February Social Casino Market Update
The social casino industry is blowing up in the US, with the market reaching $7.73 billion USD in value in 2024. This is expected to grow to an incredible $13.23 billion USD for 2033!
Such impressive growth draws a lot of interest – and attention – from investors, regulators, players and traditional operators alike! As such, our team has started to compile quick monthly bulletins on the state of the market, new launches, legal updates and more to summarise key developments.
New Social Casinos for January 2025
January 2025 saw the launch of a number of new social casinos, launching into what feels like it’s becoming a very crowded market. But maybe there’s plenty growth left? The new brands hoping to make their mark are Spinfinite, PeakPlay and Gold Rush City.
Spinfinite offers players a relatively small amount of titles at 250+ available games, but these titles come from major software developers including Pragmatic Play, 3 Oaks Gaming, Betsoft and BGaming. As well as this, other draws to this casino include the potential for a very high Daily Login bonus of 5 Sweeps Coins, Gift Card redemptions that start from as little as $10, and excellent value on the available Gold Coin bundles.
PeakPlay’s gaming library is incredibly small at just 50+ titles, but the casino is able to attract players thanks to its low Sweeps Coins requirement for redeeming Cash Prizes, and above all its excellent customer service offering.
While Gold Rush City is largely a Slots-exclusive casino, it offers a huge welcome bonus, and free daily coins to top up players’ coin balances. Redemptions are processed very quickly, and the availability of a mobile app across both iOS and Android devices also ensures that Gold Rush City is able to stand out from its counterparts.
New Sweepstake Casinos Announced for 2025
Whilst not yet live, we are tracking a number of announced launches that have been confirmed for the remainder of 2025.
Sheesh, MeVu and OMG Casino have all been confirmed to launch later in the year, but their exact launch dates are all yet to be confirmed.
Social Casinos in the News
There are a couple of significant news events that have impacted the Social Casino industry.
In February, Google announced that it would be updating its Gambling and Games advertising policy.
Google’s new definition of gambling will take effect in April 2025. As it stands, gambling will be redefined as “both gambling as defined by law under the regulatory framework in the country you are targeting with ads, and to anything that functions in the following way: Staking something of value on the outcome of events or processes determined by an element of chance with the opportunity to win something of value.”
The purpose of this amendment is to remove a series of legal loopholes that allowed advertisers to claim that games are not gambling. On top of this amendment, Google is also contemplating additional restrictions on promoting online gambling, but have not yet made a concrete decision.
In other news, social casino High 5 Games was ordered to pay $25 million to settle a class action lawsuit.
The casino was found by a jury to have breached state gambling laws, as their business model requires players to spend money to purchase virtual currency to be used on the casino’s website. This put the casino in violation of numerous state laws where wagering something of value on a game of chance is classed as gambling.
This lawsuit could have significant ramifications for the social casino industry, which generates revenue through selling virtual currency to its players.
February Wrapup
It appears that regulators and other market participants (i.e. Google) may be pushing for stricter regulations around Sweepstakes and Social casinos that will have a big impact on how the industry develops going forward…
For now, operators seem unfazed and the size of the prize outweighs the potential legal implications with a strong roadmap of new launches planned and announced for 2025.
If you hear of any stories that need to be included in next month’s market wrapup, please do get in touch or DM us on X!
