NY State Senator Introduces Bill to Ban Sweepstakes Casinos

The New York state Senator Joseph Addabbo has introduced a Bill into the Senate that aims to prohibit online sweepstakes casinos in the state of New York. 

While traditional real money online gambling is illegal in New York at the time of writing, sweepstakes websites are permitted as there is technically no real money gambling involved.

However, sweepstakes casinos still offer players a way to win real money by wagering Sweeps Coins for Cash Prizes. As a result, they have specifically come under fire in Senate Bill S5935, which has defined online sweepstakes games as “any game, contest, or promotion that…utilizes a dual-currency system of payment allowing the player to exchange the currency for any prize, award, cash or cash equivalents”.

The Bill goes beyond the scope of simply targeting sweepstakes casinos, as it also seeks to punish a sweepstakes casino’s payment processors and affiliate partners as well. These penalties can go as high as $100,000 per violation, as well as causing a guilty casino to lose its gaming license. 

Crucially, Bill S5935 also states that it is not just companies that are liable for the sizable fines.

Investors and board members can also be found in breach of the proposed law, and subject to the same sizable fines as businesses. The Bill comes at a time when many other states in the US are also trying to combat the explosion in popularity of sweepstakes casinos, such as Maryland and Florida. However, there are several stages of debates and additional hurdles that must be cleared before it can be passed into law.

The Social & Promotional Games Association (SPGA), which advocates on behalf of multiple sweepstakes casino operators, released a statement opposing the Bill. Among the numerous criticisms, the SPGA declared the Bill to be  “a colossal waste of government resources”  .