Best Minnesota sweepstakes casinos in 2025

You can sign up at sweepstakes sites, but the state does not authorize them

If you open a sweeps casino account from within Minnesota, most of the platforms will let you through without hesitation. You will probably be able to purchase coin bundles, use sweepstakes entries within those bundles, and submit redemption requests. Nothing in the sign-up process verifies whether you are complying with Minnesota’s rules because the platforms rely on their national sweepstakes system rather than on anything built by Minnesota.

To understand why this access doesn’t align with Minnesota’s legal stance on gambling, it’s important to understand how the state approaches the issue:

In most U.S. states, gambling is only legal if not explicitly banned. Minnesota does the opposite. The state works under the assumption that gambling is illegal unless a law explicitly says otherwise.

You will see this legal approach when you take a little look at Minnesota Statute § 609.75 (Gambling; Definitions) and Minnesota Statute § 609.76 (Gambling; Gross Misdemeanor; Felony).

The statutes define gambling in a wide frame and then list only a few activities that receive permission. Listed, you will find charitable gambling, the state lottery, tribal gambling under compacts, horse wagering and a narrow form of social games. But you will never find anything involving online play. And that missing piece becomes important once you compare it with what you actually do on a sweepstakes platform.

As Minnesota has yet to pass legislation authorizing online gambling, it simply it not permitted as a matter of default.

For clarification, we can refer to Minnesota Statute § 609.755 (Gambling; Misdemeanor). This statute classifies paid participation in chance-based outcomes as betting. As such, if you use paid entries that can be converted into money, Minnesota considers you to meet the criteria in § 609.75, deeming the entire sweepstakes setup a form of gambling similar to unlicensed operations.

What “illegal” means for you as a sweepstakes casino player in Minnesota

When you see Minnesota place sweepstakes platforms inside the gambling statutes, the obvious question comes up right away. You want to know whether this affects you personally or whether the state directs its attention elsewhere. And you need both sides of the picture before you can draw a conclusion.

According to Minnesota Statute § 609.755 (Gambling; Misdemeanor), the state defines betting as paid participation in games of chance. If you use paid entries that can turn into money, you match that definition. The law focuses on the activity, not your identity. Minnesota has already used this interpretation to apply it to sweepstakes platforms in general.

But if you look at how Minnesota enforces the law, you’ll see a different pattern. In reality, the government focuses on the companies instead of the players. In June 2025, the Department of Public Safety sent warning letters to the operators. In November 2025, the Attorney General sent cease-and-desist letters to the same group. The letters were sent to the companies, not the people using the sites.

This results in a split. Your activity is included in the definition the law provides, but Minnesota has shown no interest in going after individual users. You are not at risk of being charged with a crime based on anything the state has done so far. What you face now is different. If a platform locks your account, delays a redemption, or refuses a payout, the state cannot help you. The state of Minnesota does not approve of the model. This means that you are operating without any rules to follow.

And that is the part that matters most. The risk you carry is practical, not criminal. You rely entirely on the operator’s internal decisions when something goes wrong, because Minnesota cannot do anything for you inside this unlicensed space.

Minnesota has started flagging sweepstakes casino activity

Once you understand how Minnesota structures its gambling laws, the state’s actions in the year of 2025 fall into place. Minnesota did not treat sweepstakes platforms as a settled issue before this. The state formed its position recently, and it did so through direct contact with the companies involved.

In June 2025, Minnesota’s Department of Public Safety, via its Alcohol and Gambling Enforcement Division, issued warning letters to a total of 14 sweepstakes operators (Angel, 2025). In the letters, the agency informed the companies that their business model might violate three Minnesota statutes (including one already we mentioned above):

§ 609.75 (Gambling; Definitions), § 609.755 (Gambling; Misdemeanor), and § 609.76 (Gambling; Gross Misdemeanor; Felony). The warning focused on two specific elements: the use of paid entries and the ability to redeem outcomes for money. According to the agency, these elements match the gambling definition in § 609.75.

The sites addressed include well-known ones such as VG LuckyLand, Zula Casino, and Fortune Coins. But at this point, nothing really happened.

As the year went on, we saw Minnesota begin to take a more direct position. In November 2025, Minnesota’s Office of the Attorney General sent cease-and-desist letters to the same 14 operators (Office of the Minnesota Attorney General, 2025).

In those letters, the Attorney General explained that the platforms’ dual currency setup brings together prize, chance, and consideration, the exact same combination listed in Minnesota Statute § 609.75 (Gambling; Definitions). The Attorney General then instructed the companies to stop serving Minnesota users, since the model does not fall within anything currently authorized by the state.

How Minnesota treats social casinos

Once you understand how Minnesota classifies sweepstakes platforms, the next question is usually about social casinos. You can find them all over the place, they look pretty similar at first, and you can play without having to spend any money. The million-dollar question is whether Minnesota treats them the same way.

If you take another look at Minnesota Statute § 609.75 (“Gambling; Definitions”), you’ll see that the definition is made up of three parts: prize, chance, and consideration. A social casino lets you buy in-game currency, but that currency isn’t worth anything in the real world. There’s no cash prize. Without that element, the model doesn’t meet the definition of gambling under Minnesota law.

Everything else falls into place from there. The Department of Public Safety didn’t mention social casinos in their 2025 warnings. They also never appeared in the Attorney General’s cease-and-desist letters. The state doesn’t see them as gambling, so they’re not subject to the same enforcement framework as sweepstakes platforms.

This makes things very simple for you. If the platform never gives you a way to make real money, you’re not following Minnesota’s gambling rules. The state doesn’t really say anything about social casinos, but it doesn’t stop them either. It treats them as entertainment, nothing more.