Sweeps Casino Bans Fail in Arkansas and Maryland
Legislation to ban sweepstakes casinos in Arkansas and Maryland is dead in the water, and now three states have failed to ban sweeps casinos in quick succession.
Mississippi’s recent bill failed due to a late change in the wording to accommodate online sports betting, which caused a terminal disagreement between the House and Senate committees. The Arkansas bill has now suffered a similar fate, with legislators trying and failing to combine legalized igaming with a sweeps casino ban.
Republican representative Matt Duffield filed House Bill 1861 in March. The proposal aimed to make operating a sweepstakes casino a Class D felony and contained provisions to legalize iGaming in Arkansas. Numerous senators objected to combining these two objectives, and Duffield has now withdrawn the House Bill.
No Time for New Regs
There is no time to submit a new proposal in time for this year’s legislative session, and the House Judiciary Committee has suggested that this proposal needs work and consultation before next year’s legislative session, which runs from January to April.
Maryland’s bill, filed in February, got closer to the finish line and passed the third reading in the Senate. It targeted online sweepstakes games and aimed to impose penalties of up to three years in prison and fines of up to $100,000 for illegal operators.
While the bill had substantial support, it didn’t make it through the legislative process in time, and now the legislative session has closed with no resolution.
Eight other bills are still under debate in Louisiana, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Nevada, Florida, and Montana. Numerous casinos have already pulled out of these hot states, but with three bills falling in quick succession, there is a newfound feeling of optimism in the sweepstakes casino industry.
A statement by the Social and Promotional Games Association (SPGA) said: “These three legislative failures in quick succession reflect a growing consensus: lawmakers aren’t buying the hype. These proposals are too broad, unsupported by evidence, and out of step with the public.
“These bills also sought to dismantle an entire ecosystem of legitimate businesses, including game developers, payment processors, software vendors, banks, and more – threatening thousands of jobs and undermining innovation across the economy.”
Could Sweeps Casinos Change Plans?
The bills’ failure could give the top sweepstakes casinos that pulled out of multiple states a reason to reconsider and open up their services to states they considered hostile and likely to ban them. New legislation won’t be possible until next year, and the recent failures show there is no guarantee that anti-sweeps casino bills will succeed.
There has been a concerted campaign against sweeps casinos in 2024 and 2025, with Maryland among several states to issue cease-and-desist letters and take action against casinos. But the tide may now be turning, as the legal processes meant to ban them entirely fall time and again under scrutiny.
We’ll keep you updated as the news happens.
