Online Gambling Bill Tracker

The US online gambling industry is dynamic and rapidly expanding. Most new forms of gambling require new legislation at the state level. This page concerns itself with bills to expand iGaming (i.e., online casino and poker) and iLottery in the US. That includes efforts in New York, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland and New Hampshire.

iGaming Legislation – Quick Links

Last updated: June 2023

• Gambling expansion and the US legislative process
• 2023 gambling expansion summary
• Active bills by state
• States to watch
• Timeline of US gambling expansion
• Gambling legislation FAQ

Online Gambling Expansion & The US Legislative Process

Part of the reason the industry is changing so quickly is that legal online gambling in the US is a very new concept. Prior to the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) of 2006, the US was essentially a gray market. Afterward, five years of black market activity followed (mostly from online poker sites), prior to the 2011 crackdown known as Black Friday.

It was only at that point that efforts to legalize online gambling began, with New Jersey being the first to launch a full-featured online gambling market. Nevada and Delaware followed suit in a more limited fashion. However, it wasn’t until the repeal of the Professional and Amateur Sports Betting Act (PASPA) in 2018 that the online gambling effort gained steam in other states. The list now includes Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Michigan, as well.

This state-by-state process is the other reason for the complexity of the US market. Aside from partial prohibitions – like the UIGEA, PASPA and the Wire Act – the federal government has little to say about gambling, leaving it to the states to decide. The result is that the picture is very different in one part of the country or another. Even states which offer the same array of products have their own policies and quirks, different tax rates and licensing structures, and so on. Here’s a breakdown of the repeal of PASPA’s impact two years later.

The decision by a state to legalize or not is therefore not just a “yes” or “no” question. Rather, it entails a lengthy discussion about how gambling will be conducted in the state, and who will have access to the market and on what terms.

2023 Online Gambling Expansion Summary

There’s reason to believe that online gambling legislation may produce some success stories in 2023. Foremost among these is a return to comparative normalcy following the pandemic years.

Although the pandemic is ongoing, it is neither as intense nor as unfamiliar as it was before. Even in 2022, iGaming bills faced an uphill battle because legislators had more pressing matters to attend to. Now, federal COVID relief funding is starting to dry up. At the same time, the loss of tax revenue from retail gaming over the past three years has highlighted for many states the advantages of having a regulated online market.

However, there are still major challenges facing the industry, some of these self-inflicted. The much faster expansion of legal US sports betting led to aggressive marketing campaigns by the top operators, who are now facing public pushback. These are the same companies that also offer online casinos where possible. So, far from holding the door open for online casinos to follow, sportsbooks may have inadvertently slammed it in their face.

Indiana, New Hampshire and Maryland have iGaming bills on the table this year. Kentucky and New York are looking at online poker, and the latter will probably consider online casinos when the time comes to pass a budget. Illinois is now considering two different versions of its Internet Gaming Act, but the lack of buzz coming from the sponsors may bode poorly for its chances.

Active Online Gambling Bills By State

Legislative sessions have begun, and efforts to legalize online casinos and poker are underway.

We’ve given every state here a momentum rating. These represent our mostly-subjective assessment of the state’s chances to pass the current bills under consideration, or something substantially similar, within the current legislative session. The ratings are as follows:

• O – Success! The bill has already passed.
• A – Bet on it! Support is widespread, all major problems have been addressed, and the bill should pass easily.
• B – Favorable momentum. The effort has mainstream support, but some hurdles remain.
• C – Uncertain prospects. The effort may be complicated, or simply new. Too early to call.
• D – Headwinds. The effort has encountered substantial challenges that make it unlikely to succeed.
• X – Dead in the water. Either the bill is officially dead, or key stakeholders have indicated they see no way to proceed.

Kentucky

Bill Numbers: HB106
Momentum Rating: X

Kentucky’s champion of online poker legalization, Republican Adam Koenig, lost his re-election bid. However, three Democrats have taken up the effort in his absence.

Like Koenig’s many efforts over the years, HB106 attached online poker to an effort to legalize sports betting in Kentucky. Poker, on its own, would not be a sufficiently large source of revenue to warrant attention. On the other hand, online casinos would be a bridge too far for conservative Kentucky. At the moment, the state lacks even retail casinos.

Koenig said at various times that he would drop online poker from the bill if that’s what it took to pass sports betting. Ultimately, that’s what happened.

