We read PackDraw's terms of service in full on 22 October 2026 to answer one question: what states is PackDraw legal in? The terms are the rules every player agrees to at sign-up. They answer it faster than any forum thread can.
PackDraw's terms name 23 places whose residents may not use the site or open an account, and the United States is one of them. So by PackDraw's own rules, no US state is open. Not California, not Texas, not New York.
That is the short answer, but it leaves a lot out. PackDraw still runs a US version of its site. A US company is part of the group behind it. And no court has decided whether sites like it count as gambling.
What states is PackDraw legal in, by its own terms?
None. The terms define a list called Restricted Territories. It says residents of the places on the list "may not access the Website or register an Account on it". The list runs from Afghanistan to Yemen. The United States sits near the end, spelled "Amrica" in PackDraw's own text.
There is no state-by-state list, because the whole country is restricted. PackDraw names no state that it allows. It used to have a page at packdraw.com/restricted. That address now ends on a "page could not be found" error, so the terms are the place to check.
Two more details matter. The rule is about where you live, because the terms bar residents. And the terms set the minimum age at 18, or the age of adulthood where you live if that is higher.
Why does PackDraw still look open to Americans?
If you live in the US, PackDraw does not look closed. It runs a US English version of its site at packdraw.com/en-us. Its footer names PackDraw US, LLC, a company registered in Delaware. And when we captured its homepage for our review, the packs at the top included ones for the NHL, NFL and MLB.
BetterChecked, a third-party review site, spotted the same gap. It says the US "is restricted in the Terms but is still the biggest market."
The code behind PackDraw's pages even holds a message for blocked states: "Access from your state is currently not permitted due to local regulations." That suggests PackDraw can block single states. But it does not publish which ones, and we have not tested it from a US connection.
PackDraw is busy, too. We recorded 116,773 Pokémon pulls (cards players got from packs) there in the 7 days from 15 to 21 October 2026. That counts only pulls worth $1 or more, because PackDraw's live feed hides the cheaper ones. Our records hold no player locations, so we cannot tell you how many of those players live in the US.
What can happen if you sign up from a US state anyway?
We have not tried to sign up from the US, so we cannot say what the sign-up page does. But we can tell you what the terms allow. A US resident who opens an account breaks those terms from day one. These are the powers the terms give PackDraw to check for a breach, or to act on one:
- Ask for ID. PackDraw can ask at any time for documents "to determine Your identity and location".
- Hold your money. Until you send them, it can restrict "deposit or redemption functions". Redemption is PackDraw's word for taking value out.
- Close the account. It can close or suspend an account that is "in breach of these Terms".
- Void the prizes. If it closes or suspends an account, it is "entitled to cancel and void any prizes" in it.
PackDraw does not have to use any of these. But the ID clause names deposits and cash-outs, so a cash-out is where a check would hold you up. We have not run a deposit or a withdrawal on PackDraw ourselves. Our PackDraw review says so, and it notes that withdrawals are the most common complaint in PackDraw's public reviews.
A few more lines in the terms matter if something goes wrong. Curaçao law governs them. A dispute goes to PackDraw's support first. If it is not settled in 30 days, you agree to try arbitration (a private hearing outside the courts) under Curaçao law before you sue. And the terms name no gambling licence, so there is no regulator to complain to.
What state law says, and what no court has decided
PackDraw's terms are one question. What US state law says about it is another, and that has no clear answer yet.
Most states look for three things together when they decide what gambling is. You pay. Luck decides what you get. And you can win something of value. In our reading, a pack site ticks all three on paper. Against that, PackDraw's homepage says "You always walk away with a real, authenticated product." Whether getting an item every time makes a pack a sale rather than a bet is the part no court has settled.
We last checked state by state on 11 October 2026. We found no court ruling, state lawsuit or formal state warning against any online pack site over gambling. Some new laws could still matter. California, for one, has banned online sweepstakes games since 1 January 2026. Its ban covers games that use two kinds of coin, imitate gambling and award cash or cash equivalents. No court has applied it to a pack site.
For the wider picture beyond PackDraw, our state-by-state legal guide has a law note for all 50 states and Washington, D.C. It also covers the court cases other sites tie to PackDraw.
Which pack sites are open in your state instead?
PackDraw is the odd one out. Of the 30 pack and box sites we review, only PackDraw bars the whole US in its terms. Of the rest, 14 take US players with no state limits in their rules, among them Packs.com, Collector Crypt and Phygitals. LastPack and Packz block only Nevada.
Each of those has a full review. Our pack site comparison lines them up on sell-back (selling a card back to the site), cash-out and published odds. Like PackDraw, every one of them has a house edge, which means players lose money on average. Only spend what you are happy to lose.
Questions people also ask
Is PackDraw legal in California?
PackDraw's terms bar every US resident, Californians included. California's own ban on online sweepstakes games has been in force since 1 January 2026. It covers games that use two kinds of coin, imitate gambling and award cash or cash equivalents. A game must do all of these to fall under it, and no court has applied it to a pack site.
Is PackDraw legal in Texas?
Not by PackDraw's own rules, which bar Texans along with every other US resident. When we checked on 11 October 2026, we found no Texas law that names pack or box sites.
Does PackDraw's ban cover Canada or the UK?
Neither country is on the restricted list in PackDraw's terms, so its own rules do not bar people who live there. We have not studied Canadian or UK law on pack sites, so we make no call on either.
Can I use a VPN to play PackDraw from the US?
A VPN, an app that hides where your connection comes from, would not fix the problem. The terms bar residents, and a VPN does not change where you live. The terms do not mention VPNs by name. But they let PackDraw ask for documents that show where you are, and hold a cash-out until you send them.