Oklahoma’s ban on online sweepstakes casinos came into force on Sunday 1 November, making the state the latest in the US to outlaw the dual-currency model after lawmakers overrode Governor Kevin Stitt’s veto of the measure in May.

Senate Bill 1589, authored by Senator Brian Gollihare with Representative Kyle Hilbert as principal House author, amends Oklahoma’s criminal gambling statutes so that online casino-style games played for any representative of value, including virtual currencies, are treated as illegal gambling. Operators offering such games to Oklahoma residents now face criminal penalties.

A contested passage

The bill passed the Senate 48-0 on 2 March and cleared the House 65-21 on 4 May, according to the legislature’s own bill record. Stitt vetoed it on 7 May, describing the measure as “vague and overbroad”.

Lawmakers moved quickly to reverse him. The Senate overrode the veto 34-10 on 11 May and the House followed 68-19 on 14 May, after which the bill was filed with the Secretary of State with a 1 November effective date.

Scope and exemptions

The law is aimed squarely at the sweepstakes model, in which players buy one virtual currency for entertainment and receive a second, redeemable currency as a bonus. Trade coverage of the bill notes that liability can extend beyond operators to platform and game suppliers and payment processors, which raises the stakes for B2B companies that have built businesses around the sweepstakes channel.

According to reporting on the final text, tribal gaming conducted under the federal Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, charitable gaming authorised under the Oklahoma Charity Games Act and free-to-play social games without a prize redemption route sit outside the ban.

Oklahoma’s tribal operators, who run one of the largest Indian gaming markets in the US, backed the measure. Supporters argued that sweepstakes sites competed with tribal casinos without licences, taxes or consumer protections. The tribes have been protective of their exclusivity on several fronts this year, including over Kalshi’s tribal prediction apps and their effect on the state’s gaming compacts.

Stitt’s veto message reflected concerns, echoed by some operators and trade groups, that the bill’s language could capture products beyond online sweepstakes casinos. Opponents also argued that the state would be better served by regulating and taxing online gaming than by criminalising it. Neither argument was enough to hold the votes needed to sustain the veto, with both chambers clearing the two-thirds threshold comfortably.

Operators adjust

Most sweepstakes brands were expected to geo-block Oklahoma ahead of the deadline. VGW, owner of Chumba Casino, has told Oklahoma players about a new product called Chumba Spins, which reports describe as running on a pari-mutuel advance-deposit wagering model of the kind used for horse racing rather than on sweepstakes mechanics. Whether that structure holds up under state law has yet to be tested.

Oklahoma joins a growing list of states, including Louisiana, Indiana, Maine and Tennessee, that have moved against sweepstakes casinos, according to industry tallies. The cumulative effect is a steady contraction of the addressable US market for the model, which grew rapidly in states without regulated online casinos.

The ban also narrows the options for suppliers. Game studios and platform providers that have supplied content to sweepstakes operators across multiple states now have to track a patchwork of state laws, some of which explicitly reach the B2B layer. Several large suppliers have already reduced or ended their exposure to the channel as the number of restrictive states has grown.

Enforcement will be the next test. With criminal liability potentially reaching suppliers and payment processors, attention now turns to whether the attorney general’s office or local prosecutors bring early cases to set the tone for the market.

India’s Supreme Court has dismissed review petitions led by Flutter-owned Junglee Games against its May ruling that upheld Tamil Nadu and Karnataka’s bans on online games played for stakes, closing off one of the industry’s remaining routes to restore state-level protection for skill-based real-money gaming.

A bench of Justices J.B. Pardiwala and R. Mahadevan rejected the petitions in an order dated 15 October that was published on the court’s website on 26 October. The court condoned the delay in filing but declined oral hearings and decided the matter on the papers, finding no grounds to revisit its judgment. Several connected review petitions from other gaming companies were disposed of in the same order.

Who challenged the ruling

The lead case was Junglee Games India Pvt Ltd v State of Tamil Nadu and others. Alongside Junglee, review petitions were filed by Games24x7 and Head Digital Works, and by industry bodies the All India Gaming Federation and the Federation of Indian Fantasy Sports, according to reporting by Gambling.com.

The petitioners argued that games of skill form a separate class from games of chance and fall outside the powers of state governments to ban.

What the May judgment held

The court’s judgment of 27 May reversed earlier decisions of the Madras High Court, which had struck down Tamil Nadu’s amendment, and the Karnataka High Court, which had quashed that state’s ban.

