Online Gambling in Utah
Utah’s laws prohibit the majority of gambling kinds, including both real-life playing and online options. Bingo, lottery, and sports betting are forbidden in the state. Utah online gambling is also not allowed. Online casinos, in general, and online poker, particularly, are illegal in the state as well.
However, despite such strict prohibitions, there are several exceptions. Social and sweepstakes casinos are not covered by prohibition laws. They are safe options for players to try their luck and get an experience as close as possible to real money casinos. Fantasy sports are one more lucky exception to Utah’s gambling laws. Fantasy sports, social, and sweepstakes casinos are self-regulated by operators, without any state or federal oversight that could be obligated to monitor their work.
| Gambling type | Legal | Gambling age | Who regulates |
|---|
| Online casinos | No | - | - |
| Social casinos | Yes | 18+ | Self-regulated by operators |
| Sweepstakes casinos | Yes | 18+ | Self-regulated by operators |
| Bingo | No | - | - |
| Lottery | No | - | - |
| Online poker | No | - | - |
| Sports betting | No | - | - |
| Fantasy Sports | Yes | 18+ | Self-regulated by operators |
Best Sweepstakes Casinos in Utah Reviews
While online casinos are prohibited in Utah, sweepstakes and social casinos are great alternatives. They let you enjoy a real casino experience and win real money. At the same time, you avoid any issues with the law and can play in top Utah online casinos as easily as in usual online casinos.
Stake casino welcomes Utah players over 21 years old. It has more than 3,000 games of different kinds. Stake, of course, gladly offers a variety of slot games to Utah gamblers. Aside from that, the casino offers many different table games, most of which feature live dealers. These games include but are not limited to roulette, baccarat, blackjack, poker, pachinko, sic bo, and hilo. Stake also has a separate section for Burst Games.
Stake.us can clearly be among the best sweepstakes casinos in Utah, offering a generous game selection and high bonuses as well. The welcome bonus in this sweepstakes casino is 250,000 Gold Coins and 25 Stake Cash. Daily bonus of 1 Stake Cash is also among the biggest. The interesting feature in this casino is an open live chat for players. Customer support options include FAQ, an AI agent, a live operator by request, and email.
Pros
- Variety of table games with live dealers
- Generous welcome bonus
- Chat for players
Chanced offers players over 700 casino games. In addition to the slot games, there are live casino games such as baccarat, roulette, crash, and more live dealer games. Chanced also has several original titles, available only for players of this casino.
The welcome bonus in this UT casino is 300,000 Gold Coins and 2 Sweep Coins. However, it’s available only after account verification. After that, you also get access to the daily bonus, which is 20,000 Gold Coins and 1 Sweep Coin.
The casino regularly offers new challenges you can participate in, with a chance to win big. If you need support, live chat with a real human (not an AI bot) is available. The average answer is within 5 minutes, and it’s really so fast.
Pros
- Both slots and table games available
- Variety of challenges
- Live chat support
Real Prize Casino has more than 700 games to offer. This casino, of course, offer you to play slots and has variety of them. Real Prize is among live dealer casinos and to play table games such as poker, roulette, baccarat, and others are available on the casino site.
The welcome bonus in this casino is 100,000 Gold Coins and 2.00 Sweeps Coins. To get it, you have to sign up on the site and verify your phone number. You also can also get a daily bonus of 1,500 Gold Coins and 0.3 Sweeps Coins by logging in on the site every day.
The pleasant feature is that Real Prize has an official app available on the App Store. To get the support, you have to submit a request on the casino site.
Pros
- Slots and table games for your choice
- Developed VIP program
- Official app for IOS
Cons
- Priority chat support available for VIPs only
Start of Your Gambling Way
There’s nothing complicated about signing up and starting to enjoy a variety of games in a top sweepstakes casino. However, let’s take a brief overview of this process to understand exactly what you should expect. The whole process has just a few steps:
Sign up
You can sign up with your email, as on any site on the web. Sweepstake casinos often offer you the option to sign up with other services, such as Google, Facebook, Apple, and others, depending on each particular casino.
Verify your profile
Some casinos don’t require verification immediately after registration, and you get your welcome bonus and can start playing right after logging in. Some other casinos require you at least verify your profile with a phone number after verification.
Choose a game and enjoy
Did you create an account and verify it? Congratulations, now you can enjoy all the games the casino of your choice can offer you.
Don’t delay verification for too long. The sooner you address it, the sooner you can redeem your winnings, and sometimes profile verification can take up to several days.
