Pragmatic Play Pulls Out of All Sweeps Casinos

Pragmatic Play has decided to pull its games from all sweepstakes casinos, and it’s a major blow for the vertical that has come under increasing fire in recent months.

The Los Angeles City Attorney’s office filed a civil enforcement action against Stake.us and its major providers last week. That comes after months of regulatory scrutiny and new anti-sweepstakes casino legislation in a number of states, and it looks to be the straw that broke the camel’s back for Pragmatic Play when it comes to supplying sweeps casinos.

This is one of the biggest gaming providers in the world, but an interesting point is that Pragmatic Play does not provide services and games to licensed online casinos in the United States. Its only presence in the US came with sweepstakes casinos, and the Malta-based company has now decided to pull the plug on that side of the business to avoid further issues with various state regulators.

“Pragmatic Play has chosen to discontinue licensing its games to sweepstake operators in US States where restrictions were not already in place, in light of regulatory developments and evolving legislation,” a spokesperson told Next.io. “We remain committed to the highest standards of compliance and will continue to engage transparently with regulators.”

A Major Loss For Sweeps Casinos

Pragmatic Play is behind games like Sugar Rush, Gates of Olympus and the Big Bass series of slots, and these are some of the star names on the best sweepstakes casinos in the industry. This news is a hammer blow. It goes beyond the casinos losing some of their biggest attractions. This decisive action could also lead other providers to reconsider their deals with sweepstakes casinos before they get caught up in their own legal issues.

The Maltese gaming provider has already restricted access to its games in California,  and now looks set to make a strategic withdrawal from the entire sweepstakes casino market.

As for California, it’s new anti-sweepstakes legislation was placed in suspension, but bill AB631 is back out an under consideration. It could even pass the California Senate before the end of the California Session on September 12^th.  If it passes into law, then sweepstakes casinos will have to withdraw from the Golden State altogether, and the bill makes it absolutely clear that gaming providers, suppliers, financial payment processors and more can be held liable for a sweepstakes casino’s actions.

With the growing movement against sweepstakes casinos, and the increasingly aggressive wording of the various state bills that implicate partners, Pragmatic Play may not be the last gaming provider to pull the plug on sweepstakes casinos.