Up to $25,000. Up to a year in jail. Those numbers apply to anyone who operates a sweepstakes casino targeting California residents after January 1, 2026 - and, under the law's own language, potentially to "payment processors, financial institutions, gaming content suppliers, geolocation providers, platform operators, and media affiliates" who knowingly support or promote one. That last category is why this page carries no sign-up links, no promo codes, and no offer boxes. We built our own compliance around AB 831's affiliate-liability language, not around a workaround.
What does AB 831 actually say?
Governor Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill 831 on October 11, 2025, after it passed the State Senate 36-0 and the Assembly 63-0 - a rare level of unanimity for a gambling bill. It took effect January 1, 2026. The law closes what had been California's version of the industry's "no purchase necessary" loophole by treating Sweeps Coins as consideration under state gambling law, and it doesn't stop at the operator: payment processors, geolocation vendors, game suppliers, and media affiliates that knowingly support or promote sweepstakes activity all fall inside its liability language. That last clause is the reason serious affiliate sites, this one included, stopped running California offers the moment the bill was signed, not the moment it took effect.
What happened to California players' account balances?
There's no single, universal answer, because AB 831 doesn't regulate that directly - it regulates the operator's conduct, not the player's existing balance. Some operators offered a redemption window before fully geofencing California; others simply blocked access. If you had a balance before January 1, 2026 and haven't redeemed it, contact the operator directly rather than assuming any specific policy applies - this page won't speculate on individual brands' wind-down handling.
Does Gold Coin-only play still work in California?
For some brands, yes, in a limited sense. Our research shows Sportzino and Zula Casino each list California as restricted to Gold Coins only - free-to-play entertainment with no cash-redeemable Sweeps Coins - which is a materially different, and so far still-tolerated, product from the model AB 831 targets. That's a fact about how those two brands currently structure California access, not an endorsement to play; we're naming the brands for context, not linking to either one's own site or offer from this page.
What legal alternatives exist in California?
A few, none of them the sweepstakes model. The California State Lottery remains fully legal (draw games, scratchers). California's tribal casinos operate legally in person, under tribal-state compacts - notably, several California tribes actively opposed AB 831's exemptions and lobbied hard for the sweepstakes shutdown, seeing it as unlicensed competition, even as at least one tribe separately explored a sweepstakes partnership of its own. Neither mobile sports betting nor online real-money casino gaming is legal in California as of this writing. Pure Gold Coin social-casino apps with zero cash redemption remain legal statewide, since removing the prize element removes the gambling question entirely.