Anastasia Pierce, Content Team Lead
Try Best Casino Apps Available in Utah
Smartphones offer a wide variety of services and leisure, and sweepstakes and social casinos are among them. Of course, the majority of the gambling sites have proper mobile adaptation, so you don’t feel the difference in convenience, no matter if you are playing using a laptop or your phone. However, the casinos are still glad to provide their players with mobile apps. In such a case, you can play anytime you want, no matter where you are. We prepared a list of the best Utah casino apps you can try.
| # | Casino App | Google Play rating | Apple Store rating | | Best for | Platform | |
|---|
| 1 | | Google Play rating 4.6/5 | Apple Store rating 4.7/5 | | Best for betting | Platform | |
| 2 | | Google Play rating 4.0/5 | Apple Store rating 4.0/5 | | Best for bonuses | Platform | |
| 3 | | Google Play rating 4.1/5 | Apple Store rating 3.6/5 | | Best for variety of games | Platform | |
| 4 | | Google Play rating - | Apple Store rating 4.6/5 | | Best for payments | Platform | |
| 5 | | Google Play rating 3.0/5 | Apple Store rating 3.9/5 | | Best for payouts | Platform | |
Variety of Bonuses and How to Get Them
Utah online casino bonus can have different kinds. It’s quite pleasant to get some extra GC and SC, so here we made the list of the bonuses at sweepstakes casinos along with ways to get them.
Sign up & First Purchase Bonus
In the best Utah online casino sites, you get the first bonus right after signing up. Sign up bonus is the way the casino welcomes you to its site. One more bonus is coming up, multiplying SC on your first purchase. These are first bonuses, but definitely not the last ones.
No Deposit
This type of bonus you get without making any purchases. For example, sign up bonus from above is also no deposit. However, it’s not the only kind of no deposit bonuses. Promotions in social media and daily/weekly/monthly events can also bring no deposit bonuses.
Daily Login
If you log in each day, the casinos usually reward you with daily login bonuses. Take in mind that lon in don’t mean playing every day. You can just log in to get your bonus, and spent coins you collected later.
Refer-a-friend
Of course, the casinos are glad when you recommend them to someone and reward such recommendations with bonuses. However, you get bonus coins only after your friend make a purchase on the casino site.
Most Popular Online Casino Games in Utah
The best UT online casino sites can offer a variety of casino games, including both app-based and live dealer versions. The list below provides a little more information about the most popular casino games.
Online slots
These are the most popular among real money games at Utah online gambling sites and across the U.S. This game has developed and gained popularity as an online version. It’s pure luck whether the symbols line up and make you win. Online poker
Was one of the most popular games from long ago, and became even more popular online, especially when casinos offer a live-dealer version for a real experience. In poker, there are many possible combinations of cards that can bring you victory, so it is worth a try. Online baccarat
This is one more extremely popular table game in Utah and other states as well. In this game, you need to get 9 points or as close to them as possible. Baccarat is interesting to play both on the app and with a live dealer. Online roulette
This game is one of the casino symbols. You can choose to bet on the particular number and color, or just some colour, evens or odds. The drop of the ball will show if your bet will win.
Payment Methods for Utah Players
Online gambling sites in Utah offer different payment methods for making deposits. If you want to know what exactly casinos have for you, the information below is for you. The methods differ, but all are safe regarding your finances and personal information.
- Credit/debit cards. This methos rather don’t require explanation. If you ever made a purchase with your credit or debit cards via the internet, the process in a casino is the same. The best online casino in Utah always offer their players the option to use cards for payment.
- E-wallets. Skrill and Neteller are the most popular options of this kind. If you have one of those, then payment will be easy. Cainos in Utah often offer e-wallets as payment options, so you can make a deposit.
- Google Pay/Apple Pay. These well-known payment methods are welcome in many Utah casinos. No wonder that when Google and Apple accounts can be used for signing up, Google and Apple Pay can be used to make a purchase.
- Cryptocurrencies. Crypto has become popular and widely used around the globe, so it’s no wonder it can be used as a payment method at Utah online casinos. It’s safe, like others, and often one of the fastest payment options that casinos can offer.
Are There Legal Online Casinos in Utah?
Real money online casinos aren’t legal in Utah. The state generally has strict gambling laws that makes most forms of gaming forbidden for Utah residents. However, sweepstakes and social casinos remain the exception and are allowed in the state.
Discover Utah’s Gambling Laws
As mentioned earlier, Utah is one of the strictest states regarding gambling laws. Among other reasons, the state’s religious background plays an important role in such strict prohibitions of gambling options. According to Utah Code 76-9-1402, all forms of gambling are illegal. Moreover, the state got preemptive legislation in 2012. According to it, Utah will automatically opt out of any federal online gambling legalization.