A fellow Republican, Rep. Michael Meredith, filed a separate sports betting bill to compete with the Democrat effort, which didn’t include poker. It ended up passing, which is effectively a death knell of the prospects of online poker in the state. There won’t be enough interest to warrant a separate online poker bill in later years, and comprehensive iGaming bill including both online poker and online casinos is probably at least a decade away.

Indiana

Bill Numbers: HB1536
Momentum Rating: X

Indiana had been considered by many to be the most likely state to succeed with an iGaming effort in 2023. Unfortunately, it proved to be one of the year’s quickest failures.

An early draft of the bill circulated in December 2022. Some changes were made before it appeared in the House. The proposed tax rate became 20% rather than 18%, and more money would go to addiction services.

The bill’s sponsor was Rep. Ethan Manning, a Republican. He and industry analysts were optimistic about its chances, but Senate President pro tempore Rodric Bray has said he was opposed to the effort.

The bill had until Feb 27 to cross over from the House to the Senate, but that deadline came and went, and Indiana will have to wait for another year.

Illinois

Bill Numbers: HB 2239 (new language), SB 1656 (companion to HB 2239), HB 2320 (refile of 2021-2022 bill)
Momentum Rating: C-

Illinois took until February to begin its latest push to legalize online casinos. Rep. Edgar Gonzalez Jr. and Sen. Cristina Castro introduced a pair of bills to their respective branches of the legislature. One week later, Rep. Jonathan Carroll introduced a competing bill in the House.

Both versions of the bill use the name Internet Gaming Act (IGA).

The language of Carroll’s draft matches the 2021-2022 effort, which he co-authored. That proposal includes a 12% tax rate, which would be the lowest in the country. It also mandates a six-month in-person registration period.

Meanwhile, the new version of the IGA presented by Gonzalez and Castro has a 15% tax rate, matching that of sports betting in the state. Licensing fees would be higher under their version, but online registration would be available from the day the market launches.

It’s too soon to have any sense of whether either bill stands a chance of progressing. However, analyst sentiment going into the legislative session was pessimistic and nothing has happened that would change that.

Maine

Bill Numbers: LD 1777
Momentum Rating: C

Maine’s online casino bill appeared on the scene in April, just as most industry analysts were preparing to call the year a write-off.

Sen. Linda Supica’s LD 1777 would extend the state’s existing online sports betting law to allow the four tribes in the state to offer online casino games as well. There’s one catch, which is that Maine hasn’t even launched mobile sports betting yet.

From a regulatory standpoint, that could actually make things easier, aiming for a simultaneous launch of iGaming and online sports betting in 2024. However, given that Maine lawmakers didn’t want to legalize online casinos alongside sports betting in 2022, it’s likely that there will be a “wait and see” sentiment until mobile betting is actually underway.

Maryland

Bill Numbers: SB267
Momentum Rating: X (2023), C (2024)

Maryland is a state that looks pretty likely to legalize online casinos eventually. On the other hand, it’s one where the effort is expected to take some time.

The biggest obstacle it faces is a constitutional requirement to hold a referendum on any gaming expansion. It has already cleared that hurdle once for sports betting, in 2020. The question is whether voters will be willing to consider a second major expansion so quickly after the first.

Two Democrat Senators – Ronald Watson and Nancy King – think the time is right. They introduced a bill to put the question on the 2024 general election ballot.

Its deadline to pass in 2023 has now elapsed, but the effort is likely to continue in 2024, so there’s still time before the election.

New Hampshire

Bill Numbers: SB104
Momentum Rating: X

If New Hampshire legalizes online casinos, it will likely be on similar terms to its online sports betting market. It will be a small market, open only to a few operators.

Republican Senator Timothy Lang quietly introduced an online casino bill for 2023. At first, it appeared like placeholder bill, lacking details like licensing fees and a revenue-sharing or tax structure. For that reason, Bonus expected the 2023 effort to be more of the starting point for future conversations than a serious push to legalize immediately.

Instead, the state briefly appeared to be 2023’s most likely contender. The bill has passed the Senate and made it as far as the House Ways and Means Committee, becoming the only effort this year to cross from one chamber to the other.

Unfortunately, Lang had to cripple his bill to get it through the Senate, by removing the possibility of online slots. Despite that concession, it ran into a brick wall in the House, with the Ways and Means Committee’s 20 members voting unanimously to kill it.

New York

Bill Numbers: A1380 (poker), A3634 (refile of 2022 bill)
Momentum Rating: X

Most pundits rated New York as the second most likely state to legalize online casinos this year, after Indiana. Sen. Joseph Addabbo has undoubtedly been a vocal proponent of the idea. He got the ball rolling quickly in 2022, shortly after online sports betting got underway in the state.

