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Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier already went after the sweepstakes casinos. Then the companies that process their payments.
Now he wants answers from the companies that sell them ad space.
Uthmeier sent letters Sept. 26 to Google, Meta, Reddit, Snap and TikTok asking each one to explain, in writing, how it keeps sweepstakes casino advertising away from Florida residents, Legal Sports Report reported. The deadline to respond is Oct. 23.
The letters name four brands: Stake, Chumba Casino, LuckyLand and Global Poker. The last three are run by VGW.
And the argument is the one Uthmeier has been making since August. In his view, promoting a sweepstakes casino in Florida is just as illegal as running one. As are the people who help it along.
Facilitate. That’s the word he keeps coming back to.
What the Florida AG wants from Google and Meta
In the version addressed to Google, Uthmeier asks the company to “confirm to me in writing by October 23, 2026, the steps Google has taken to ensure that it is not promoting or otherwise advertising these online ‘sweepstakes’ casinos” to Floridians.
He also lays out the legal theory behind the request:
“The promotion and advertisement of such illegal gambling in Florida is similarly unlawful under Florida law.”
From there, the conclusion is blunt. “Google therefore cannot advertise these illegal ‘sweepstake’ websites on its social media platforms in Florida,” Uthmeier wrote.
The letter goes after the dual-currency model at the center of the industry. Gold Coins carry no cash value. They come bundled with Sweeps Coins or, on Stake, Stake Cash, which can be redeemed for prizes. Uthmeier described Stake Cash as “redeemable wagering credits that can be cashed out for cryptocurrency, gift cards, or cash after minimal play-through requirements.”
Operators have long argued the opposite. Because Sweeps Coins are available with no purchase necessary, the model is a promotional sweepstakes and not gambling.
How Florida’s sweepstakes casino crackdown got here
This is the third rung of the same ladder.
On Aug. 19, Uthmeier filed two lawsuits in Hillsborough County Circuit Court, one against Stake and one against VGW. The suits also named payment processors: Praxis and Breeze Labs on the Stake side, and Yodlee, Trustly and Worldpay on the VGW side.
The state is seeking:
- Permanent injunctions
- Forfeiture of money lost by Florida consumers
- Disgorgement
- Civil penalties under the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act
- Restitution and attorneys’ fees
Uthmeier said at the time that if a site “looks like a casino, takes real money like a casino, and pays out like a casino, it is a casino.”
Operators first. Then the money. Now the marketing.
Florida isn’t alone on the courtroom route, either. Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman sued VGW in June, skipping the cease-and-desist letters that usually come first.
Didn’t Google already ban sweepstakes casino ads?
On paper, yes.
Google updated its gambling and games ad policy in October 2025. The policy now lists sweepstakes casinos as an example of what does not count as a social casino game, which shuts them out of that category entirely.
To run ads under Google’s gambling certification instead, an operator needs whatever license the market requires. Florida doesn’t license online casinos. So there’s no license to hold.
That makes the Google letter less a demand for a new policy than a demand for proof the existing one works. The other four platforms set their own rules, and each has now been asked to put its answer on paper for the state.
The letter is addressed to five tech companies. The sentence about promotion being unlawful doesn’t name who’s doing the promoting.
Which brings it back to the word Uthmeier chose. As he wrote, his office will pursue “both those who operate and those who facilitate these criminal operations.”
