One of the sweepstakes gaming brands at the forefront of using new gameplay ecosystems to get around sweeps bans has made its return to several prominent markets official.
In an Oct. 21 update to its terms and conditions, AceBet.cc removed California, New York, Tennessee, and Idaho from its list of excluded territories, and it added Iowa. AceBet had for several months been promoting itself as a viable option for California and New York players on online sweeps gaming forums, but now its presence in those states is official.
AceBet employs several strategies to try to get around bills in California and New York’s dual-currency sweeps gameplay bans.
Card packs replace Gold Coins in banned states
On the surface, AceBet looks like most other sweeps sites. It offers slots, live dealer tables, and its own “Originals” games such as Plinko and Crash. Its terms repeat the industry’s usual line: No purchase is necessary, and the site is meant for entertainment only.
The usual sweeps model works like this. You buy Gold Coins, which are only for fun, and the site throws in Sweeps Coins as a free bonus. Sweeps Coins can be redeemed for real prizes. Lawmakers in California (Assembly Bill 831) and New York (Senate Bill 5935) looked at that dual-currency setup, decided it was gambling, and banned it outright.
AceBet’s solution is to drop the Gold Coins and sell something physical instead.
Players in restricted states buy packs of trading cards, priced from $5 up to $500. They get one Sweeps Coin for every dollar they spend.
Will it hold up to potential legislative and regulatory scrutiny?
Maybe.
California’s law makes an exception for promotions that are part of a genuine product sale. AceBet’s argument is this: You’re buying cards, which are bona fide products, and the Sweeps Coins are just a bonus. This setup technically fits the wording of most of the new bans. But there’s also a chance regulators could call the cards a pretext if nearly everyone is buying them for the Sweeps Coins.
This is directly from AceBet’s promotional play policy:
Participants located in California, Indiana, Maine, New York, Oklahoma, and Tennessee may receive Sweeps Coins as a bonus upon the purchase of specifically marked packs of Trading Cards. Trading Cards are bona fide products that are also offered for sale on a standalone basis, without any Sweeps Coins, at delux.gg. The number of Sweeps Coins a Participant will receive as a bonus for each relevant purchase of Trading Cards will be identified on the Platform.
A no-purchase route through surveys and apps
AceBet also gives players a way to earn Sweeps Coins without making a purchase or playing casino-style games. They can complete third-party surveys or app-based tasks instead.
The feature appears as a “Surveys and Offers” tab in the site’s left-hand menu. Sweeps Coins earned there can be used on AceBet’s casino-style games and later redeemed for cash prizes.
The section has two main components. Players can take surveys from outside research firms, or they can download third-party apps and games and complete set milestones in them.
Surveys appear in a grid of cards. Each card lists an estimated completion time, a Sweeps Coins reward, and an average star rating from other players. The cards don’t describe the survey’s subject or say who it is intended for.
Estimated completion times run from a few minutes to about 10-17 minutes. Rewards observed by Sweepsy included 0.16 SC and 0.24 SC, and some surveys offered 1 SC or more.
Selecting a survey brings up a short set of qualification questions first. The survey provider uses the answers to decide whether the player fits its target audience. Players who qualify are sent to an external website to finish the survey and are then returned to AceBet, where the reward is credited.
The app and game offers section works differently. Players download a listed app or game and earn Sweeps Coins for reaching specified milestones. Rewards are generally paid in stages as each milestone is met, so players don’t have to finish the whole offer before receiving anything.
One World of Warships offer lists a total reward of up to 7.34 SC, paid out as follows:
Registering an account: 0.14 SC
Unlocking a Tier 1 ship and using it for two days: 2 SC
Unlocking a Tier 2 ship and using it for four days: 5.20 SC
The offer is limited to new users and must be completed within 30 days.
Other listed offers include Game of Thrones, Mech Arena, Merge Gardens, SoFi Coach, OperaGX, AARP Rewards, Talkspace, and TurboTax. Reward amounts vary widely. Some offers are worth less than 1 SC, while others list rewards of 100 SC, and some exceed 700 SC.
A quiet change in currency terminology
Also of note: AceBet’s new terms never mention Gold Coins.
Instead, the terms describe Virtual Coins, a broad category covering virtual chips, coins, credits, tickets, or points used to play games on the platform. According to the terms, Virtual Coins carry no cash value, cannot be transferred, and are licensed to players rather than owned by them. So, a new title for Gold Coins.
Dropping the Gold Coin label may help AceBet distance itself from the model dual-currency bans are targeting. It also fits the company’s card-pack approach in restricted states. There, Sweeps Coins come with physical trading cards, not with a digital coin bundle. The broader Virtual Coins term lets AceBet treat whatever comes with a purchase as a licensed game credit rather than a purchased currency.
Whether regulators accept that distinction remains to be seen.