There’s no lack of industry support for the idea, as New York is a “Holy Grail” state for online gambling due to its high population, average income, and liberal inclinations. Unfortunately, many of Addabbo’s fellow lawmakers were reluctant to consider further gambling expansion just one year after online sports betting. Bidding for downstate casino licenses is currently underway, compounding the “gambling fatigue.”

In the end, it became clear that 2023 would not be NY’s year for iGaming.

States To Watch For Online Casino & Poker

Not every state with an active bill is likely to see it pass. Nor is every state without one a lost cause. Here we look at some states whose legislative sessions aren’t in session, or which don’t currently have an active bill but are part of the conversation regardless.

Naturally, the longer a legislative session runs without a bill appearing, the less likely it becomes that the state will pass one in the current year. However, we’ve seen “buzzer beater” efforts in the past, such as Michigan’s midnight hour push in 2019. There are also times when the political will is there to pass a bill, but circumstances don’t allow it in the current year.

Here, too, we assign each state a momentum rating, similar to but more forward-looking than those for the active bills.

• A – Legislation imminent. The state will almost certainly see a bill either in the current legislative session or the next one, and that bill should have a good chance of passing.
• B – Favorable momentum. There is significant support for the idea and a bill is likely in the current legislative session or the next, though there’s no guarantee it will pass.
• C – Uncertain prospects. There is a conversation happening in the state, but also significant obstacles. It’s too early or too complicated to predict whether a bill will appear. If one does, it will face further challenges.
• D – Headwinds. There has been a conversation about the prospect, but there are too many hurdles at the moment for it to be likely that a viable bill will appear.
• X – No chance. An effort has recently been defeated or insurmountable difficulties have arisen. Barring a miracle, no bill is possible in the current or upcoming legislative session.

California

Momentum Rating: X

California is both Holy Grail and Swamp of Despair for online gambling expansion. It’s wealthy and liberal, and has numerous gambling options already. Almost everyone wants to see gambling expansion happen, as it would more than double the total population participating in the US iGaming market. And yet there are simply too many competing interests for it to happen, despite multiple efforts over recent years. Adding to those difficulties is the constitutional requirement to hold a referendum on any proposed gambling expansion.

2022 saw a huge, expensive push for sports betting (whether retail or online). It resulted in two ballot measures which both failed spectacularly. With war chests depleted and egg on their faces, it’s virtually impossible that California gambling expansion advocates will have another kick at the can this year. The effort is likely to resume in 2024, when the general election provides another opportunity for ballot measures. However, given how big a lift sports betting is proving to be, it’s unlikely that anyone will try to push online casinos through at the same time.

Florida

Momentum Rating: X

For a brief moment in 2021, it appeared that Florida had a chance to break into the iGaming space within a few years. A compact to enable mobile sports betting in the state had been agreed upon by the Governor and Seminole Tribe, and one of its provisions promised additional negotiations for iGaming within 36 months.

However, several members of both the House and Senate refused to ratify the compact on the basis of that clause. As such, it was struck out, a move that bodes very poorly for Florida’s potential for online casinos. Worse still, even the state’s sports betting market has run into legal trouble. Until that battle has finished playing out, the odds of online casino legislation are nil.

Iowa

Momentum Rating: B

Iowa online casino legalization is a bit of a dark horse in the iGaming race. It hasn’t been part of the conversation much to date, yet there’s no reason it shouldn’t be, particularly if neighboring Illinois manages to get a bill through first.

However, Iowa is a state whose legislative schedule follows a two-year cycle. Since online casinos would be a revenue generation engine, such discussions belong in budget years, with their longer legislative sessions. Those are even-numbered years in Iowa, so don’t expect to see a bill in 2023.

Thankfully, Iowa sports betting is already available.

Massachusetts

Momentum Rating: C

Massachusetts had mixed success in 2022, managing to legalize sports betting while failing to pass an online lottery bill. Licensing hearings for the new sports betting market are currently underway.

What we’ve seen in other states is that a successful sports betting effort often gets the discussion started for iGaming expansion. However, we’ve yet to see an iGaming bill pass immediately after sports betting. Massachusetts may well follow that pattern, meaning that we would see the ball get rolling this year but not much chance of such an effort reaching the finish line right away.

North Dakota

Momentum Rating: D

North Dakota was not on anyone’s radar as a potential state for online gambling until 2021. Tiny, conservative, and far from other states with legal iGaming, there was nothing going for it.

