Battle lines
Sweeps hit back at bills to ban them in Maryland and Connecticut
Maryland, Connecticut bills trigger sweeps anger.
Net and gross deposit limits confusion in the UK.
State-by-state: Georgia moves, Texas boost.
Moratorium effort in Iowa fails.
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At war
Listen up: As Connecticut and Maryland propose to ban sweepstakes casinos, voices from the emerging sector said their attempts to work with regulators are often blocked by powerful lobbyists from the traditional iGaming world.
This week, the Connecticut General Law Committee proposed to outlaw “real or simulated online casino gaming or sports betting” unless the operator is state-licensed.
Bill 1235 singles out online sweepstakes offerings, banning them and slapping on a felony offence for individuals found to be in breach.
In Connecticut, iGaming is exclusive to the powerful Mashantucket Pequot and Mohegan tribes, who are aligned with their counterparts elsewhere in the US in trying to snuff out the sweepstakes sector.
Far and wide: Maryland’s bill is more draconian, banning sweepstakes casinos outright and reaching beyond operators into their support ecosystem.
Suppliers and affiliates face license forfeiture, while the ban extends to payment processors, geolocation providers, and platforms found to be supplying, supporting or promoting social casinos.
Legal experts believe both proposals may serve as a bellwether for legislation in tribal strongholds Florida and California, which do not have language in their books expressly forbidding sweeps and may be the next target of online casino lobbyists.
Recall: Sweepstakes bigwig Virtual Gaming Worlds (VGW) exited Connecticut following a cease-and-desist letter in early 2023; it was the third state to block the platform, along with Michigan and Delaware.
Last year, the main coalition of supervisors from legal gaming states produced model legislation calling for sweeps to be banned.
A Florida federal court is currently hearing a suit in which VGW and major payment processor Worldpay are alleged to have violated laws related to illegal gambling.
Futureheads: Sweeps industry representatives said intense lobbying from “anti-competitive special interests” – read, traditional casino heavyweights – was behind the Connecticut bill, which risked damaging innovation in the online gambling space.
“No legislature should dictate to American adults what they can and can’t do on their phones,” a spokesperson for the Social and Promotional Games Association (SPGA) said.
“Outlawing free-to-play mobile games is a shocking overreach that is an insult to the voters of Connecticut,” the SPGA said. “What app will they come for next?”
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Australia: Rugby-pro-turned-senator David Pocock is pushing for a government investigation into the gambling industry’s influence on public policy, with a report expected by February 25. He argues that industry pressure weakened the government’s response to a proposed gaming ad ban first recommended by late MP Peta Murphy in 2023.
Brazil: Land-based casino legislation under review by lawmakers gained traction with the election of Senate president Davi Alcolumbre, a long-time supporter of legalization. His victory over anti-gaming candidate Sen. Eduardo Girão comes as the Federal Police voiced concerns that the bill could enable money laundering.
Indonesia: Illegal iGaming transactions dropped from $1.28bn in Q1 to $244.5m in Q3, according to the Ministry of Communication and Digital Affairs. The sharp decline follows government initiatives to curb illegal online gambling activity.
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State by state
So lay your cards down, down, down, down: Proponents of sports betting in Texas received a boost after Gov. Greg Abbott said in a newspaper interview that he has no objection to the legislature passing a bill.
Talking to a Houston Chronicle podcast, Abbott said: “I don’t have a problem with online sports betting.”
“The reality is that I’d be shocked if there were not some Texans that do it already.”
How much such a statement moves the dial is up for debate given Lieutenant Gov. Dan Patrick’s long-standing opposition.
University of Texas at San Antonio political science chair Jon Taylor told local media that Patrick’s opposition was “both religious and political.”
“The Republican party of Texas still opposes gaming in any form."
Separately, a poll conducted by the Hobby School of Public Affairs at the University of Houston said the majority of Texans were in favor of legislating for land-based casinos and online sports betting.
The survey found 73% of respondents supported legalizing casino resorts while 60% supported OSB legalization.
Georgia: A bill proposing a referendum on whether the state should legalize land-based casinos and sports betting has been proposed. SR 131 was jointly filed by four Georgia senators and gives the state General Assembly the ability to regulate gaming if approved by voters.
The bill proposes a GGR tax of 20% and the creation of a Georgia gaming commission.
The bill would allow for eight land-based casino licenses.
SR 131 would require approval by two-thirds of both the state Senate and House before appearing on the November 2026 general election ballot.
