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Maryland’s Lottery and Gaming Control Commission ordered SpeedSweeps and Cashoomo on Nov. 2 to immediately stop unauthorized online gaming activity in the state. The commission said its review found both operators offering online casino games, poker and sweepstakes to people physically present in Maryland.

Each company was told to respond by email within 10 days, confirm it would stop offering those products in Maryland, and provide an operations-termination date and wind-down plan. The nearly identical notices also warned that failure to comply may jeopardize an operator’s eligibility for a future Maryland license, registration or certification.

The commission’s position is that the sites’ offerings meet all three elements of gaming: consideration, chance and prize. Maryland law makes gaming illegal unless it has been expressly authorized, and the commission determined that neither operator’s offerings were authorized.

Maryland currently permits real-money online wagering only through commission-licensed mobile sports wagering and commission-registered fantasy sports competitions. Maryland Lottery and Gaming says no other form of real-money online or mobile gaming or wagering is operating legally in the state.

In March legislative testimony, the Maryland Lottery and Gaming Control Agency described consideration, chance and prize as a player paying to play for a chance to win a real-money prize. It also said online real-money games of chance, including poker, slots and prize-bearing sweepstakes games, are not authorized in Maryland.

The agency has been sending cease-and-desist notices to operators of illegal online games, and said about 25% of recipients had voluntarily blocked Maryland access to their games. But the commission can determine whether gaming is legal and send notices without having direct enforcement authority against operators that ignore them.

Maryland Lottery and Gaming periodically contacts platforms that appear to be operating illegally, asking them to either confirm they are not operating illegally or halt unauthorized activity. Its public cease-and-desist list is not intended to be a comprehensive record of illegal online gaming platforms.

The notices arrived after Maryland’s 2026 effort to legislate specifically around sweepstakes-style gambling did not become law. House Bill 295 failed to advance through the Senate, while a separate proposed measure, House Bill 1226, would have given the attorney general’s Consumer Protection Division authority to issue cease-and-desist orders and pursue enforcement against illegal online gambling.