Even so, it made a brief, ill-fated attempt to legalize online poker in 2021. That failed so badly that it seemed that the story would end as soon as it began. However, in 2022, tribes in the state negotiated new gaming compacts with the Governor. They tried to secure the rights to offer online sports-betting statewide. Although they didn’t get that, they did receive permission to offer online casino gaming and sports betting within the boundaries of their own reservations.

That’s a far cry from passing an online gambling bill. However, it indicates that Governor Doug Burgum is not entirely opposed to the idea, which may open the door to having a conversation about the possibility of statewide online gambling at some point in the future.

Ohio

Momentum Rating: C

Ohio has just launched its online sports betting market, which puts it in the same basket as New York and Massachusetts. Although online casinos don’t have a champion here to the same extent as they do in the Empire State with Sen. Addabbo, it’s quite likely that this is the year we see them come up as a topic of conversation in the legislature.

Timeline Of US Online Gambling Expansion

The history of US online gambling is too long and complicated to detail in full here. Instead, we have provided a simple timeline of successful legislation and launches of online casinos, online poker, and online instant lotteries.

You can click the link to any particular state’s page to get more info about how exactly the process played out.

2011

• New Jersey passes its first online casino bill, but then-Governor Chris Christie vetoes it due to concerns he wants addressed.
• The U.S. Department of Justice clarifies that the Wire Act applies only to sports betting and would not impede other forms of online gambling.

2012

• Georgia launches the first online lottery in the US.
• Delaware passes a bill to allow online casinos and poker rooms to operate in partnership with the lottery.

2013

• New Jersey passes a revised online gambling bill, and NJ online casinos and poker rooms launch later the same year.
• Nevada passes an online poker bill, and NV online poker rooms launch later the same year.
• Delaware online gambling gets underway.
• The Kentucky Lottery Board approves the idea of an online lottery. No legislation is needed.

2014

• Michigan launches its online lottery, including instant games.

2015

• Delaware, Nevada and New Jersey enter a compact for multi-state poker.

2016

• WSOP launches the first interstate poker network under the 2015 compact.
• Kentucky launches its online lottery.

2017

• New Hampshire and Pennsylvania pass online lottery bills.

2018

• New Hampshire and Pennsylvania launch their online lotteries.
• Pennsylvania passes an omnibus gambling expansion bill, covering online casinos, poker and sports betting.
• The Department of Justice attempts to reverse course on the Wire Act, sparking a legal battle.

2019

• Pennsylvania online casinos launch, followed a few months later by the state’s first online poker room.
• West Virginia and Michigan pass omnibus gambling expansion bills, covering all three major verticals.
• Rhode Island’s successful sports betting bill contains provisions that also enable the lottery to go online.

2020

• West Virginia online casinos launch, but no poker rooms appear.
• Rhode Island’s online lottery launches.
• Virginia passes an online lottery bill.
• The Washington D.C. Lottery Board quietly passes emergency rules for online instant games.

2021

• Michigan online casinos launch, followed a week later by the state’s first online poker room.
• Virginia and Washington, D.C. begin offering online instant lottery games.
• The First Circuit Court of Appeals affirms a lower court’s ruling that the Department of Justice’s revised Wire Act opinion is invalid. Interstate gambling compacts remain legal.
• Connecticut legalizes sports betting and iGaming. Its online casinos and sportsbooks launch on Oct. 19 after a fairly swift bureaucratic process.

2022

• New York online sports betting launches, and Assemblyman J. Gary Pretlow is quick to opine that online poker and perhaps casinos could be next.
• Sen. Joseph Addabbo introduces an online casino bill in the New York Senate. Poker is implicitly included.
• Rep. Adam Koenig resumes his push for sports betting and online poker in Kentucky, with a bill very similar to the one which failed in 2021.
• Indiana introduces an online casino bill, which quickly fails.
• North Dakota tribes ask for online gambling privileges but receive permission only to conduct such activities on their own land.
• Michigan joins the Multistate Internet Gaming Agreement and sets the stage for poker sites to begin sharing traffic as of the beginning of 2023.

2023

• Indiana introduces a second online casino bill.
• New York introduces an online poker bill.
• Maryland considers adding an online casino measure to the 2024 general election ballot.
• New Hampshire starts discussing online casinos.
• The online sports betting effort resumes in Kentucky, with online poker once again coming along for the ride.

Online Gambling Expansion FAQ