Look at any list of Indiana casinos and you’ll see many classic riverboat casinos on Lake Michigan and the Ohio River. But what are the different kinds of Indiana online gambling options? The state legislature announced the legalization of sports betting in Indiana in 2019, but there have been no moves to introduce online casinos in the state.
So if you are looking for a real money online casino Indiana may not seem to have a lot of options. But there are some great social and sweepstakes casino gaming options available. Read on for more info.
Indiana had a blanket ban on all kinds of gambling for well over a century. The 1851 Indiana constitution banned lotteries and this extended to all other kinds of gambling. However, in the 1980s efforts were made to try and open up the possibility of legal gambling. While there was plenty of opposition, the state eventually saw a limited number of legal casinos being constructed.
The majority of these were riverboat casinos. The full list of Indiana casinos currently contains nearly a dozen brick-and-mortar gambling establishments. These are focused around Lake Michigan in cities such as Gary, Hammond, Michigan City, and East Chicago. More of these riverboat casinos can be found on the Ohio River in cities like Florence, Lawrenceburg, and Rising Sun.
There are also a couple of racinos and a Native American casino in Indiana. While all of these physical casinos offer an adequate range of gaming options, there is still a real hunger for real money online casinos Indiana’s gamers can legally use. Luckily, this is where social and sweepstakes casinos come in.
The Online Casino Gaming Legal Situation in Indiana
While there is a decent list of Indiana casinos, the state has never legalized online gaming. As a result, the situation is currently similar to what you’d find with Massachusetts casinos. This means that there’s nothing stopping you from playing at a brick-and-mortar casino. But if you wanted to try some Indiana online gambling of anything other than sports betting, then your options would be severely limited.
This is because Section 35 of the Indiana code makes it a felony for an operator to provide unlawful games. So, if you were looking for a real money online casino in Indiana, you'll soon find that there are zero licensed options. However, there is nothing stopping you from playing at a social or sweepstakes casino.
The Mobile Casino Gambling Situation in Indiana
The mobile casino gambling situation in Indiana is exactly the same as if you were playing from a desktop or laptop computer. This means that you might not find any licensed operators from Indiana, as the state currently outlaws online casino gaming in all of its various forms. As a result, you won’t find any licensed Indiana online casinos who offer mobile gaming or gaming apps.
But this doesn’t necessarily mean that things will always be this way. After all, a quick look at the list of Indiana casinos reveals the fact that there is a vibrant physical casino gaming scene in the state. Plus there is ongoing deregulation across the country that have seen multiple states opening up their legal gaming options.
With the success of legal online gambling everywhere from New Jersey sportsbooks to West Virginia online casino sites, it’s surely only a matter of time before people in Indiana can look forward to playing slots and table games from a tablet or smartphone.
History of Gambling in Indiana
Indiana first made moves to legalize gambling in 1988. This saw voters passing a constitutional amendment that lifted the ban on state lotteries. As a result, the Hoosier Lottery was established. From here other forms of gambling were introduced such as pari-mutuel betting in 1989.
Much of the 1990s was spent grappling over legislation to facilitate casino gaming to boost revenues in some of the state’s more economically disadvantaged areas. After much legal wrangling, this led to the creation of riverboat casinos on the Ohio River and Lake Michigan.
In addition to this, there was the introduction of racetrack betting at establishments like Indiana Downs and Hoosier Park. Such establishments became racinos just over a decade ago when they were allowed to include thousands of slot machines.
Further amendments were made to the state legislature in 2015 that allowed riverboat casinos to move onto land-based facilities. The changes to the law were introduced to try and help the current list of Indiana casinos to stay competitive with those in neighbouring states. Plus there has been the gradual introduction of Native American casinos in cities like South Bend.
But the biggest change came in September 2019 when sports betting was legalized in Indiana. This brought the state up to speed with the likes of West Virginia sports betting. As a result, all of Indiana’s casinos, racinos and off-track betting establishments could apply for a sports betting license.
