In most states, playing online slot machines for real money is illegal. However, a group of companies known as Sweepstakes casinos found a way around the law to allow users to play classic casino games online.
Their revenues have increased 10 times in the last five years, and now with Ryan Seacrest, Drake and Michael Phelps, it is large enough to have ads. However, they think that states like New York and Maryland have recently thought of restricting them and there are billions of tax dollars. However, the gap used by the lottery casinos complicates the ability and desire of the states to move.
That gap? The “Purchase Required” rule that distinguishes a legal lottery from an illegal lottery.
If you have played McDonald’s Monopoly promotion, it is a rule you may be familiar with. If you missed it, that’s how it worked: during the promotion, some menu items came from the monopoly game board with special “game part labels”. They can be traded for prizes such as a free hamburger or cash amount. The switch is that you do not buy the coins directly; They came with you buying Fries. And in order to be fully described as a lottery, McDonald’s had to allow you to take the jets that he did not need to buy ”.
Sweepstakes casinos sell a valuable online money, usually called gold mine coins, rather than selling fries. (You can use the coins as a game for the game, but they cannot be used for prizes.)
And instead of the monopoly coin, your purchase will win you Another The currency is usually known as cash. This “cash” is usually equivalent to the dollar. So if you spend 100 dollars for gold mine money, you will get a lot of lottery in cash. Then this is what you can use to gamble in games such as blackjack or roulette, and returns the gains to the dollar.
In addition, you can get a small amount of lottery cash money reflecting the same lottery rules that McDonald’s promotion will follow. By adding extra layers to the process, the lottery casinos have practically made legally online gambling in the states that banned online gambling.
There is a lot of demand for this. Sweepstakes casinos first appeared in 2016 and folded estimated 8 billion dollars in annual income.
Keith Miller, Professor of Drake University Faculty of Law, He compared the lottery casinos to other rapidly growing companies while working in legal areas: “As Uber did. They said that we are only completely legal and that we do not need to be arranged.”
There are currently at least one major drawing casino operating in 47 states. Most states did not take action, but since 2024, at least 10 deputies in the states, the lottery brought the legislation to close the legal distinction used by casinos to operate.
In an e -mail, Ryan Bailey Social and Promotional Games Association He said that the lottery casinos were a misunderstanding that online casinos are re -branded ;; Instead, they use a different model that has been built around the promotional participation, not gambling and not gambling, not gambling.
Play-a-mole playing
In New York, where state law prohibits the game of online casino, the state senator Joseph Addabbo Jr. Recently, he introduced an invoice to ban the lottery casinos. “We are not talking about hamburgers,” he said. “We’re talking about online gambling.”
But the legislation has difficulties. Mr. Addabbo Jr. Despite the sponsor of the bill, the legislative process would be kullan a cumbersome and slow way to deal with it ”. The State Game Commission or State Chief Public Prosecutor said it would be “more efficient”.
Organizers do not have excellent execution options. The lottery casinos do not have a game license to be canceled. And if a state Chief Public Prosecutor operates illegal, the draws of the lottery may claim that they operate with the same rules as all other legal drawings.
Professor John Holden, who wrote extensively on the history of gambling at the University of Indiana, compared the current situation with “Whac-A-Mole playing”.
“Let’s say you have prepared a new law targeting this lottery casinos,” he said. “What if someone finds something new?
The lottery casinos are not unique in testing the limits of gambling laws.
Most of the state restricts slot machines, but at a state fair, it allows prizes to be won in “Skill Games”, such as throwing basketball on a pulley. In Pennsylvania, many gas stations now “Skill -based nest machines. “Most aspects are like all other slot machines, but with an additional“ skill ”item, such as the user’s clicking a symbol that matches to make money.
The share of the pot
MPs in most states have not been active in chasing after the lottery casinos.
“If I pass a law, I want it to have an impact, I want to be executed to have an impact, Professor Professor Holden said, Professor Holden. “New resources should be applied and it is a bit difficult to see that it has a great return.”
It can be seen that states with strict gambling laws will be the most aggressive laws of restraining in lottery casinos. The opposite is true; States legal Online gambling with more incentives to ban the lottery casinos.
The lottery does not pay gambling taxes – thanks to the space they use to avoid classification as gambling. There is no loss for states that prohibit gambling online.
New Jersey, Connecticut and Maryland allow online casino gambling. This year, all three of them brought laws that prohibited the lottery casinos of government deputies.
In 2019, when Michigan passed a law that legalized the online casino game, the Michigan Game Control Board gained research power that provides unlicensed gambling. State in 2023 A lottery casino This was still accepting customers in Michigan.
Michigan Board Chief of General Staff Kurt Steinmamip says that the license system helps to adapt to consumer protection regulations. In addition, when residents play online gambling in Michigan, the state allows the state to see its share of income.
“Companies operating in the land market or gray market compete directly for income with licensed organized organizations, Ste said Steinkamp, Stekamp said. “And this certainly affects tax dollars.”
Online casino gambling in Michigan is a big job. In 2024, the state won approximately $ 450 million tax revenue compared to $ 147 million collected from online sports gambling. This relationship applies to almost all states that allow both types of gambling.
Some state deputies found the legalization and arrangement of online gambling more attractive than trying to eliminate all online gambling types. Deputies Arkansas Last week, he launched a legislation to legalize online casino games and also banned the lottery casinos.
As for the lottery casinos, they will need to stay where most states are not to follow the arkansas or New York, but to stay where they are.
Additional work Alicia Parlapiano
