here are the states that have increased taxes since 2023:

• Ohio (2023): Doubled its tax rate from 10% to 20% in 2023.

• Tennessee (2023): Shifted from a 20% revenue tax to a 1.85% handle tax.

• Illinois (2024): Shifted from a flat 15% rate to a tiered tax rate of 25-40% in 2024.

• Maryland (2025): Increased the tax on mobile sports betting from 15% to 20%.

• Louisiana (2025): Bumped its tax rate from 15% to 21.5%.

• Illinois (2025): Added a $.25 per wager fee on the first 20 million wagers and $.50 thereafter.

• New Jersey (2025) Increased its online gambling tax rate from 15% on online casinos and 13% on mobile sports betting to 19.75% (plus 2.5% IAT for iCasino and 1.25% on sports betting).

• Illinois (2025): The city of Chicago added a 10.25% tax on sports bets placed in the city.

And here’s where promotional deductions have been reduced or eliminated:

• Louisiana (2024): Reduced the amount of promotional spending that gaming operators can deduct from their tax obligations.

• Colorado (2024): Imposed a phased reduction on the amount of promotional spending that sports betting operators can deduct from their taxable revenue.

• Maryland (2024): Decreased the allowable deductions for promotional spending by gaming operators.

• Virginia (2024): Reduced the amount of promotional spending deductions for sports betting operators.

• Colorado (2025): passed a bill that sunsets promo bet deductions.

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That said, the sweepstakes industry is shifting strategies and putting forth a new effort to legalize and regulate the activity.

As reported by Sweepsy:

“Patrick Fechtmeyer, and his company is ARB Interactive, which owns Modo.us and Publishers Clearing House… penned an essay on his personal Medium account called The Rational Case for Modernizing Sweepstakes Laws in Social+ Gaming, in which he announced his intentions to introduce various Sweepstakes Modernization Acts around the U.S. and shared his perspective on how ‘legislation should reflect the next 100 years, not the last century.’

“‘I wrote the piece because, as a citizen, I care deeply about the United States making rational, informed decisions about markets that already exist online,’ Fechtmeyer told Sweepsy this week. ‘My intention isn’t to tell policymakers what to think, but to help ensure they have the facts and context needed to act in the best interest of their constituents.’”

This pivot comes at a critical juncture for an industry facing mounting regulatory headwinds.

There are two things working in the sweepstakes industry’s favor:

• The spotlight shifting to the new shiny object in the gambling world, prediction markets gives the sweepstakes industry a chance to regroup without being assailed on a daily basis.

• A glut of gambling bills, from legalization efforts to tax hikes, credit card bans, and other policy changes could offer an entry point for sweepstakes regulation.

However, the strategy shift hasn’t slowed the pace of anti-sweepstakes bills and state actions, as you will see in STTP’s sweepstakes tracker below.

Here are the states that have expressly (via legislation) prohibited sweepstakes gambling:

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