It held that once money is staked, the activity amounts to gambling regardless of the skill involved, and that betting and gambling sit outside protected commerce, so no fundamental right to carry them on can be claimed. It also found that states can legislate on public order grounds where online real-money games cause harm, and that the two laws were supported by empirical evidence.

That reasoning was a significant setback for the Indian real-money gaming sector, which for years had relied on the distinction between skill and chance to operate rummy, poker and fantasy products in most states.

Little practical change, but a door closes

The dismissal has limited immediate commercial effect because federal law has already shut the market. The Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act received presidential assent on 22 August 2025 and bans online money games nationwide, including those offered from outside India. Junglee stopped real-money operations in the country the same day.

Before the Act, Flutter had expected India to contribute around $200m in revenue and $50m in adjusted EBITDA in 2025, and Junglee employed more than 1,100 people.

What the review order does is remove the possibility that the state bans might be struck down if the national law were later diluted or overturned. Challenges to the Online Gaming Act itself are being heard separately and are unaffected by the order. A curative petition, an exceptional remedy the court grants only on narrow grounds, is the only step left in the state-ban proceedings.

Wider implications

For international operators and suppliers that once viewed India as one of the largest untapped real-money markets, the combination of a national ban and a Supreme Court ruling that skill does not shield staked games from gambling laws means any reopening would need new legislation rather than a court victory.

The outcome also strengthens the hand of other state governments that may want to legislate against online gaming in future, regardless of what happens to the federal Act.

Rush Street Interactive grew third-quarter revenue by 39% to $385.9m and almost doubled net income, the US-listed online casino and sports betting operator said on 28 October, as it reiterated its full-year guidance.

Net income rose 93% to $28.7m from $14.8m in the same quarter of 2025, while adjusted EBITDA increased 73% to $62.2m from $36.0m, according to the company’s results release filed with the SEC. Adjusted sales and marketing spend came to $54.7m, or 14.2% of revenue.

The figures show profit growing much faster than revenue. Adjusted EBITDA margin widened to around 16% of revenue from roughly 13% a year earlier, and net income margin rose to about 7.4%, as RSI spread its marketing and platform costs over a much larger player base. Management pointed to that operating leverage in its commentary on the quarter.

Users up 42%

Monthly active users across the group rose 42% to 907,881. In North America, MAUs increased 34% to 300,572, a quarterly record for the region. Latin America, which includes Mexico and Colombia, grew faster, with MAUs up 46% to 607,308.

The two regions remain very different in value per player. Average revenue per monthly active user was $309 in North America and $58 in Latin America, reflecting the higher spend of US and Canadian online casino customers.

“Online casino remains the engine of our profitability,” chief executive Richard Schwartz said. On Latin America, he said revenue growth “continues to be strong on both a gross and net basis.” The company said customers who joined during the football World Cup in the summer are continuing to play across its products.

Guidance held

RSI reiterated its 2026 guidance for revenue of $1.56bn to $1.60bn, implying growth of 38% to 41%, and adjusted EBITDA of $245m to $265m, implying growth of 59% to 72%.

The outlook includes only jurisdictions live at the time of the release and assumes current tax structures continue. That includes Colombia’s temporary emergency 16% tax decree, which the company has absorbed into its forecasts rather than assuming relief.

RSI did not break out revenue between online casino and sports betting in the release. The company operates under the BetRivers brand in most US states and in Ontario and Alberta, and under RushBet in Colombia and Mexico.

Alberta and the wider US picture

The company also pointed to Alberta, where it launched more than three months before the results and where management expects a gradual ramp. The Canadian province’s newly regulated market reported C$56.6m in igaming revenue for September in its first official report.

RSI’s growth stands out against a slowing US online casino market. Data covered by ayo.news this week showed US igaming growth slowing to a record-low 12% in the third quarter, as the established states mature.

Brazil, which weighed on several larger operators’ results this quarter, does not feature in RSI’s release, although CDC Gaming reported that the country’s betting turmoil led discussion of the numbers.

What comes next

With online casino the main profit driver, RSI’s growth outlook in the US depends heavily on whether more states legalise igaming, while in Latin America it is exposed to tax changes in markets such as Colombia. For now, a near-40% top-line increase and a sharp rise in profitability put the operator among the faster-growing listed names in the sector.