This significantly broadened up the range of Indiana online gambling options. But as yet, for a real money online casino Indiana’s gamers would have to wait until the state catches up with other states.
Alternative options: Is it legal to use Indiana social casinos and sweepstakes casinos?
While there are lots of online casinos in the US, you can’t wager real money at any of them if you are based in Indiana. Don’t worry – the authorities aren’t just singling out the Hoosier State, as the same is true for most other US states.
The good news is that there is nothing stopping you from playing at any of the many Indiana sweepstakes casinos and social casinos. This is because these gaming sites don’t actually feature anything in the way of gambling, because you can only play for free.
As a result, you can play at these online social casinos and sweepstakes anywhere from Indianapolis to Muncie, Carmel and beyond. Obviously, you’ll have to be the minimum age to play at these sites, which is usually around 18 years old.
We should note that we’ll be reviewing each of the social and sweepstakes casinos that accept players from Indiana. This way, we’ll be sure that they are acting legally in letting you play for free and that they can take good care of your data.
Social Casinos: An ideal substiute to real money online casinos
We’ve seen plenty of awesome social and sweepstakes casino sites arriving on the scene in recent years. These give you a fun and friendly way to play a variety of online casino games, but without wagering with real money. As such, these social casinos won’t have to have all of the required licensing and regulation of real money casino sites.
The fact that you can’t make real money wins at social casinos might seem like a bit of a downer. But they are still a good way to get a little more expertise on how you play slots and table games. Plus many of these social casino sites have lots of cool features that make these games great fun to play against friends online
Plus it has to be said that visiting these social casinos is a lot more convenient than traveling to many of the gambling establishments featured in our list of Indiana casinos. So until Indiana changes its mind about online casino sites, we think that social casinos could be a great option.
Hopefully, Indiana will fall in line with other states soon in regard to legal online casino gaming. After all, the state already has well over a dozen excellent physical casinos, and we can’t wait to see what Indiana’s first legal casinos will look like.
What are Indiana sweepstakes casinos?
Sweepstakes casinos are those online gaming sites where you can play for free and enter sweepstakes competitions where you have a chance of winning a prize.
If you go to any Indiana sweepstakes casinos, you’ll usually get the chance to play online slots and table games, and just taking part is enough for you to be entered into the sweepstakes competition. After all, you won’t win any prizes as a result of your gaming – as that would be considered to be too close to regular gambling.
Sweepstakes casinos usually feature two kinds of virtual credit that you use instead of real money. One of these will be called something like ‘gold coins’ and it simply lets you play for free, while the other will often be called something like ‘sweepstakes coins’ and they give you the chance to win prizes.
You can purchase gold coins, but you can only obtain sweepstakes coins as a result of things like promotions, as well as a bonus for purchasing gold coins.
Our favorite social casinos and sweepstakes casinos in Indiana
What can you win from Indiana sweepstakes casinos?
We’ve seen some impressive prizes coming out of Indiana sweepstakes casinos everywhere from Fort Wayne to Bloomington. Most of these sites let you win some kind of gift card that you can then redeem at the relevant retailer. However, other sweepstakes casinos will let you win branded merchandise. We’ve even seen some sweepstakes casinos serving up cash prizes.
Remember that these prizes are given away only for you playing with a particular kind of virtual credit that lets you enter into the promotions. Such virtual credit is usually called something like ‘sweepstakes coins’. It has no cash value and cannot be purchased or transferred, but it can be redeemed for some very welcome prizes.
So just as a reminder, here is a quick overview of some of the different prizes that we’ve seen being redeemed from sweepstakes casinos in Indiana:
Gift cards
Branded merchandise
Cash prizes
How do you play at Indiana social casinos?
Social casinos are great fun and you can start playing them right away. You can be based anywhere in Indiana and you will have to be 18 or over. If you can manage all of this, you should be ready to play anywhere from Evansville to South Bend!
The first thing you have to do is to pick any of the new sweeps casinos from our shortlist. You’ll then have to create your user account, which usually means providing some basic personal information like your name, address and date of birth.
