PrizePicks Minnesota: A Decade of Bills That Never Passed

PrizePicks Minnesota runs in a state that has tried, and failed, to write a fantasy-sports law at least three separate times since 2016. That is not the same story as a ban — nothing in Minnesota Statutes Chapter 609.75, the state’s general gambling definitions, mentions fantasy sports at all. This page covers what that legislative silence actually means, the bills that kept almost fixing it, and why Minnesota’s stalled sports-betting fight is a completely different, and still unresolved, track.

Legal status in Minnesota

Minnesota has no enacted statute that licenses, registers, or otherwise regulates daily fantasy sports. Minnesota Statutes § 609.75, the criminal code’s gambling definitions, does not exempt or even mention fantasy sports contests — DFS is neither authorized nor prohibited by name. Lawmakers have tried to change that at least three times: House File 2426 in the 2015–2016 session proposed a DFS licensing chapter and died; House File 2000 and House File 5274 in the 2023–2024 session would have folded fantasy-sports regulation into a broader sports-betting bill and failed when the session ended May 20, 2024; and in the 2025–2026 session, Senate File 3414 and Senate File 978 revived sports-betting legislation that — in SF 978’s case — explicitly excludes skill-based fantasy contests from the licensing scheme rather than regulating them. None of these bills reached the governor’s desk, and the 2026 session adjourned May 18, 2026 without a sports-betting or fantasy-sports bill clearing either chamber. PrizePicks lists Minnesota as a live real-money state on its own site in the meantime — the product runs in the gap the legislature has left open.

State gambling authority: None. No Minnesota agency currently licenses or registers daily fantasy sports operators. The most recent proposals (HF 2426, HF 2000/HF 5274) would have assigned that role to a state agency, but none of those bills became law, so the role does not exist yet.

Three separate times since 2016, a Minnesota lawmaker has introduced a bill that would put daily fantasy sports under an actual state license. Three separate times, the bill has died before reaching the governor. PrizePicks Minnesota is legal in the sense that matters most to a player opening the app right now — nothing prohibits it — but it is also true that no Minnesota agency has ever signed off on it. Both things are true at once, and this page is about what that actually means.

Is PrizePicks Legal in Minnesota?

Start with what the law actually says, which is nothing. Minnesota Statutes § 609.75 — the criminal code’s definitions of a bet, a lottery, and a gambling device — does not mention fantasy sports contests at all, not to exempt them and not to prohibit them. That is different from a state like Wisconsin, which wrote a specific carve-out, or Washington, which decided fantasy contests fall inside its existing gambling law. Minnesota simply never answered the question by statute, which means DFS here sits in the gap rather than on either side of a line.

No exemption, no ban. Because § 609.75 is silent, Minnesota has neither authorized nor criminalized paid fantasy sports contests by name. PrizePicks lists Minnesota as a live real-money state on its own site, and no enforcement action against any DFS operator is on the public record here.

Four Sessions, Zero Fantasy-Sports Laws

The silence isn’t for lack of trying. House File 2426, introduced in the 2015–2016 session, would have created a standalone DFS licensing chapter — it never passed. House File 2000 and its companion, House File 5274, surfaced again in the 2023–2024 session, folding fantasy-sports regulation into a broader sports-betting bill; both failed when that session ended on May 20, 2024. The 2025–2026 session brought Senate File 3414 and Senate File 978, the latter explicitly defining fantasy sports as skill-based competitions and excluding them from its sports-betting licensing scheme rather than regulating them directly. None of it reached the governor’s desk, and the Legislature adjourned on May 18, 2026 without a sports-betting or fantasy-sports bill clearing either chamber.

The pattern is consistent: DFS regulation keeps riding inside larger sports-betting bills instead of moving on its own, and Minnesota sports betting has its own, unrelated logjam — tribal gaming operators and the state’s horse-racing tracks have not agreed on who controls online wagering. When the bigger bill stalls, whatever DFS language was attached to it stalls too.

Is PrizePicks Legit in Minnesota, If Nothing Regulates It?

Legitimacy here has to rest on PrizePicks itself, not on a Minnesota agency, because no agency has jurisdiction to vouch for it. That is a real distinction from Wisconsin, Missouri, or Colorado players, who get a licensed operator answering to a state regulator with audit and enforcement power. A Minnesota player is trusting the same national company’s decade of paying entries and its licenses in states that do regulate it — not a Minnesota-specific credential, because one doesn’t exist to earn.

Don’t Confuse This With Minnesota Sports Betting

Minnesota sports betting is its own, separate, and also unresolved story. No retail or online sportsbook is licensed here as of the 2026 session’s adjournment without a bill passed. The most recent proposal, Senate File 978, would hand tribal operators exclusive control of mobile sports betting — and it specifically carves fantasy-sports contests like PrizePicks out of that framework rather than bringing them under it. A future Minnesota sports-betting law would not automatically make PrizePicks a sportsbook, and it would not automatically license PrizePicks either; the two questions have stayed legally separate even while they’ve moved through the Legislature in the same bills.

Is PrizePicks Safe to Use in Minnesota?

As safe as a company with no local regulator can be: real corporate history, licenses in states that do require them, and a public real-money offer to Minnesota residents 18 and up — Minnesota is not one of the states where PrizePicks raises its age floor to 19 or 21. What Minnesota does not have is a state commission that can investigate a complaint, fine PrizePicks, or pull a license, because none has been given that authority. That gap is worth knowing before you deposit, not a reason to assume something is wrong. Nothing on this page is a way to make money.

PrizePicks Minnesota — Frequently Asked Questions

Is PrizePicks legal in Minnesota?

There is no statute that says yes, and none that says no. Minnesota’s gambling definitions in § 609.75 don’t name fantasy sports at all, and every bill written to license or otherwise address DFS — 2016, 2024, and 2025–2026 — has died before passage. PrizePicks operates in that silence: not licensed, not banned, and currently taking Minnesota entries.

Is PrizePicks legit in Minnesota?

As a company, yes — a decade of operating history, a real headquarters, and a track record of paying entries elsewhere under actual state licenses. What Minnesota can’t offer is a regulator vouching for it, because none has been created. “Legit” here rests on PrizePicks’ national record, not a Minnesota agency’s stamp.

Is PrizePicks safe to use in Minnesota?

Safer than an offshore book with no US presence, but without the state-level backstop that Wisconsin or Missouri players get — no Minnesota commission can audit PrizePicks’ Minnesota operations, fine it, or pull a license, because it doesn’t issue one. Read the current contest terms in the app and don’t treat the legal vacuum as a promise of consumer protection it can’t make.

Why hasn’t Minnesota passed a fantasy sports law?

The same fight that has stalled Minnesota sports betting has swallowed DFS regulation along with it: tribal gaming operators and horse-racing tracks have not agreed on who controls online wagering, and fantasy-sports language has mostly ridden along inside those larger, unpassed sports-betting bills rather than moving as its own bill. When the sports-betting bill dies, the DFS provisions inside it die too.

Is sports betting legal in Minnesota?

No. As of the 2026 session adjourning May 18, 2026 with no bill through either chamber, Minnesota has no licensed sportsbook, retail or online. That’s a separate fight from PrizePicks — recent proposals like Senate File 978 would license tribal-run sports betting while specifically leaving skill-based fantasy contests like PrizePicks outside that licensing scheme, not inside it.

What age do I need to be to use PrizePicks in Minnesota?

18. Minnesota isn’t on PrizePicks’ list of states with a raised age floor — that’s 19+ in Alabama and Colorado, 21+ in Arizona, Illinois, and Massachusetts — so the standard 18+ minimum applies here.

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