New Jersey assemblyman Clinton Calabrese recently filed bill A5447 calling for a ban on the controversial sweepstakes casinos and sportsbooks less than two months after proposing legalization.
Bill A5447 Would Ban Sweepstakes Casinos, Establish New Penalties For Unlawful Gambling In New Jersey
Calabrese’s latest bill would “prohibit sweepstakes model of wagering” and establish “new penalties for unlawful gambling operations and practices.” The New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs and Division of Gaming Enforcement (DGE) would enforce those penalties.
Although A5547 does not clearly define sweepstakes casinos, the bill still classifies sweepstakes casinos as regulated entities by providing a definition:
“Any platform available via an Internet website or mobile application that (1) provides participants with an opportunity to play authorized gambling games or provides an experience equivalent to, or with similar statistical odds of winning as an authorized gambling game, except that the game does not require any initial monetary investment on behalf of the participants to play and instead is played primarily with free currency; and (2) awards to participants at random, as a bundle with the purchase of free currency, or upon the completion of certain specified tasks, currency or promotional gaming credits which can be wagered on games and are redeemable for cash, prizes, or other things of value.”
The bill considers the use of non-cash items to wager with sweepstakes casinos, and it states:
“An online sweepstakes casino may additionally offer tokens, coins, chips, credits, or other forms of currency for purchase or exchange that are directly redeemable for cash, prizes, or other things of value.”
Calabrese Introduced Bill A5196 Earlier This Year
In January, Calabrese introduced A5196, which would have required sweepstakes casinos to fall under the same regulation, licensure, oversight, and taxation as the iGaming framework in the Garden State.
New Jersey is one of seven U.S. jurisdictions with legal iGaming. It currently has nearly 30 licensed online casino and poker operators and more than a dozen mobile sportsbooks.
In December 2024, a New Jersey resident filed a lawsuit against several sweepstakes gaming companies, including McLuck, High 5, Wow Vegas, and CrownCoins, for operating illegally. Apple and Google were also named for supporting illegal gambling platforms.
Other states are cracking down on sweepstakes gaming as well. In Maryland, the Senate Budget and Taxation Committee passed a bill by a 13-0 vote on Monday that would ban social operators. Lawmakers in Connecticut, Mississippi, and New York are also wanting to ban sweepstakes gaming.