutions’s VegasWay and Sweepico, are currently testing the model in Indiana.
Crown Coins recently launched the Crown Rips trading card game, a style of play where players can purchase digital sports trading cards and Pokémon cards through their site. The cards hold value, even if that value fluctuates according to the market.
Crown Coins believes this meets the test for a “thing of value,” one of the three elements required to be considered gambling in most US states. Card Crush is testing alternative game styles in other states.
