Maine Sweepstakes Laws: Rules & Requirements

Maine sweepstakes and submission contests: keep participation free and distinguish chance-based outcomes from genuinely merit-based selection.

Planning a free giveaway or photo/video competition open to Maine residents? This guide focuses on ordinary commercial promotions with free entry, including random drawings and submission contests using judges or public voting. Paid entries or votes, purchase-linked promotions, charitable raffles and regulated prizes need separate analysis.

Editorial review: September 11, 2026. Sources are linked beside the guidance they support. This is an informational overview, not legal advice for a particular campaign.

Chance, value and the format of the promotion

Maine’s general gambling definitions appear in Title 17-A §952. They address risking something of value on a contest of chance or a contingent event, and recognize that chance can materially affect an outcome even where skill is also present.

Use a genuinely free entry route for the promotional drawing covered here. Do not treat a fee, purchase condition or paid voting scheme as a minor variation of the same format.

Sources: Maine Title 17-A §952.

A submission contest is not a paid raffle

Publish judging criteria or the public-voting method before collecting photos or videos. State how ties and ineligible entries are handled as practical safeguards for consistent selection.

Maine has a separate raffle statute covering different persons, organizations, thresholds and online conditions. It is not accurate to describe every raffle as nonprofit-only or to turn those rules into requirements for an ordinary free brand contest.

Sources: Maine raffle statute, for separate formats.

Registration and campaigns open to other states

For ordinary free commercial sweepstakes, the familiar prize-value filing regimes are in New York, Florida and Rhode Island. That does not remove Maine's disclosure and conduct rules described above, or special rules for a different industry or format. See the registration guide and its sources for that distinction.

The state-law directory links to all 50 states and DC. A “void where prohibited” line does not itself define your eligible audience or complete a required filing.

Before opening entries

Use these practical drafting and administration steps alongside the applicable state rules:

• Identify the sponsor, eligible entrants, entry period and advertised prize.
• Explain the free entry method and how winners are selected. For submissions, describe judging criteria or voting stages and tie handling.
• Make advertisements, the form and full rules agree; do not imply an entrant has already won.
• Plan verification, notification and fulfillment, and retain the rules and selection records.

Federal advertising standards also apply. The FTC warns against misleading purchase prompts and prize claims; see its advertising guidance. Tax reporting and channel-specific rules are covered in the national sweepstakes guide.