Sweepstakes casino landing pages: Gold Coins, Sweeps Coins and the AMOE rules you can't skip

A sweepstakes casino looks like an online casino and works, legally, like a promotional sweepstakes. The whole model rests on one sentence: no purchase is necessary. A landing page that makes that sentence hard to find, hard to believe or hard to act on isn't just bad copy. It is evidence against the model it's selling.

This guide covers how the dual-currency model works, what an alternative method of entry has to look like, the state laws that changed the map in 2025 and 2026, and how we build a sweeps page that is clear about all of it. You can click through our demo sweeps page (a fictional brand) as you read.

How the dual-currency model works

Most US states treat a game as an illegal lottery when it has three elements: a prize, chance, and consideration (payment). A sweepstakes removes the third element by offering an alternative method of entry, which is where "no purchase necessary" comes from. Courts have held that the cost of mailing a postcard is too small to count as consideration (Holland & Knight).

Sweepstakes casinos apply that structure with two currencies. Using one large operator's published rules as the example (Chumba Casino Sweeps Rules, v18.0):

The postal request in those rules is very specific: a 4"×6" blank card, handwritten details and a request code, one card per stamped envelope, sent from the player's home state, earning 5 Sweeps Coins. Detail like that is not bureaucracy for its own sake. It is what makes the free route real and auditable.

The AMOE rules you can't skip

An alternative method of entry has to be more than a footnote. The principles:

• Equal dignity. Free entrants get the same odds and treatment as paying ones, and the process must not be designed to discourage free entry (Holland & Knight).
• Clear disclosure. The FTC puts it bluntly: it is illegal to tell someone to pay to enter a sweepstakes, or that buying improves their odds (FTC). Its 2023 order against Publishers Clearing House required "no purchase necessary" disclosures that are clear, conspicuous and unavoidable, and entry flows separated from order flows (FTC order). That case was about classic sweepstakes, but the logic maps directly onto a coin shop.
• Official rules, linked from every ad and page. State promotion laws expect it: Florida's statute requires ads to carry the rules or the material terms and where to find them (§ 849.094), and New York requires the rules in all advertising for sweepstakes with prizes over $5,000 (GBL § 369-e). Both states also have registration and bonding rules above that threshold.
• Eligibility up front: age (many operators require 21+), excluded states, "void where prohibited".

If you send anything by post, the federal Deceptive Mail Prevention and Enforcement Act adds its own disclosure rules for mailed sweepstakes.

The 2025–2026 crackdown, state by state

The map changed fast. These are the laws we could verify from legislatures or established trade press; trackers disagree on the exact count, and some laws differ in scope.

Enforcement isn't waiting for legislation either: in August 2026 Florida's Attorney General sued several sweepstakes casino operators and their payment processors over alleged illegal gambling (News4JAX). And many operators have long excluded other states in their own rules: the August 2025 rules quoted above already excluded Connecticut, Delaware, Idaho, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Montana, Nevada, New Jersey, New York and Washington.

Anatomy of a sweeps landing page

Here is how we lay one out, top to bottom:

1. Hero: "Play free" is the honest headline, because it is true. Show the free Sweeps Coins on sign-up if there are any, with "No purchase necessary" in the hero, not below the fold.
2. Two coins, one screen: what Gold Coins are, what Sweeps Coins are, and the sentence that Gold Coins can never be redeemed. If players can't explain the difference after ten seconds, the page failed.
3. Free ways to get Sweeps Coins with equal visual weight: daily login, giveaways and the mail-in request, with a link to the exact instructions. Don't make the free route a grey link in the footer while the coin shop gets a pulsing button.
4. Coin packages, if shown at all, framed as Gold Coin purchases with "free" Sweeps Coins as a bonus, never as "buy Sweeps Coins".
5. Eligibility strip: age, excluded states, "void where prohibited", links to the Sweepstakes Rules, Terms and Privacy.
6. Responsible play: purchase limits, time-outs and self-exclusion in the account, plus a US helpline.

Words to use, words to avoid

Wording on a sweeps page is not cosmetic: it describes which legal model you claim to be. Social modes on platforms follow the same idea. In our slot Vampir's social mode, every "bet" became "play" and every "buy bonus" became "get bonus" (more in our Stake Engine case study).

Advertising the page

• Google: its gambling and games policy lists sweepstake casinos as an example of games that are not social casino games (Google Ads policy). The social casino route is closed to you.
• Meta: online gambling and gaming ads need account authorisation, the rule covers landing pages including affiliate sites, and ads may not target under-18s (Meta policy). Check how your product is classified before assuming social casino rules apply.
• Industry standards: the Social Gaming Leadership Alliance, launched in 2025, lists "no purchase is ever required to play" and adult-only platforms among its principles (SGLA). If your page contradicts the industry's own principles, it will not survive a regulator's reading.

Building comparison pages for sweeps brands as well? The same disclosure logic applies; read the anatomy of a top-10 page, or see our page types on the Growth page.

18+This article is general information for businesses, not legal advice; sweepstakes law differs by state and changes fast, so check with US gaming counsel before launching. Sweepstakes casinos are for adults only (often 21+). If gambling-style play stops being fun, call or text 1-800-GAMBLER or visit ncpgambling.org.