A recent state exit from a notable sweepstakes casino shows the effect of cease-and-desist orders, including on operators that didn’t receive one.
Ruby Sweeps shut down its sweepstakes operations in Arizona on Sept. 5. It sent emails to its Arizona players announcing the decision, informing those players they had until Sept. 5 to play through their Emeralds (the site’s version of Sweeps Coins) and enact any redemptions.
With the addition of Arizona, the list of excluded states for Ruby Sweeps now contains:
- Arizona
- Connecticut
- Delaware
- Idaho
- Kentucky
- Louisiana
- Maryland
- Michigan
- Mississippi
- Montana
- Nebraska
- Nevada
- New York
- New Jersey
- Ohio
- Rhode Island
- Utah
- West Virginia
- Washington
The presence of 19 jurisdictions on that list places Ruby Sweeps at or near the top of sweeps casinos with the most market restrictions affecting their platforms. The inclusion of Nebraska, Ohio, and Utah particularly sets this list apart from many industry peers.
No cease-and-desist, but regulator crackdown in Arizona
Ruby Sweeps’ exit from Arizona comes on the heels of a recent series of cease-and-desist letters sent to sweeps operators from the state’s gaming regulator — although not to Ruby Sweeps.
In August, the Arizona Department of Gaming announced it had sent cease-and-desist letters to Thrillzz, Fliff, Betty Sweeps, and Pulsz. In the month since, all four operators have pulled out of the state.
Now, Ruby Sweeps, a 21-plus sweeps casino, is joining them, despite not receiving a cease-and-desist.
Owned by Rubystone Ventures LLC, Ruby Sweeps is not part of the same company as any of these sweeps gaming sites. So that isn’t fueling this departure.
Rather, Ruby Sweeps’ decision could boil down to many options, but most likely one of these two:
- Responding to a cease-and-desist order that simply hasn’t been made public knowledge.
- Realizing the potential for regulatory tension and shutting down to avoid the same sorts of regulatory scrutiny or enforcement actions.
The second option seems more plausible, as the ADG has on multiple occasions made public announcements about its cease-and-desist sendouts, so there’s no clear reason why a series that included Ruby Sweeps would be kept private.
Robust restrictions across the board
A simple analysis of Ruby Sweeps’ list of excluded states shows how Rubystone Ventures LLC reacts in states where there’s even a sniff of legal or regulatory crackdowns.
The company was not included among the cease-and-desist letters sent out in June in Louisiana and Mississippi — and there were a whopping 42 letters sent in Louisiana. Still, both of those states are on the excluded list.
It’s the same thing in Maryland, a state that has been active on the sweeps cease-and-desist front but there is no public knowledge of Ruby Sweeps receiving one. Yet Maryland, too, is on the list.
It goes beyond reactions to cease-and-desist letters being sent to industry peers.
Look at Ohio.
Very, very few sweeps operators are not currently offering their games in Ohio. Thrillzz is among the few Sweepsy is aware of.
The likely motivation for pulling out of Ohio comes from House Bill 298, a bill introduced in May that would legalize real-money online casinos and also outlaw online sweepstakes casinos in the state. However, the bill hasn’t seen any type of activity since May, and Gov. Mike DeWine has since publicly come out in opposition of legalizing real-money online casinos.
So HB298 appears to be going nowhere.
Still, Ohio appears on Ruby Sweeps’ excluded states list.
Then there’s the inclusion of Utah and Nebraska, where there’s no clear reason to exit as a sweeps casino other than the states’ histories of targeting anything that looks like unlicensed gambling (and, in Utah’s case, gambling of any kind, as all gambling is banned there), and Ruby Sweeps not wanting to be the sweeps guinea pigs.
Not a full platform shutdown
Ruby Sweeps’ rules of play note that the excluded list of 19 jurisdictions applies to the site’s sweepstakes play — where players can play with Emeralds and redeem those Emeralds for real cash.
However, the exclusions do not appear to apply to gameplay using Gold Coins, which are purely for in-game usage and not redeemable.
So Ruby Sweeps has shut down its sweeps gaming platforms in these jurisdictions, but not necessarily its social gaming platforms. That approach is in the minority. When sweeps operators leave a state, most just unplug their entire operation.
But some, most notably VGW (Chumba Casino, LuckyLand Slots, Global Poker), only pull their sweeps options but maintain their social options. Operators can still drive revenue from social gaming in the same way that social casino apps from the likes of Zynga and Light & Wonder — the latter of which is a vocal sweeps opponent: digital currency purchases, purchases to unlock bonuses, VIP clubs, etc.
Other recent exists from Ruby Sweeps
Arizona is the third recent market departure from Ruby Sweeps.
In mid-August, Ruby Sweeps left Nevada, citing “changes in the state of Nevada.” It was referring to the May passage of Senate Bill 256, which gave regulators more power to target unlicensed gambling operators. In Nevada, that category covers both offshore sportsbooks and online sweepstakes casinos.
At that same time, Ruby Sweeps also left Mississippi, which had sent out its cease-and-desist letters (Chumba Casino was the only sweeps operator to receive one) in June.
Since then, West Virginia has also been added to the excluded list. West Virginia is not only a real-money iGaming state, and many notable sweeps operators have simply pulled out of all iGaming states, but the state’s Attorney General also issued subpoenas to sweeps operators in February, positioning West Virginia as a sweeps-unfriendly market.
