Florida Gives Google, Meta and TikTok Until 23 October to Stop Sweepstakes Casino Ads

Attorney General James Uthmeier has told five of the largest advertising platforms that promoting sweepstakes casinos to Floridians is a crime, and wants written proof they have stopped. After the operators and their payment processors, Florida has reached the marketing layer.

• Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier has written to Google, Meta, Reddit, Snap and TikTok, saying they "may be advertising illegal 'sweepstakes' casinos" to Floridians and that "promoting illegal gambling is a crime under Florida law"
• The letters, dated 25 September, ask each company to confirm in writing by 23 October the steps it has taken to stop promoting sites including Stake and VGW's Chumba Casino, LuckyLand and Global Poker in Florida
• The legal basis cited is Chapter 849 of the Florida Statutes, including the lottery law's ban on advertising a lottery "by circulars, posters, pamphlets, radio, telegraph, telephone, or otherwise"
• The letters build on the two lawsuits Florida filed on 19 August against Stake, VGW and their payment processors, which no court has yet ruled on
• The move follows VGW's $8 million settlement with New York and a run of state bans, and extends Florida's action from operators and processors to the platforms that sell them advertising

Florida Tells the Platforms That Advertising Is Itself Unlawful

Florida has taken its sweepstakes campaign to the companies that sell advertising. Attorney General James Uthmeier announced on his X account on Friday 25 September that he had sent letters to Google, Meta, Reddit, Snap and TikTok "after learning they may be advertising illegal 'sweepstakes' casinos", and published the letter to Google, addressed to general counsel Halimah DeLaine Prado and dated the same day. Covers and PlayUSA report that the same demand went to the other four.

The letter to Google opens with the charge: "It has come to my attention that your company may be advertising illegal 'sweepstakes' casinos on its social media platforms to residents of Florida. Promoting illegal gambling is a crime under Florida law." It then recalls the two lawsuits filed on 19 August in the Thirteenth Judicial Circuit, in Hillsborough County, against Stake, VGW's brands "and the payment processors that enable them", seeking permanent injunctions, recovery of consumers' losses, disgorgement and civil penalties. "Through these lawsuits, my office has made it clear that Florida will not tolerate illegal gambling, and we will pursue both those who operate and those who facilitate these criminal operations," Uthmeier wrote.

Google, the letter says, "therefore cannot advertise these illegal 'sweepstake' websites on its social media platforms in Florida", and it 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" the named sites to Florida residents. It does not say what happens if a company does not reply, or accuse the platforms of operating gambling.

The Statutes Behind the Demand

The legal basis is in the footnotes. For the sites being unlawful, the letter cites sections 849.08 and 849.231 of the Florida Statutes, the gambling and gambling-device prohibitions. For advertising them being unlawful, it cites section 849.09(1)(c), which makes it unlawful to "advertise any such lottery scheme or device in any newspaper or by circulars, posters, pamphlets, radio, telegraph, telephone, or otherwise"; section 849.09(1)(d), which covers anyone who will "aid or assist in the setting up, promoting, or conducting of any lottery"; and section 849.11, which prohibits setting up or promoting games of chance played for money or anything of value.

The sites, the letter says, use "a dual-currency model intentionally designed to disguise real-money gambling", in which players buy Gold Coins bundled with Stake Cash or Sweeps Coins that function "as redeemable wagering credits that can be cashed out for cryptocurrency, gift cards, or cash after minimal play-through requirements", while offering slots, blackjack, roulette and poker, marketing themselves as free, safe, legal "social" entertainment and "promoting large, purported wins through celebrity and influencer campaigns". Operators argue that because the redeemable currency is available without purchase, the model is a promotional sweepstakes, not gambling.

Florida has no licensed online casino market; the Seminole Tribe's Hard Rock Bet is the only authorised online sports betting platform, Covers notes, and The Lines reports that the tribe has opposed sweepstakes casinos. The Lines also points out that Uthmeier, appointed in 2025, faces voters for the first time on 3 November. No public response from the five companies had been reported by Tuesday.

The approach sits within a broader turn against the model. California banned sweepstakes casinos in October 2025, and in 2026 Indiana and Maine followed with statutory bans, while New York extracted $8 million from VGW this month. Kentucky's attorney general sued VGW in June, PlayUSA reports. What Florida has done differently is to move along the supply chain: operators and payment processors in August, advertising platforms now.

The Case Rests on a Lottery Statute Written for Posters and Telegraphs

Section 849.09 is Florida's lottery law, and its advertising clause lists newspapers, circulars, posters, pamphlets, radio, telegraph and telephone before the catch-all "or otherwise". Applying it to programmatic social advertising stretches the language, not the principle. The harder step is upstream. For the advertising clause to bite, the product has to be a lottery or a game of chance for something of value, which is exactly the question the dual-currency model was built to contest and which the Hillsborough court has not yet answered. The letter treats that question as settled. A platform's lawyers will note that it is not, which may be why Florida has written a letter rather than filed a suit.

Google Has Already Written the Rule Florida Wants Enforced

Google's advertising policy for gambling and games already lists "sweepstake casinos" among the examples of games that are not social casino games, and PlayUSA notes that gambling advertisers need whatever licence a market requires. Florida does not license online casinos, so there is none to hold. The demand to Google is therefore less for a new rule than for evidence that the existing one is enforced. That is the familiar weak point of gambling advertising rules on social platforms, and the letter itself names it: the operators' reach, it says, comes through "celebrity and influencer campaigns", which a paid-ads policy does not necessarily touch. The letters ask about "promoting or otherwise advertising", wording broad enough to reach creator content if Florida chooses to press it.

Asking Platforms to Enforce State Law Is the Cheapest Tool Florida Has

Suing five technology companies would be slow and uncertain. A letter costs almost nothing, and a platform told in writing by a state attorney general that carrying an advertiser is a crime has every commercial reason to geo-block the category rather than argue. If the platforms do, sweepstakes operators lose a major acquisition channel in the third most populous US state without any court having ruled that their product is unlawful. That is enforcement by intermediary, and any attorney general with a pending sweepstakes case can copy it.

Florida has sued the operators and the processors. On 23 October it will learn whether the platforms would rather comply than contest the point.