Once your account has been verified, you should find that you have lots of free credit to play with. This credit can simply be used as stakes for your gaming. Now you can either play the games on your computer or you could download one of the apps for social casinos so that you can play from a smartphone or tablet.
Here’s a quick reminder of just how easy it is to play at a social casino from Indiana:
Create your user account
Verify your identity
Get your free credit
Start playing!
Why Indiana social casinos are so good for promos
All of Indiana’s social casinos love to put on sweeps casino promo codes. These deals work wonders to give you lots more credit to play with. You’ll always have to do some tasks to get your promo credit, but don’t worry as it’s usually pretty easy!
Here are just some of the promos that you can get at social casinos from Indiana:
Stake.us: The top social and sweepstakes casino available in Indiana today
Now you know all there is to know about the legal position of social and sweepstakes casinos in Indiana, it's time to take a look at our recommendation - Stake.us.
The sweepstakes casino is legally available across the state and allows you to play for fun or real cash prizes. Gold Coins can be used to play across all casino titles, while Stake Cash can be used to play promotional games and used to enter competitions. The gaming portfolio has over 300 titles, covering slots, table games, scratchcards, and live games, as well as a dedicated section for Stake originals. These Stake originals are designed by the in-house team and offer exciting takes on games like Keno, video poker, and Plinko.
Getting started is extremely straightforward and you will be able to register by entering a few basic details or by linking your social media account. Before you confirm your details, we suggest inputting our exclusive promotional code. In doing so, you'll unlock 5% Rakeback on all casino losses. Once verified, you'll also have the chance to make use of the daily login bonus - a bonus that gifts you a varied amount of Gold Coins and Stake Cash, depending on your previous day's activity.
Alongside bonuses and gaming opportuntites, Stake.us also boasts solid support, mobile accessibility and the chance to walk away with prizes. To convert your Stake Cash into vouchers, merchandise or digitial currency, you'll need to meet the minimum withdrawal value and play through your Stake Cash three times.
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Conclusion: Finding your top alternative to real money online casinos
Although real money online casino action is strictly prohibited across the state, a compelte casino experience is still very much on the cards. With this in mind, we suggest heading back to CaptainGambling and making your way through our dedicated social and sweepstakes casino reviews, in order to discover your preferred place to play. As they fall under different laws to real money online casinos, you'll be able to play legally with the chance to walk away with some top prizes. Our personal recommendation is Stake.us and we've got an exclusive promotional code to help add to your experience, too.
Indiana Online Casino FAQ
What is the best casino site in Indiana?
There is no definitive answer to this question as online casino gaming is still illegal in Indiana. But judging from how other states operate, we’d expect that Indiana’s gaming fans should have lots of impressive options in the future. This is because many other states feature dozens of fun, safe and legal online casino sites.
When will legal casino gaming in Indiana open?
At the moment, there are no plans to open up Indiana online gambling in terms of casino gaming. Indiana has a fairly conservative approach to matters like gambling, and it is unlikely to change its mind anytime soon. However, people in Indiana can take online sports bets in a way that is ahead of the current Massachusetts sports betting options. All of which provides plenty of hope that people Indiana may eventually get to enjoy legal online casino gaming.
When will online gambling become legal in Indiana?
Indiana online gambling is already fully legal in terms of sports betting. This is thanks to an act that passed in September 2019. However, there is still no indication as to when Indiana online gambling in terms of casino gaming will get fully legalized.
Where can I play using my mobile device?
The vast majority of new legal online casino sites will provide their customers with a safe and easy way to play via a smartphone or tablet. You can usually just play at the operator’s site directly from the browser of your mobile. However, many online casinos will also give customers the opportunity to download an app for an iOS or Android device. Such an option gives you an even more efficient and convenient way to game on the go.
Who is responsible for regulating Indiana online gambling?
The Indiana Gaming Commission aims to operate a regulatory framework by which operators can provide customers with a fair and safe online gambling experience. Any site with an IGC license will therefore be fully regulated for legal and transparent Indiana online gambling.
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