Chavdar Vasilev is a journalist covering the casino and sports betting market sectors for CasinoBeats. He joined CasinoBeats in May 2025 and reports on industry-shaping stories across the US and beyond, including legislative debates, market...
Read Full BioStake.us, one of the most popular sweepstakes casinos in the US, has lost another wave of content providers in California, with the exits coinciding with a lawsuit by the Los Angeles City Attorney and the state’s push to ban the model entirely.
New Exits: Booming, Fat Panda, Just Slots, and Live88
When CasinoBeats checked the Stake.us lobby this week, we noticed that titles from Booming Games (24 games), Fat Panda (17 games), and Just Slots (6 games) were unavailable in California.
Notably, the same titles remain live on competing platforms, such as WOW Vegas and McLuck in California. That indicates that the withdrawal is limited to Stake.
Those 47 titles add to the already unavailable Evolution and Pragmatic Play titles. They include 586 games by Pragmatic Play, 95 titles by NoLimitCity, 60 slots from Red Tiger, 45 games by Big Time Gaming, and 34 by NetEnt.
That equates to nearly half of Stake’s 1,861 available slots. However, while there are still almost 1,000 available, those restricted to California residents are among the most played, based on what Stake shows for active users.
The removal of games is not only slots. The live dealer section also took a hit as four titles from Live88 are no longer available in California. Together with Evolution’s withdrawal of 14 live dealer games, that means 18 out of the 30 options in the lobby are restricted.
Live88’s losses are particularly significant. At the time of review, its blackjack game had 251 active players across the US. That’s about eight times more compared to the 32 playing the second-most popular blackjack game by Iconic21.
Legal Pressures Mounting
The timing suggests legal developments are driving provider decisions.
While sweepstakes casinos have faced a growing number of class action lawsuits, including about a dozen in California, a recent case filed by Los Angeles City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto has likely spooked the content providers.
The lawsuit names Stake and its founders. It also names Kick Streaming, Evolution (and its subsidiaries), and Hacksaw Gaming as defendants. It directly challenges the legality of sweepstakes casinos, alleging violations of state gambling laws and consumer protection laws.
In this case, Soto became the first US official to take direct legal actions against sweepstakes casinos. The move appears to have rattled international suppliers, some of whom are now pulling content rather than risk becoming entangled in the case, and this is likely resulting in several international suppliers being unwilling to take on the liability.
Sweeps Ban Bill Nears Finish Line
The legal uncertainty surrounding sweepstakes casinos has led lawmakers in multiple states to consider prohibiting these platforms. California is one of them, with Assembly Bill 831 recently passing in the Senate. The bill would explicitly prohibit dual-currency sweepstakes casinos.
The proposal now awaits concurrence in the Assembly, where it sits in the Committee on Governmental Organization. It returned to the House because the Senate amended it, including the provision banning sweepstakes. Initially, the bill dealt with state and tribal gaming compact timelines.
If the Assembly concurs with the Senate and Governor Newsom signs the bill into law, operators like Stake.us would have to cease operations in California.
That would be a significant setback, as the state would join five others that have banned the platforms this year. However, losing access to California is especially critical. An Eilers & Krejcik report indicates that the state accounts for 17.3% of the US sweepstakes casino market.
