Another well-known sweepstakes casino has blocked access to players in Arizona.
Sidepot Casino, the sister brand of ultra popular sweeps sportsbook Fliff, has added Arizona to its list of excluded jurisdictions in the United States. That addition brings its excluded list to 18 North American markets:
- Alabama
- Arizona
- Connecticut
- Delaware
- Idaho
- Kentucky
- Louisiana
- Maryland
- Mississippi
- Michigan
- Montana
- New Jersey
- New York
- Nevada
- Quebec
- Tennessee
- Washington
- West Virginia
Notably, the inclusion of Quebec in the restricted territories means elsewhere in Canada, including the highly populated province of Ontario, is fair game for Sidepot.
Sidepot becomes the seventh known sweepstakes casino to exit the Arizona market since the state’s gaming regulator unleashed its latest round of cease-and-desist orders.
The reasoning here is relatively clear
Although noteworthy, perhaps it shouldn’t be a major surprise to see Sidepot sidestep out of Arizona.
Fliff was one of four sweeps operators — alongside Thrillzz, Betty Sweeps, and Pulsz — that received cease-and-desist letters from the Arizona Department of Gaming in mid-August. Thrillzz left the state the day after the ADG announced the cease-and-desists, and all four operators were out of Arizona within the next month.
Sidepot was not explicitly named in the cease-and-desist. Just Fliff.
However, given the stringent attention the ADG is paying to the sweeps industry in its state, and the fact that Fliff and Sidepot are fueled by the same workforce and technology, it must have made sense for Fliff to cut its losses in Arizona and do a full multi-platform exit rather than test the waters to see if the ADG took issue with the sweeps sportsbook but was fine with the sweeps casino … which would make little sense.
(Or perhaps the ADG specifically requested Fliff shut down Sidepot in the state as well and it simply did not publicize that info, like it has with its three recent sounds of sweeps cease-and-desist orders.)
It’s interesting to note that Fliff Inc., which owns both Fliff and Sidepot, does not have the same list of restricted territories for both sweeps gaming platforms — so this isn’t a simple case of, “If one platform blocks access, the other must, too.”
Fliff, for instance, excludes players from Colorado, Hawaii, and Ohio from participating in sweepstakes contests on Fliff. Those restrictions don’t exist for Sidepot. While, on the flipside, Sidepot has pulled out of Delaware, a state that currently offers real-money online casinos, but players in that state face no such restrictions on Fliff.
Arizona is trending toward off-limits for sweeps
Despite having no bill passed formally criminalizing online sweepstakes casinos, Arizona has positioned itself at the forefront of sweeps opposition thanks to the actions of the ADG.
As we mentioned earlier, the regulating body announced it has issued cease-and-desists to Fliff, Pulsz, Betty Sweeps, and Thrillzz in mid-August. Before that, in June, the ADG sent cease-and-desist orders to Stake.us and High 5 Casino. And that came just a couple months after it sent an additional cease-and-desist to ARB Interactive, which operates the widely popular sweeps casino Modo.us in the United States.
All seven of those operators have responded to the cease-and-desists by exiting Arizona.
Other operators not publicly identified in ADG press releases announcing cease-and-desists have pulled out of Arizona, too.
Ruby Sweeps, for instance, left Arizona in early September.
Carnival Citi just added Arizona to its excluded territories (along with California) this month as well.
Neither of those sites is affiliated with any of the sweepstakes platforms that got cease-and-desists — so that connection isn’t what’s driving their exits.
Their choice to pull back likely stems from one of two possibilities:
- They may have received a cease-and-desist notice that haven’t yet surfaced publicly.
- Or, more plausibly, the companies might be stepping away proactively to avoid possible regulatory clashes and the enforcement risks that come with them.
The second explanation feels more likely, especially since the ADG seems to announce when it sends cease-and-desist letters.
However, without any legislation passed outlawing sweepstakes casinos in Arizona, the ADG will be forced to continue to play a game of sweeps operator whack-a-mole it wants to keep shutting sites down within its borders.
This activity dates back to early 2025
The ADG has been publicly involved in the sweeps debate since February, when it issued a public service announcement to Arizona bettors specifically regarding “iIllegal online casinos and sweepstakes platforms [that] present themselves as legitimate platforms,” urging them to exercise caution when participating in these types of online gaming activities.
Along with the PSA, the ADG also published new guidance regarding what is and isn’t considered a legal sweepstakes contest — and whether a site promoting itself as “free-to-play” or “sweepstakes” is actually illegal online gambling.
That guidance highlighted a number of aspects a platform must have in order to not be considered illegal online gambling, including but not limited to:
- Allow free entry without any purchase, payment, or prior order.
- Ensure free entry offers the same process, odds, and extent of participation as paid entry.
- Do not impose extra steps, limits, or disqualifications on free entry.
- Prominently display the free entry option with equal access and odds.
- Do not imply payment is required, or make free entry harder to use or find.
The sweepstakes industry has consistently maintained that reputable operators do check off these boxes, as players do not have to pay anything to play games with Gold Coins and/or Sweeps Coins, as they can receive bonuses of both types of digital currency through means such as daily promotions simply for logging in.
However, the ADG clearly doesn’t see it that way — at least for the operators it has singled out with cease-and-desists.
“The active operations of these companies and online websites in Arizona are alleged to be felony criminal enterprises, and each operator has been directed to desist from any future illegal gambling operations or activities of any type in Arizona,” an ADG release read, in part, related to the cease-and-desists letters sent to Fliff, Thrillzz, Betty Sweeps, and Pulsz. “Due to the unregulated and illegal online gaming offerings on these sites, operators are claimed to be in violation of Arizona gaming laws.”
