What Player Counts Reveal About the Rise of Sweepstakes Casinos

Sweepstakes casinos have been one of the fastest-growing entertainment sectors of the US in recent years. They now have a larger player base than the locally licensed online casinos of the six regulated states do. That is almost certain. 

Player counts in this sector are difficult to measure because sweepstakes casino operators do not report users in the same standardized way as regulated sportsbooks or public gaming companies. A “player” can mean a registered account, an annual visitor, a monthly active user, a purchaser, or someone who has redeemed prizes.

That distinction matters. A platform with millions of signups may have a much smaller number of active monthly users, while a smaller brand may generate higher revenue from a more engaged audience.

The numbers might not be exact, but sweepstakes casinos are very, very popular in the US. Not quite as popular as sports betting – but close.

This article will take a deep dive into the best estimates of player counts for sweepstakes casinos, and what that shows about them and the US gambling business more broadly.

Rising Player Numbers Reflect the Growth in the Business

One recent survey by the American Gaming Association (AGA) found that roughly 8% of American adults have played at a sweepstakes casino in the past year. That equates to a rough estimate of about 20 million players annually. Which is larger than the population of the Netherlands.

Those numbers mean big revenue. The market grew from $2.6 billion in 2022 to $4.9 billion in 2025. Estimates suggest revenues have grown 60% or more annually between 2020 and 2024 – but that trend did slow considerably in 2025. 

Interestingly, for at least the first few years, the space was hugely dominated by one company – Australian operator VGW.

Today it faces more competition from operators with US connections, who understand the market better. Where in 2022 there were only half a dozen operators in the then-emerging market, there are now 100-plus available in 2026. 

A guide to sweepstakes casinos from comparison resources such as Covers shows how crowded the category has become. Players now compare welcome offers, game libraries, redemption rules, and state availability much like online casino users compare licensed operators.

This increase in the number of resources and online content dedicated to sweepstakes casinos shows the expansion and demand for the player count. 

Comparisons with regulated operators are useful but imperfect. Sportsbooks and online casinos often report monthly active users, unique payers, account logins, or revenue per user in different ways. Sweepstakes casinos are even harder to compare because many are privately held and operate under a different model.

Still, the available estimates suggest that the category has reached enough U.S. consumers to attract regulators, payment companies, affiliates, software suppliers, and mainstream gaming analysts.

One Company Dominated the Space – But That’s Changing

One reason the market has somewhat flown under the mainstream radar is that the sector was dominated by an Australian-based company for several years. At its peak, VGW and its brands Chumba and LuckyLand had captured 90% of the millions-strong US market. 

However, that is no longer the case. While VGW’s brands are still the clear leader, industry data suggests significant numbers of players are moving to new competitors. Including established offshore casino brands like Stake, which have the advantage of an existing global brand presence in other markets. 

Part of that is increasing restrictions on the space. US regulators are increasingly cracking down on the sweepstakes model. A dozen states have pending lawsuits or legal challenges against sweepstakes operators – and some have banned them completely, including California, Connecticut, New Jersey and Michigan. 

The first state to enact a full ban was Montana in October 2025, and New York was the last to do so that year. Half a dozen other states have bills pending in 2026. 

As the most high-profile operator in the space, VGW has been handed the biggest legal and financial burden from these restrictions. Other operators have also been hit with some massive fines and settlement fees, including $25 million from High5 Games in Washington State. 

Legal Pressure Could Slow Player Growth

Clear 2026 player-count data is not yet available, but legal pressure is likely to affect growth. When large states restrict access, operators lose potential signups, returning users, and paid coin purchasers.

That does not automatically mean the whole sector will shrink, because remaining states and new operators can offset some of the loss. It does mean that raw player growth will become harder to maintain than it was during the early expansion phase.

With big markets like California and New York dropping off the books overnight right at the end of the year, it’s hard to see 6% growth in revenues across 2025, making up for that loss going into 2026. Those two markets alone will account for millions of customers. 

Game and tech suppliers are also getting nervous. One big developer, Pragmatic Play, took all of its games out the sweeps market in late 2025. That was after it was named in a lawsuit in California against operator Stake.us. 

As for VGW, it has had an interesting 12 months to say the least. After founder Laurence Escalante took the company back into private ownership for $3.5 billion last year, he resigned just months later. Then the story broke that he had been arrested on burglary, assault and drugs charges in his hometown of Perth, Australia. 

However, the company still made $4 billion in revenue in 2025 and had at minimum millions of players across its brands, so it’s not going anywhere anytime soon.

Aside from the sheer number of players, one interesting thing crops up in surveys of sweepstakes casino players. They almost all, around 90%, view it as gambling. That’s despite the narrative the business has focused on, which is that the model is legally and socially distinct from gambling.

However players view them, it is clear that the increasing regulatory and legal pressures are getting to the sweepstakes casino market. Just two years ago, they were the hot topic at gambling business conferences, trade shows and meetups – but now that hype has almost been entirely replaced by prediction markets. 

If this rapid rise and now seeming fall shows anything, it’s the huge demand for online casino gambling (or something like it) across the US.

The customers of sweepstakes casinos and offshore casinos might not entirely overlap, but you would be naïve to think that shutting down sweepstakes casinos in a state won’t drive at least some customers to offshore sites. Some of them, like Stake.us, even share branding. 

The bigger lesson is that sweepstakes casino demand did not appear from nowhere. It reflects a gap between consumer interest in online casino-style entertainment and the limited number of states with licensed online casino markets.

If more states restrict sweepstakes casinos without offering regulated alternatives, some users may move to licensed options where available, while others may search for offshore or less transparent sites.

It is possible that, heading into the second half of 2026, more and more states will ban sweepstakes casinos. But that could well bring the prospect of legalization and regulation back onto the table as customers clamour for a legal alternative.