{"id":375958,"date":"2026-08-19T21:48:14","date_gmt":"2026-08-19T21:48:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/375958\/"},"modified":"2026-08-19T21:48:14","modified_gmt":"2026-08-19T21:48:14","slug":"florida-ag-files-lawsuits-against-major-online-casino-platforms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/375958\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida AG files lawsuits against \u2018major online casino\u2019 platforms"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"text | article-text\">TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WCTV) &#8211; Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier is targeting major online \u201csweepstakes\u201d casinos, according to a press release.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Uthmeier filed two lawsuits in Hillsborough County Circuit Court on Wednesday against the operators of these online casinos, including Stake and VGW\u2019s Chumba Casino, LuckyLand and Global Poker.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The complaints allege the defendants are running illegal online gambling enterprises, violating the state\u2019s gambling laws. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">\u201cThese so-called \u2018sweepstakes\u2019 and \u2018social casinos\u2019 are illegal online gambling,\u201d Uthmeier said. \u201cIf it looks like a casino, take real money like a casino, and pays out like a casino, it is a casino-and it is illegal under Florida law. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Uthmeier claims these companies prey on minors and seniors with \u201cdeceptive marketing.\u201d He also says they dodge the state\u2019s licensing, taxation and consumer protection requirements.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The complaints claim the defendants use a dual-currency model designed to disguise real-money gambling. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Players buy packages of \u201cGold Coins\u201d that come bundled with \u201cStake Cash\u201d or \u201cSweeps Coins,\u201d which are used as wagering credits that can be cashed out for cryptocurrency, gift cards or cash, according to the lawsuits. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The platforms have traditional casino games like slots, blackjack and poker and are marketed as free and safe, the complaints claim.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The lawsuit aims to stop the defendants from operating or soliciting in Florida and the forfeiture and recovery of money lost by Florida consumers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">To keep up with the latest news as it develops, follow WCTV on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/WCTV.tv\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Facebook<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/wctvnews\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Instagram<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@WCTVEyewitnessNews\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">YouTube<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/nextdoor.com\/page\/wctv\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/nextdoor.com\/page\/wctv\/\" target=\"_blank\">Nextdoor<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/nextdoor.com\/page\/wctv\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/nextdoor.com\/page\/wctv\/\" target=\"_blank\"> <\/a>and <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WCTV\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">X<\/a> (<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/WCTV\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Twitter<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Have a news tip or see an error? <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wctv.tv\/2026\/08\/19\/florida-ag-files-lawsuits-against-major-online-casino-platforms\/mailto:news@wctv.tv?subject=Correction%20Needed\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Write to us here<\/a>. Please include the article\u2019s headline in your message.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Be the first to see all the biggest headlines by downloading the WCTV News app. Click <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wctv.tv\/2024\/12\/18\/download-free-wctv-mobile-streaming-apps-today\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a> to get started.<\/p>\n<p>Copyright 2026 WCTV. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WCTV) &#8211; Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier is targeting major online \u201csweepstakes\u201d casinos, according to a&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":375959,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,7912,151469,30,29,14590,151468,4260,151467,151465,50776,151466],"class_list":["post-375958","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-florida","tag-florida-attorney-general","tag-florida-gambling","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-gambling","tag-global-poker","tag-james-uthmeier","tag-luckyland","tag-online-casino","tag-online-gambling","tag-sweepstakes-casinos"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/375958","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=375958"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/375958\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/375959"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=375958"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=375958"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=375958"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}