Attorney General Keith Ellison ordered 14 online gambling operators to stop accepting Minnesota players by December 1, 2025. Three of the 14 are sweepstakes brands, and all three are in our database: LuckyLand Slots, Zula Casino, and Fortune Coins, which now trades as Fortune Wins. Separately - and this is the part that catches people off guard - the legislature's own ban bill, SF 4474, passed the Senate on April 30, 2026, then failed to clear the House before the session ended May 18. Two different arms of Minnesota government moved against sweepstakes casinos in the same year. Neither one has closed the market.
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Top 5 sweepstakes casinos available in Minnesota
| Rank | Casino | No-Deposit Offer | Cash Redemption Min | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | WOW Vegas | 250,000 WC + 5 SC (3-day drip) | 50 SC | Highest Tested Score |
| 2 | Crown Coins Casino | 100,000 CC + 2 SC | Not clearly published | Most Trusted by Players |
| 3 | Sportzino | 170,000 GC + 7 SC | Not published - check in-app | Best Casino + Sportsbook |
| 4 | Zula Casino | 120,000 GC + 10 SC | Not published - check in-app | Best New-Player Experience |
| 5 | McLuck | 7,500 GC + 2.5 SC | 75 SC | Best Redemption Terms |
None of these five currently name Minnesota in their own exclusion lists as of July 27, 2026 - see the caution note below before assuming that's permanent. Full rankings at all 30 ranked casinos.
Which sweepstakes casinos did Minnesota's Attorney General order out?
Ellison's November 5, 2025 order named three sweepstakes brands among the 14 sites, and all three are casinos we track: LuckyLand Slots, Zula Casino, and Fortune Coins, since rebranded to Fortune Wins. None of the three listed Minnesota among its excluded states when we last read their published rules on July 27, 2026, so the order does not appear to have moved any of them out of the state. Treat Minnesota as a state where the ground can shift without a new law passing.
Are sweepstakes casinos being sued in Minnesota?
Yes. Three live federal sweepstakes cases sit in the District of Minnesota, and two of them are proposed class actions naming VGW, the operator behind Chumba Casino, LuckyLand Slots and Global Poker. This is the part of Minnesota's picture that has nothing to do with the Attorney General or the legislature.
Engel v. VGW Holdings Pty Ltd., No. 0:26-cv-03021, was filed on June 18, 2026 and asks the court to order VGW to hand back every dollar Minnesota residents wagered on those sites inside the limitation period. Moser v. VGW Holdings Pty Ltd., No. 0:26-cv-03180, followed on July 3, 2026; its complaint is not on the public docket, so we can report that it exists but not what it claims. We re-read both dockets on August 26, 2026. VGW has not answered either complaint and no court has found any defendant liable for anything, so everything alleged remains an allegation. The latest entries in both cases are procedural: an admission order in Engel on August 18, and an order of recusal in Moser on August 21. Our report on the two VGW cases has the detail from the complaint itself.
The third case is the one that explains why plaintiffs' firms keep choosing this district. A Stake.us player was not pushed into private arbitration the way sweepstakes operators usually manage, and that refusal is now on appeal at the Eighth Circuit. Minnesota is currently the district where a sweepstakes operator's arbitration clause has been held not to work automatically.
Why is a state with no ban generating lawsuits?
Because Minnesota lets a losing gambler sue to get the money back, and has since 1905. Minn. Stat. § 541.20, which we read on the Minnesota Revisor's own site on August 26, 2026, says a person who loses money "by playing at cards, dice, or other game" and pays it to the winner "may sue for and recover such money by a civil action, before any court of competent jurisdiction."
No fraud has to be proved. A plaintiff has to convince a court that what happened was a game and that he lost. That is the theory driving Engel, and it is why the absence of a sweepstakes statute here matters less than it looks: the argument is not that a new law closed the market, it is that an old one always covered it. Whether § 541.20 actually reaches a dual-currency sweepstakes model is the question no court has answered yet.
Two things follow for you as a player. Nothing in § 541.20 penalises the person playing; it is a route for players to sue operators, not the reverse. And a pending class action is not a reason to expect a payout, because none of these cases has reached the merits. If you hold a balance at a brand named in one, the sensible move is the ordinary one: finish ID and KYC verification and use our redemption walkthrough rather than letting it sit.
Will Minnesota ban sweepstakes casinos?
SF 4474 passed the Minnesota Senate on April 30, 2026. Its House companion, HF 4410, never reached a floor vote before the session closed May 18. That combination - Senate passage, House inaction - puts Minnesota closer to a ban than most permitted states, and a 2027 refile is a reasonable expectation given the bill already cleared one chamber.
Minnesota's neighbor Wisconsin has no comparable bill or enforcement activity on record, which makes the two states a useful contrast: nearly identical Midwest markets, one with an Attorney General cease order and a Senate-passed ban bill, the other with no regulatory noise at all. Geography alone doesn't predict how a state approaches this category.
How to start playing in Minnesota
- Weigh the top 5 above against what you actually want - a sportsbook alongside the casino, live dealer tables, or the fastest redemption.
- Register with a valid ID; first redemptions require a KYC check. Our registration and KYC guide covers the documents you'll need.
- Claim your no-deposit bonus before any purchase.
- Check back daily for login bonuses, which escalate over 5 to 7 days at most brands.
- Use AMOE mail-in entries for free Sweeps Coins without buying - see our free-coins guide.
- Redeem once you've cleared the brand's playthrough and posted minimum - our Sweeps Coins redemption walkthrough covers each payout rail, and the highest payout sweepstakes casinos hub ranks brands on redemption terms alone.