Over the past few years Sweepstakes casinos have been a go to model for players in New York wanting to play slots online. These sites gave players access to top games and were a reliable alternative to offshore casinos. However that has all changed with Senate bill 5935 that was introduced in New York by Sen. Joseph Addabbo Jr which is about banning sweeps gaming platforms and illegal gambling sites. This bill defines sweepstakes casino games with a dual currency system which uses cash prizes and real money. If this legislation passes, operators in violation of this bill will be subject to fines.
However, the legitimacy of sweepstakes casinos differs from state to state and every state has a different view of sweepstakes casinos. After all, sweepstakes casinos were built on existing laws that make operating sweepstakes legal. All of this adds up to a murky mess of confusion for both players who just want to enjoy games.
Hold on, What is a Sweepstakes Casino?
Sweepstakes is a kind of online casino and it operates differently than traditional online casinos.
Ever heard of Chumba or seen one of their ads? It’s a sweepstakes casino.
These sites operate on a dual virtual currency system: gold coins and sweepstakes coins. You can buy gold coins to play games for free. Each time you buy gold coins you are given a certain number of “sweepstakes entries" or sweeps coins than can then be used to play for real money prizes. With gold coins, you cannot win money or cash prizes but through sweep coins you can potentially win real money and convert these coins to cash prizes.
This whole concept was born out of taking existing sweepstakes laws and repurposing them for online casinos . Other gambling sites have used a similar approach. Horesplay uses horse racing outcomes for casino games and Kalshi uses futures trading for sports betting.
Ever Evolving Game in US
However, traditional online casinos are legal in all but a handful of states. For the past number of years sweepstakes casinos have emerged to fill a gap in the market and were designed to operate within the legal sweepstakes framework.
As new states launch their own licensing framework for gaming, we’ve seen sweepstakes sites pull out of those states.
In April, major brands pulled out of NY: Pulsz, B2 brands (McLuck, Hello Millions, PlayFame, Jackpota, Mega Bonanza, SpinBlitz) as well as Blazesoft brands have all discontinued operations in NY.
SlotsFan, who reviews and recommends sweepstakes sites to play at, is monitoring the landscape to update players on the latest developments if and when other brands decide to follow suit.
Players have learned to adapt to a changing market. Just as quickly as sweeps sites were available in New York, most have packed up and are refusing players from the state.
Players Caught in the Middle
While state licensed online casinos are available in a few states: New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Delaware to name a few, if you live outside of those states access to playing casino games online is limited.
So sweepstakes online casinos have addressed the demand outside of states that have a defined legal licensing structure in place. And by all accounts customers are happy with their services.
A look at reviews on Trustpilot for top sites have very positive reviews. Sites like Chumba, Crown Coins, Fortune Coins, and Wow Vegas all have tens of thousands of reviews and all have average ratings over 4.0. That’s pretty darn good.
So while some sites are pulling out of New York, there may be a silver lining for players in that state. When legislation, like bill 5935, is introduced it is usually because of some internal pressure within the state. Hopefully, as players lose access to a certain type of online casino, another one will emerge for players to fill the void. We will have to wait and see what that future looks like.
