Licensed, state by state
The United States regulates gambling affiliates more directly than most other jurisdictions and less uniformly. There is no federal affiliate rule; each state that has legalised online sports betting or casino has decided for itself whether affiliates need a licence, what kind, at what cost, and with what obligations, and the answers differ enough that an affiliate operating across the country runs a licensing programme rather than a compliance policy. This lesson sets out the pattern, the main states, and the two questions that decide everything: how the affiliate is paid, and what it promotes.
The compensation test
Most states that license affiliates do so on the basis of how they are paid. The logic is the regulator's traditional concern with anyone who shares in gambling revenue: a party paid a percentage of what customers lose has a stake in the gambling itself and is treated like a supplier; a party paid a flat fee for advertising is treated like a media vendor.
Flat fee or fixed payment (a placement fee, a sponsorship, cost per click or per impression, and in several states a CPA that does not depend on the customer's subsequent deposits or wagering) typically triggers the lower tier: a vendor registration with a modest fee and basic disclosure.
Revenue share, and in some states CPA tied to the customer's deposits or wagering, typically triggers the higher tier: a vendor or supplier licence with application and licensing fees in the thousands of dollars, background checks on owners and key personnel, fingerprinting in some states, and periodic renewal fees or resubmissions.
The distinction is applied to the deal, not the affiliate, so the same affiliate may hold a registration in one state and a licence in another depending on how its operators pay it there, and a change of deal structure can change the licence required. Not every state splits the tiers: Indiana's rules place affiliates in a single registrant category, Virginia registers affiliated marketers as vendors even when they are paid a revenue share, and Massachusetts goes further, barring sports wagering operators from paying a third party for advertising or marketing on the basis of the volume of patrons or wagers, or the outcome of wagers, which rules out per-player and revenue-share deals for sports betting affiliates there.
The main states
The following reflects each regulator's rules and published guidance as checked in September 2026; each state's rules, fees and forms change, and the regulator's own site is the source.
New Jersey. The Division of Gaming Enforcement requires affiliates to register or license according to compensation. A vendor registration covers affiliates paid a fixed amount regardless of what the referred user does: the Division's June 2014 guidance, as summarised by Ifrah Law, lists cost per click, cost per impression, cost per action such as a sign-up, and flat-fee sponsorships. An Ancillary Casino Service Industry Enterprise licence covers affiliates paid on the basis of the user's deposits or wagering, or a revenue share; it carries a $2,000 initial filing fee and a resubmission every five years, while a vendor registration has no filing fee. The same guidance says a sub-affiliate's licence type is set by its own compensation, that affiliates must ensure their sub-affiliates are properly licensed, and that affiliates not licensed or registered in the state must take compliance measures, such as IP blocking or geolocation, to keep their promotion away from New Jersey players. A 2015 Director's Advisory Bulletin warned that affiliates promoting illegal online gaming sites to New Jersey players break state law, and that those who did not stop within 150 days would be deemed unsuitable for licensure, with other regulators informed. Since 2024 the Division has required online platform providers to certify annually on their affiliate partners. The state has since outlawed sweepstakes casinos by statute, signed in August 2025, and sent a cease-and-desist letter to the prediction market Kalshi. New Jersey set out its affiliate rules soon after online casino launched there in November 2013, and the compensation-based model it adopted is the one Pennsylvania, Michigan and Colorado also follow.
Pennsylvania. The Gaming Control Board treats affiliates as Gaming Service Providers supplying services to licensees, with registered and certified tiers. For online gaming the tier follows the deal: an interactive affiliate paid a revenue share must be certified, while one paid a flat fee must be registered. Applications may be sponsored or unsponsored. The Board's fee schedule sets an interactive gaming service provider registration at $2,500 and a certification at $5,000, each for a five-year term, with non-refundable application deposits of $500 and $2,500 respectively, and the applicant also pays for the background investigation; an older Board FAQ still gives a $2,000 registration fee. A certified application is more demanding, with personal history disclosures for each owner, officer and director, forms and fees for holding companies, and non-refundable deposits toward the investigation.
Michigan. The Gaming Control Board requires an affiliate marketer with a revenue-share agreement to hold a supplier licence, while affiliate marketers without one, including those paid per registration or per depositing customer, register as vendors. Under the internet gaming rules as adopted in 2020, a vendor registration carries a $200 non-refundable application fee, while a supplier licence costs a $2,500 application fee, a $5,000 licence fee and a $2,500 annual fee, plus any background-investigation costs above the application fee.
Colorado. The Division of Gaming licenses affiliates as vendors: a vendor minor licence for affiliates paid fixed fees rather than a share of revenue, and a vendor major licence for revenue-share arrangements. According to Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, the vendor minor licence functions like a registration with a much shorter application, while a vendor major licence costs $1,200 plus a $10,000 background-investigation deposit. The Division describes the vendor minor licence as the one for anyone acting on behalf of a sports betting licensee who does not need a vendor major licence.
Indiana. The Gaming Commission uses sports wagering vendor, service provider and registrant classifications, and its rules require affiliates that promote sports wagering websites to register as sports wagering registrants. The application carries a $500 non-refundable fee and sets out the applicant's ownership and organisational charts and the Indiana licensees it works with; operators must carry out due diligence on each registrant's criminal history, character and reputation, and the Commission can revoke a registration for unsuitability.