Recall, an effort last year to legalize sports betting in Georgia made it through the Senate before dying in the House.
Mississippi: The state House has approved a bill to legalize OSB and now moves on to the Senate. Representative Casey Eure said the bill is tailored to concerns raised against a similar one that died in the Senate last year.
Among the provisions addressing those concerns is the setting aside of some of the OSB tax revenue to mitigate any land-based losses at smaller properties in the state.
Pennsylvania: The regulation of skill games has been included in Gov. Josh Shapiro’s state budget for 2025-26. The budget includes a tax rate of 52% on skill games, compared to the 54% tax rate on slot revenue in the state.
Alabama: Newly elected Senate president Sen. Garlan Gudger indicated he would be open to a gaming expansion bill. He told local media: “I think we’re leaving a lot of money on the table where it’s going to other states.”
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Deposit limits confusion
Take it to the limit: From October 31, online gamblers must set spending limits before depositing funds, as part of new UK Gambling Commission rules.
The changes also require operators to improve spending reviews, disclose player fund protection levels and comply with a new gambling harm prevention tax.
That’s gross: But the team at law firm Wiggin argued the Commission’s insistence of using gross deposit limits rather than net limits goes against its own hopes for the concept of affordability.
The Commission noted during the consultation that it became clear deposit limits were being interpreted by licensees in different ways than had been intended.
The watchdog will shortly publish a supplementary consultation to clarify the proposed requirement that it is ‘gross deposit limits’ that must be offered by all licensees, while other types of financial limit could also continue to be offered to customers.
Dazed and confused: Wiggin pointed out this refers to the introduction by various operators in recent times of what have been presented as ‘net deposit limits’.
“The Commission suggests this is causing consumer confusion (its term) yet ‘net deposit limits’ are, when explained, relatively simple to understand and reflect what a deposit limit is ultimately designed to do,” the lawyers added.
Importantly, they said, net limits are “much more aligned with the concept of affordability than a gross deposit limit.”
“A net deposit limit tracks the amount a customer has actually lost, rather than just looking at what the customer has deposited in isolation of the result of their gambling.”
“The Commission doesn’t go as far as to say that ‘net deposit limits’ are non-compliant with current RTS requirements.”
“We consider they fall squarely within the ‘spending limits’ option in the RTS 12A implementation guidance, so it will be important for affected operators to respond to the consultation.”
No closed shop in Iowa
Our liberties we prize, and our rights we will maintain: The attempt to have a five-year moratorium imposed on any new casinos in the state of Iowa has failed in the state Senate.
It means Peninsula Pacific’s proposals for a casino in Cedar Rapids now only need approval from the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission for the $275 million project.
The moratorium effort would have seen Iowa disallow any new casinos within the state until 2030. The measure was approved by the lower house by a vote of 68-31 last Thursday.
Supporters of the moratorium had hoped to put a stop to the issuing of a license to the proposed $275m Cedar Crossing Casino and Entertainment Center.
Give with one hand… Two studies undertaken on behalf of the Commission found that more than half the revenue from the proposed Cedar Crossing property would come from existing Iowa casinos. One study from Marquette Advisors suggested the property would generate $118m in GGR annually by 2029.
But by the same math, the Riverside Golf & Casino Resort, owned by Elite Casino Resorts, would suffer a $34m hit annually or 26% of current GGR.
The Meskwaki Bingo Casino Hotel would lose $14.1m and the Caesars-owned Isle Casino in Waterloo $8.8m. Other casinos across the state would collectively lose $11m.
The representative behind the proposed legislation, Republican Bobby Kaufmann, had previously said the measure was necessary because of the impact on existing casinos in Iowa.
“I think the studies show significant cannibalism is very real,” he said.
“And I do believe we are in the correct purview to tell the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission how they should make major decisions.”
If your name’s not down: However, a Democrat opponent in the House, Sami Scheetz, said the legislature should allow the IRGC to “do its job” and evaluate the Cedar Rapids proposal. He noted the Commission previously denied Cedar Rapids casino licenses in 2014 and 2017.
“In no other industry in the state of Iowa do we have these kinds of anti-competitive rules,” Scheetz said.
“In no other industry in the state of Iowa are you told, ‘you cannot enter if you’re going to hurt the people that are already there’.”
The analysts at Jefferies had said a moratorium would “alleviate pressure on companies currently operating in the state, specifically Caesars, which has struggled across its regional portfolio.”
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