Montana Passes Sweeps Ban
Montana has officially banned sweepstakes casinos after State Governor Greg Gianforte signed off on Senate Bill 555 on May 12th.
The bill comes into effect in October, but major sweepstakes casinos have already pulled out of the state in anticipation of the legislation. Now the others will be forced to follow suit and block access to Montana residents. At the very least they will have to limit Montana to pure social casino status, without sweeps coins or redemptions of any kind.
Several casinos have already taken that approach in states like Ohio, which allows them to give casino-style games to the residents but does require a different set-up where they can only play for fun.
Pure Social Casinos Still Allowed
The Montana bill does include a special exemption for social casinos, saying: “Online casinos that do not allow the use of currency of any kind are not considered a gambling activity and therefore are permitted.”
The Senate Bill was introduced by Republican Senator Vince Ricci and while it doesn’t specifically target sweeps casinos, it does close the loophole they exploit by broadening the definition of real money gambling to include any forms of currency. This could even affect free Gold Coins, which social casinos use for free play.
Senate Bill 555 says: “The term includes online casinos, by whatever name known, which constitute internet gambling and therefore are prohibited. This includes but is not limited to any platform, website, or application that knowingly transmits or receives gambling information, allows consumers to place a bet or wager using any form of currency, and makes payouts of any form of currency.”
