Florida has become the latest state to take legal action at sweepstakes-style gaming, with Attorney General James Uthmeier suing the businesses behind Stake US and Virtual Gaming Worlds’ (VGW) Chumba Casino, LuckyLand and Global Poker.
The two complaints, filed Wednesday (August 19) in Hillsborough County Circuit Court, accuse the operators of running illegal online casinos while presenting their products as sweepstakes or social gaming. Payment companies and other businesses that allegedly helped the platforms process transactions are also defendants.
“If it looks like a casino, takes money like a casino, and pays out like a casino, it is a casino—and it’s illegal in Florida,” Uthmeier said in announcing the lawsuits.
He made the same case in a video released alongside the legal action, arguing that the labels used by the companies do not reflect how their games actually work.
“Sites like Stake and those run by VGW market themselves as sweepstakes or social casinos, but they offer real gambling: slots, blackjack, and poker,” Uthmeier said. “They’ve raked in hundreds of millions of dollars from people in our state.”
The claims have yet to be tested in court, and the defendants will have an opportunity to contest them. They also arrive during a general state-level push against sweepstakes casinos, with regulators and attorneys general increasingly questioning whether dual-currency systems amount to real-money gambling.
Florida says sweepstakes currencies amount to real-money gambling
Florida’s 64-page Stake complaint names Sweepsteaks Ltd., which operates Stake.us, alongside Easygo Group Holdings, Medium Rare N.V., Kick Streaming, Stake co-founders Bijan Tehrani and Ed Craven, and payment businesses Praxis Tech and Breeze Labs Payments.
Florida says users put money or other things of value into the platform, receive wagering credits and use them on games of chance before redeeming eligible winnings for something with monetary value. The state argues that process makes the underlying activity casino gambling, regardless of how Stake.us describes the product.
The state questions how money moves through Stake.us. Players can use Gold Coins without winning cash prizes, while Stake Cash can eventually be exchanged for cryptocurrency or digital gift cards. Florida says that makes Stake Cash function much like chips at a conventional casino.
The complaint says that once players meet the required wagering conditions, Stake Cash can be redeemed at or close to a one-to-one dollar value.
Stake.us promotes itself as “America’s Favorite Social Casino and Poker,” according to the complaint.
Florida argues that buying and wagering Stake Cash provides the consideration needed to make the activity gambling, while games of chance provide the opportunity to win something valuable.
“Slots and similar casino-style gambling are illegal in Florida, except under limited circumstances expressly authorized by law, none of which apply here,” the Stake complaint states.
“These companies cannot hide illegal gambling behind a sweepstakes label,” Uthmeier said.
The case also reaches companies Florida says helped make deposits and payouts possible. Praxis allegedly connects the platform with banks and processors, while Breeze supports electronic payment methods that include cards, Apple Pay and Google Pay.
Marketing is another major part of the complaint. Florida points to influencers, livestreams, celebrity endorsements and sports sponsorships, including promotions involving rapper Drake. The state argues that such campaigns can highlight unusually large wins without giving comparable attention to losses or the odds of achieving those results.
It points to social-media posts showing purported Drake wagers of about $300,000 and $250,276.85, with possible payouts topping $507,000 and $460,000 respectively.
Florida also alleges that some influencers or celebrity endorsers who appear to be gambling may be using money supplied or subsidized by operators rather than risking entirely their own funds.
The complaint also cites company accounts reviewed by the Financial Times showing gross gaming revenue climbing from roughly $105 million in 2020 to nearly $2.6 billion in 2022, while a Forbes profile put 2024 gross gaming revenue at about $4.7 billion. Florida alleges the company has also made significant revenue from consumers in the state, although the cited complaint material does not provide a specific Florida figure.
Stake has faced scrutiny elsewhere. An April lawsuit in New York accused Stake.com, Stake.us, Coinbase and related businesses of enabling gambling by a plaintiff who said he began using Stake-related platforms at age 13. That case alleges Coinbase acted as a payment bridge between conventional currency, cryptocurrency and offshore gambling.
The plaintiff says he used Stake.com and Primedice from ages 13 through 19, eventually losing his own savings and using his father’s credit card without permission. The complaint says his gambling affected school, family relationships and his transition into adult life, and alleges Stake-related businesses used livestreams, celebrity endorsements and influencer promotions to attract younger users.
VGW faces Florida lawsuit after retreating from other states
Florida’s separate 74-page VGW case names U.S., Australian and Maltese VGW companies together with payment businesses Yodlee, Trustly and Worldpay.
Once again, the state is focusing on a two-currency setup. Customers obtain Gold Coins and Sweeps Coins, with VGW describing Sweeps Coins as a free bonus connected with Gold Coin purchases. Florida argues the economic reality is different because Sweeps Coins can be played and later redeemed for value.
