High 5 Casino Stops Players In Legal iCasino States From Accessing Its App

Another day, another move by a “sweepstakes” operator to try and calm the churning regulatory waters.

High 5 Games, the company behind the High 5 Casino sweepstakes brand, quietly announced via its terms and conditions page that it will no longer allow players in six legal iCasino states to play on the site or redeem sweeps coins.

The six states — Connecticut, Delaware, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and West Virginia — join Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, and Washington on High 5’s no-play list.

While players in those six states with legal iCasino will no longer be allowed to play the sweepstakes casino games, they can still play the casino games on the site without the chance to exchange coins for real money.

Additionally, High 5 Games was on the losing end last week of a $25 million lawsuit in Washington, where a federal jury ruled in favor of consumers who played the games in that state. The judge ruled in the case that High 5 was operating an illegal gambling operation.

Busy time in sweepstakes streets

This move by High 5 comes on the heels of a flurry of developments in the sweepstakes space this year.

Earlier this week, VGW — which is home to some of the most recognizable sweepstakes sites, including Chumba Casino, LuckyLand Slots, and Global Poker — announced new age requirements for its collection of sites. Players must now be 21 or over to sign up for the sites, and those under 21 will be permanently banned from the sites come April 17.

Furthermore, the American Gaming Association (AGA) all but launched a war on the sweepstakes sites during the group’s State of the Industry webinar Thursday.

“Then there’s the newer categories of unregulated actors that appear to bypass or circumvent state gaming [laws],” said Bill Miller, the president and CEO of the AGA. “From currency exchanges to digital asset platforms, these entrants deploy legal acrobatics to avoid calling themselves betting or gambling. Only they offer products that most would most universally agree are gambling; without the safeguards and regulatory constraints that build consumer trust, promote responsibility, and support state budgets.”

The sweepstakes world roared back at Miller, with the Social and Promotional Gaming Association (SPGA) firing off a statement that read, in part, that the AGA “trotted out many of the same tired canards about social sweepstakes that self-interested critics have peddled for months.”

Meanwhile, the West Virginia attorney general, according to a Casino Reports source, recently served subpoenas to sweepstakes operators operating in the state.

The regulatory pressure continues to mount at the state level. Lawmakers in Connecticut, Maryland, and Mississippi have all introduced legislation aimed at banning sweepstakes casinos. The Mississippi Senate passed a bill to ban sweepstakes sites outright, and it now is headed to the state’s House.

New Jersey is pursuing a different approach. A state lawmaker there introduced legislation last month that would bring sweepstakes casinos under the same type of regulatory framework that currently governs online casino and sports betting operations in the state.