Virginia. The Virginia Lottery requires a sports betting vendor registration, a category whose definition names the affiliated marketer, meaning one paid per registration, per depositing registration or a percentage of adjusted gross receipts, so revenue-share affiliates register rather than license. The registration costs a $500 non-refundable fee toward the background investigation and lasts three years.
Others. Arizona, Tennessee, West Virginia, Illinois, Louisiana, Maryland, Ohio, Kansas, Kentucky, North Carolina and the rest of the online states each have their own vendor, supplier or registration categories, fees and forms, and each regulator's rules decide which category an affiliate falls into; the compensation test above is the common starting point, not a guarantee. In some states the operator files or sponsors the affiliate's application: New Jersey's vendor registration form is filed with the Division by the casino licensee.
What the licence obliges
Beyond the application, a licensed or registered affiliate in a US state carries obligations that the state can enforce directly.
Promotion of licensed operators only. State rules bar licensed affiliates from promoting unlicensed gambling to residents: Michigan's board says a licensed or registered marketing affiliate must not promote or market illegal online gaming sites to people in Michigan, and Massachusetts forbids any third party marketing for an operator from advertising forms of illegal gambling. The enforcement questions of recent years have been about what counts. Sweepstakes casinos are, in the reading of many state regulators and a growing number of legislatures, unlicensed gambling, and prediction-market exchanges have received cease-and-desist letters from several states, so a licensed affiliate promoting either to residents of those states puts its own standing with the regulator at risk. An affiliate's state permission matrix now has to specify not just which operators but which product categories it will promote in each state.
Geolocation and targeting. Content directed at a state's residents must comply with that state's rules; content that reaches them from elsewhere is the affiliate's problem to manage, and New Jersey in particular expects affiliates that are not licensed or registered there to take measures, such as IP blocking or geolocation, to keep their promotion away from its players.
Advertising standards. State regulations require age statements, responsible gambling messaging and helpline numbers, and no targeting of under-21s: Indiana requires advertising to state that patrons must be 21 or older and to carry a problem gambling helpline message, Virginia requires the minimum age and the National Problem Gambling Helpline number and bars material designed to appeal to under-21s, and Massachusetts also bars sports wagering advertising on college or university campuses and in their news outlets. A growing number of states restrict "risk-free" language, inducements and the presentation of bonuses: Indiana bars describing a bet as risk free if the patron must risk their own money, and Massachusetts goes further, prohibiting advertising that implies sports wagering is free of risk in general or in connection with a particular promotion.
Reporting and cooperation. Change-of-ownership notifications, renewal filings, and cooperation with the regulator's enquiries. Indiana, for example, requires registrants to notify the Commission of any change in the information they submitted within ten calendar days.
The unlicensed-promotion frontier
The live issues in American affiliate compliance are about products rather than operators.
Sweepstakes. Affiliates have earned well promoting sweepstakes casinos in states without licensed online casino. As states ban the model (Connecticut, Montana and New Jersey enacted prohibitions in 2025, as did California and New York) or enforce against it, affiliates holding state licences elsewhere are exposed: a licensed affiliate promoting a product a regulator regards as illegal gambling is a licensee in breach. The Sweepstakes and Social Casino course covers the segment.
Prediction markets. The same question with a federal complication: the exchanges operate designated contract markets licensed by the CFTC and argue that federal law preempts state gambling law; the states disagree and have sent cease-and-desist letters to the exchanges. The courts are divided. In April 2026 a divided Third Circuit panel held that Kalshi was likely to succeed on preemption against New Jersey, while the Ninth Circuit reached the opposite view on Nevada's order and the Sixth Circuit on Ohio's and Tennessee's in September, and New Jersey filed a petition for Supreme Court review on 2 September 2026. An affiliate promoting sports event contracts to residents of a state that has acted is taking a position in that litigation. The Prediction Markets course covers the fight.
Offshore sportsbooks and casinos. The affiliate industry's original American business, and a history that counts against a licence application. New Jersey's 2015 bulletin warned that affiliates that kept promoting illegal sites after its deadline would be found unsuitable, with the finding attached to each principal owner, officer and director regardless of any change in corporate structure. Regulators check.
Running a US licensing programme
An affiliate operating across American states needs: a register of every state's requirement, licence type, fee, renewal date and form; a decision per state on whether the revenue justifies the licence; a compliance calendar; a permission matrix by state, operator and product; a geolocation approach for content; a template that carries each state's age, responsible gambling and disclaimer requirements; and a person who owns it. Larger affiliates tend to run dedicated licensing teams; smaller affiliates use specialist counsel or consultants who file in bulk. The cost is real, the alternative is being unpaid, and the states that are "worth it" are the ones where the affiliate's revenue exceeds the licensing cost by a comfortable margin, which for most affiliates is a short list.
What to take from this lesson
American states license affiliates directly, mostly on a compensation test: flat fees trigger registration, and revenue share (and, in some states, activity-based CPA) triggers a licence with background checks and fees in the thousands. Indiana and Virginia register affiliates in one category, and Massachusetts bars per-player and revenue-share pay for sports betting marketing. New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Colorado, Indiana and Virginia are the reference regimes, and the other online states have their own categories, fees and forms. The licence obliges the affiliate to promote only licensed products, to target by state, and to meet each state's advertising standards, and the live frontier is sweepstakes and prediction markets, where an affiliate's promotion is a position in a legal fight. Run it as a licensing programme with a register, a calendar and an owner.