One example in the complaint describes a $20 package that includes millions of Gold Coins and 20.50 Sweeps Coins. With Sweeps Coins redeemable at $1 each, Florida alleges the transaction effectively sells wagering currency despite the “free” label.
It also challenges promotional language surrounding VGW’s games. LuckyLand has described playing as “100% safe and 100% legal.” Florida says that representation is deceptive because, in the state’s view, the games amount to unlawful gambling.
Cash-out rules also feature in the case. Florida says Chumba permits gift-card redemptions from $10 but sets a $100 threshold for cash, while other VGW platforms require 50 Sweeps Coins before players can cash out.
Florida is also pursuing the companies it says helped move that money. The complaint describes Trustly as facilitating account-to-account transfers and Worldpay as providing payment processing, merchant acquiring, gateway and payout services. The state alleges Yodlee, Trustly and Worldpay helped the wider operation by facilitating transactions involving Florida players.
VGW companies are alleged to operate as a common enterprise and use celebrities, athletes and influencers to give their platforms legitimacy while presenting the games as safe, social, secure, legal or free.
The complaint puts VGW’s 2025 revenue above $5 billion, including about $3.7 billion attributed to Chumba Casino. Florida says that scale could make disgorgement significant if the state succeeds.
The lawsuit follows pressure on VGW in several other states. In West Virginia, the company announced in November 2025 that it would phase out Promotional Play while continuing free-to-play Gold Coin games. Players stopped collecting Sweeps Coins on November 11, gameplay using them ended November 18, and redemptions closed November 25. The withdrawal followed enforcement pressure in the state and came after VGW had already wound down some sweepstakes operations in New York and New Jersey.
It included reported subpoenas or cease-and-desist letters sent to sweepstakes operators by Attorney General JB McCuskey earlier in 2025. McCuskey said at the time that his office had “serious concerns” about consumers, particularly children, being targeted by illegal gambling operations.
Kentucky added another front in June 2026, suing VGW over Chumba Casino, LuckyLand and Global Poker. Kentucky alleges Sweeps Coins work like conventional casino chips because they can carry redeemable value and be wagered on games of chance.
VGW previously told ReadWrite it “respectfully reject[s] the Kentucky Attorney General’s claims” and plans to “vigorously defend this lawsuit.” The company said it has operated lawfully in the United States for more than a decade and describes its products as online “Social Plus” games offered with “robust consumer protections.”
Florida seeks consumer losses as well as sweeping injunctions
Florida is asking for more than an order stopping the platforms. Its lawsuits rely partly on state gambling-loss recovery statutes that the Attorney General argues allow the government to pursue money or property tied to illegal gambling.
The state specifically relies on sections 849.12 and 849.29 of the Florida Statutes, arguing they can impose joint and several liability on operators, promoters and others involved in the transactions. The VGW complaint’s first count seeks forfeiture and recovery of money allegedly lost through gambling from all defendants.
In the Stake case, Florida seeks forfeiture and recovery of “all sums of money” and other valuable property allegedly wagered, used or won by people gambling in the state. The requested remedies also include disgorgement, restitution and a permanent injunction.
Florida is separately pursuing civil penalties that can reach $10,000 for each willful consumer-protection violation and $15,000 for certain violations involving people over 60 or consumers who are impaired or disabled.
The VGW suit similarly asks for gambling-related losses to be recovered, along with restitution, disgorgement, penalties and permanent injunctive relief.
“These websites do not follow the safeguards or provide consumer protections that are required of licensed casinos under Florida law,” he said in the video statement. “We filed lawsuits against the operators of these sites, along with their financial facilitators and promoters.”
“We’re seeking to recover every dollar consumers lost under Florida’s gambling recovery laws,” Uthmeier added, “and we will hold them accountable under our consumer protection laws for their deceptive claims.”
The cases fit an increasingly national dispute over where newer gambling-like products sit under existing law. Montana became the first state to outlaw online sweepstakes casinos in May 2025, while West Virginia’s enforcement pressure helped drive VGW’s withdrawal of Promotional Play.
Kentucky has meanwhile targeted both sweepstakes casinos and prediction markets, suing VGW alongside Kalshi and Polymarket in June. The cases raise different regulatory questions, but they share a central argument now appearing repeatedly across states: changing the technology, currency or legal label around a product does not necessarily take it outside traditional gambling laws.
Both complaints, filed in Hillsborough County Circuit Court and dated August 19, 2026, demand jury trials.
ReadWrite has reached out to VGW and Stake for comment.
Featured image: Stake.us / VGW
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