Hence, online casinos are completely illegal in Utah. All forms of poker, including online and even home games with financial stakes, are illegal. Sports betting is completely illegal. Bingo is prohibited, including charitable ones. Sweepstakes and social casinos operate legally because they use virtual currency instead of real money.
Online Poker
There is no legal way to win money or play online poker in Utah using real wages. This means you can’t log on to a betting site, use cash or credit to make a deposit or win real cash prizes through online poker. The solution is to use a sweepstakes poker website like Global Poker.Daily Fantasy Sports
Daily Fantasy Sports are a legal way to gamble, although it’s not technically considered gambling by definition. In Utah, the definition of gambling is betting money when the outcome is based on “chance.” However, since selecting a fantasy football team, baseball team, or other sports team and betting on their outcome takes skill, Utah players can download the DraftKings app and place bets online.Sports Betting
Unfortunately, sports betting, unlike daily fantasy sports, is still outlawed. That’s because betting on the outcome of a win doesn’t take skill if you’re not taking the time to select players from your favorite team based on skill. While popular DFS sites operate separate sportsbook sites, like DraftKings and FanDuel, players in Utah cannot access the online sports betting side of the app or website.Online Horse Betting
While horse betting was once legal in the state, it currently remains outlawed both in-person and online. Other states allow for retail horse betting, which means players can place bets while within a racetrack, this isn’t the case with Utah. You can find a handful of smaller race tracks with live horse races, but you won’t be able to bet on the outcome of these horses winning. Doing so is illegal.
Utah, along with Alabama, Alaska, Hawaii, and Nevada, is one of five states without a state lottery. The only state with fewer legal options than Utah is Hawaii, which has a total gambling ban. Other states, however, have much fewer legal restrictions against gambling.
Tax on Gambling Winnings
You can wonder how it is possible that the state in which almost all gambling activities are banned can have taxes on gambling winnings? The answer is clear and short. Taxes in Utah apply to out-of-state winnings as well. So, if you win in a sweepstakes casino or any casino beyond Utah, you still need to pay taxes on your winnings. The rules are the following:
– All gambling winnings must be reported to IRS (24% withholding, up to 37% top rate).
– Winnings taxed at Utah’s flat rate of 4.50%.
Keep that in mind after playing to avoid tax issues in Utah.
Is Legalization of Online Gambling in Utah Possible?
Utah is highly unlikely to legalize online casinos in the future. The state law explicitly outlaws all forms of gambling, and the religious backgound of the state only support such laws. As for the latest news, there were some attempts for legalization, but they did’t succeed.
In March 2025, Senate Bill 156 attempted to introduce pari-mutuel betting on horse racing. Senator David Hinkins sponsored the bill, arguing that betting on horse racing was different from casino gambling and more like stock market investing. However, the proposal failed to pass on March 7th, 2025, reinforcing Utah’s strong anti-gambling stance.
In January 2026, Joseph Elison from Washington County is proposing a new bill for later this month that would make proposition betting illegal in Utah by amending the criminal code to clarify that “a proposition bet falls within the definition of gambling”.
There is no realistic path toward online casino legalization in Utah in the foreseeable future, and recent legislative activity has focused on strengthening gambling restrictions rather than loosening them.
No Land-based Casinos in Utah
Since Utah gambling laws strictly prohibit the majority of gambling activities, the players in the state can’t enjoy land-based casinos. While in some other states physical casinos are allowed in Native American reservations of Native Americans, in Utah such an exception doesn’t work. Hence, social and sweepstakes casinos, along with fantasy sports are the only options for Utah Gamblers.
Choose Responsible Gambling
All recommended Utah online casinos support responsible gambling. Sweepstakes and social casinos are created for people to have fun and try their luck, not cause problems. However, sometimes the desire to play can cause some issues. To prevent that, you can follow a few simple rules:
- Make strict limits on money
- Choose a limited period of time to play
- Don’t hesitate to ask for help as soon as possible
The casinos support these steps, allowing you to decrease your account limit immediately, while you can increase it only after a few days. You can also block your account for a day to a week period to take a pause.
Conclusion
Utah has a prohibition on the majority of gambling types, including online casinos, bingo, lottery, online poker, and sports betting. Despite the laws against gambling, fantasy sports, sweepstakes, and social casinos are allowed in Utah. They offer experience, close to real money casinos with a variety of games, including live dealer options. The casinos also have many bonus options to attract new players and reward the loyalty of regular ones. Playing in sweepstakes casinos in Utah can be fun, just keep in mind to play responsibly.
