Posted on: March 24, 2026, 07:57h.
Last updated on: March 24, 2026, 07:57h.
- Maryland won’t legalize iGaming in 2026
- Maryland lawmakers have forwarded a bill to ban sweepstakes casinos
- Sweepstakes casinos have largely ignored cease-and-desist letters
Online casinos won’t be legalized in Maryland in 2026. Lawmakers are instead focusing on explicitly banning unauthorized online slots and table games.
Maryland Sen. Ron Watson (D-Prince George’s County) has fought for iGaming for years. In 2026, he introduced two pieces of legislation to create a regulatory framework for the Old Line State’s six commercial casinos to conduct online gambling. Such gambling expansion would require voter approval through a statewide ballot referendum.
Last week, Watson withdrew Senate Bill 761, the proposed internet gaming referendum. Watson’s withdrawal came after the Senate Budget and Taxation Committee canceled a scheduled hearing on the bill on March 10.
Watson’s Senate Bill 885 remains, though that bill was the implementation of iGaming contingent on a successful referendum. The regulatory statute is presumably dead with the shelving of SB761.
iGaming is legal in only eight states. They are Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Michigan, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and West Virginia. Maine legalized iGaming in January, giving the exclusive rights to online casinos to its federally recognized tribes.
Sweepstakes Casinos Could Be Shown the Door
For now, Maryland lawmakers are more intent on limiting, not expanding, gaming.
House Bill 295, sponsored by the House Ways and Means Committee on request by the Maryland Lottery and Gaming Control Agency, would prohibit sweepstakes casinos. The statute would ban social casino websites and apps from utilizing “multiple currency systems of payment” that allow players to “exchange the currency for any reward.”
Sweepstakes casinos claim they are free-to-play social gaming platforms. While players are afforded fun money, the operations offer a secondary digital token, often called sweeps coins, for purchase. The sweeps coins are played as real money, with credits able to be redeemed for cash.
Sweepstakes operators claim their businesses are based on a sweepstakes model where consumers make purchases for the chance to win a prize, not unlike McDonald’s famed Monopoly promotion.
Critics counter that sweepstakes casinos are nothing more than cleverly thought-up workarounds of state laws. HB295 would clarify that online sweepstakes are illegal in Maryland and that violators would face fines of $10,000 to $100,000 and prison terms of up to 3 years.
HB295 passed the Maryland House of Delegates on March 20 with a 105-24 vote. It’s since been referred to the Senate Budget and Taxation Committee. The Maryland General Assembly’s 2026 session runs through April 13.
Cease and Desist Letters Ignored
The Maryland Lottery and Gaming Control Agency has issued numerous cease and desist letters to sweepstakes casino operators, but many operators continue to allow their websites and apps to be accessed in the state. The gaming regulatory put Chumba Casino on notice last November.
We have reviewed your site and see that Chumba Casino is offering online poker, casino gaming, and sweepstakes. These offerings contain the elements of gaming: consideration, chance and prize. In other words, it is gaming. Under Maryland law, gaming is illegal unless it is expressly authorized. The gaming that is being offered through your site is not legally authorized in Maryland,” Michael Eaton, the managing director of gaming at the MLGCA, wrote Chumba.
Eaton directed Chumba Casino to cease offering online poker, casino games, and sweepstakes in Maryland. As of today, Chumba remains active.
