Another highly popular sweepstakes casino operator has adjusted its offerings in Iowa as a result of new legislation passed in that state.
As of this month, WOW Vegas no longer offers Sweeps Coin gameplay to players in Iowa. Instead, residents of the state can only play games at WOW Vegas with WOW Coins — the platform’s equivalent of Gold Coins.
When players attempt to access WOW Vegas from Iowa, they are greeted with this message:
ACCESS LIMITED TO SOCIAL CASINO MODE
Hi there! You’re in a location where only WOW Coins play is allowed.
We apologize for any inconvenience and we look forward to serving our SC promotions to you any time when you may be located in an allowed location, outside of Iowa.
Enjoy the fun of our social casino experience!
Rolla Casino joins WOW Vegas in restricting Iowa players
WOW Vegas is owned by MW Services Limited, which also owns Rolla Casino, CoinsBack Casino, and MetaWin.us. Players accessing Rolla Casino in Iowa will also see a similar message informing them that Sweeps Coin gameplay is no longer an option in that jurisdiction.
However, when signing up for accounts on CoinsBack Casino and MetaWin.us from an Iowa IP address, Sweepsy didn’t notice any restrictions when it came to Sweeps Coin gameplay. And the terms for those sites, unlike WOW Vegas’ and Rolla Casino’s, did not list Iowa among its restricted territories.
How Iowa’s new law changed things
Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds signed Senate File 2289 into law on May 15. The bill, which officially became state law on July 1, doesn’t necessarily adjust existing statutes to make dual-currency gameplay at sweepstakes casinos illegal.
Instead, SF2289 made it so the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission can use new tools to crack down on what it deems unlicensed gambling in Iowa. It can send cease-and-desist letters and go to court for injunctions against any operator offering sports wagering, games of chance, sweepstakes casinos, or other forms of gambling without a license.
Because Iowa has no licensing framework for sweepstakes gaming, no sweeps operator can be licensed there. That means every sweepstakes casino currently serving Iowa players is theoretically exposed to enforcement.
WOW Vegas and Rolla Casino aren’t alone in changing their Iowa access in response to SF2289 becoming law.
Sidepot Casino, sister site to Fliff, fully shut down in Iowa on June 30. (Although, interestingly, Fliff still remains active in Iowa.) Also in late June, High 5 Casino, Baba Casino, Carnival Citi, and Lucky Bunny Casino closed everything down in Iowa.
AceBet.cc, a new sweeps gaming site using physical products instead of Gold Coin packages and other alternative modes of obtaining Sweeps Coins, recently pulled out of Iowa — interestingly at the same time it re-entered California, New York, Tennessee, and Idaho.
But many of the biggest names in sweeps gaming remain in Iowa.
All VGW sites — Chumba Casino, Global Poker, and LuckyLand Casino — don’t have Iowa listed as restricted in their terms and conditions. Neither does Stake.us, which is normally one of the more conservative platforms when it comes to regulatory enforcement.
There were also reports this summer that B-Two Operations sites (including McLuck, Hello Millions, SpinBlitz, and PlayFame) were leaving Iowa, but Iowa is nowhere to be found in those sites’ terms and conditions as of this writing.
Carnival Citi joins the Oklahoma exit party
One of the sites mentioned above, Carnival Citi, has joined the exodus of sweepstakes casinos leaving Oklahoma ahead of that state’s sweeps ban becoming state law on Nov. 1.
In a recent update to its terms and conditions, Carnival Citi added Oklahoma alongside Arizona, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Mississippi, Montana, New York, Nevada, New Jersey, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Vermont, Washington, and West Virginia in its extensive list of excluded markets.
B-Two Operations sites — McLuck, Hello Millions, PlayFame, and SpinBlitz — will fully pull out of Oklahoma on Nov. 1. Modo.us has informed its players it will end Sweeps Coin gameplay in Oklahoma on Nov. 1 but it will keep other gaming modes active.
High 5 Casino and Stake.us will shut down all gaming options in Oklahoma on Oct. 29. ACE Casino already made that transition earlier this month, while Baba Casino only shut down its Sweeps Coin gameplay back on Oct. 21 and plans to keep its Gold Coin gameplay running.
Starting Nov. 1, dual-currency gameplay at sweeps casinos becomes illegal in Oklahoma — this specifically targets the Sweeps Coin element of traditional sweeps casinos.
Oklahoma’s ban is the last of this year’s batch to kick in. Tennessee, Indiana, Maine, and Louisiana are already enforcing theirs. In May, lawmakers overrode the gubernatorial veto of Senate Bill 1589, so it became law without his signature.
The bill counts any redeemable currency in a dual-currency system as “representative of value,” which puts sweeps play squarely in online gambling territory. It also locks non-tribal operators out of Oklahoma’s online gambling market, leaving that space to the state’s gaming tribes. That may help explain why it breezed through the Senate without a single no vote.