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Minnesota’s Attorney General has issued cease-and-desist letters to a number of sweepstakes casino operators, alongside a group of unregulated offshore casinos. The Social Gaming Leadership Association (SGLA) took offense to the public announcement of the move, which painted both types of operators with the same brush, referring to them collectively as “illegal gambling sites.”
Neither group of operators considers itself illegal. Sweepstakes casinos operate domestically awarding cash prizes under federal sweepstakes law. Offshore operators argue that U.S. laws don’t apply to them because they aren’t based in the U.S. However, seeing its members lumped together with the offshore industry, the SGLA raced to draw a distinction:
SGLA encourages Minnesota officials to recognize the distinction between lawful Social Plus games and illegal gambling operators, and to focus on policies that protect consumers without limiting choice or innovation.
The SGLA’s response is interesting because it includes a new self-descriptive phrase: “Social Plus games.”
A site-targeted Google search confirms that this is the first occurrence of that phrase on the SGLA website. Although “sweepstakes casinos” is the phrase most commonly seen in the media, the operators have traditionally referred to themselves as “social casinos,” the same term used by play-money casino companies. The reason is that the legal basis for their business model relies on the idea that the core product is a play-money social casino, while the cash prizes players can win come through a promotional sweepstakes that’s supposedly incidental to that.
Attorney General Keith Ellison doesn’t see it that way. He said:
Trying to rebrand poker chips as virtual currencies does not change the fact that these online gambling operations are unlawful. By continuing to operate online gambling sites in Minnesota, these operators are likely openly defying our State’s laws and I will not stand for it.
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PokerScout contacted the SGLA to inquire about the change in language. A representative for the trade group responded that it’s a term they’ve been using internally for a while, but have now elected to make official. An announcement is coming soon on their website, but was shared with PokerScout in response to our inquiry.
It reads, in part:
Let’s face it, “online social games with sweepstakes promotions” is a mouthful. “Social Plus” gives us a bite-sized term that can positively describe online social games with sweepstakes promotions in an understandable and easy-to-share way.
[…]“Social Plus” appropriately shines a spotlight on our focus – social games – but it also highlights the fact that all SGLA partners’ platforms are limited to adults 21+, and have robust consumer protections and responsible social gameplay features in place to keep players safe while they enjoy Social Plus games.
Of course, the change in language also comes as the sweepstakes industry attempts to navigate an increasingly complex and aggressive backlash against its business model. A few important markets — including California and New York — have legislated against sweepstakes in the context of casino-like games using dual currency systems. Many other states have gone the same route as Minnesota, forgoing specialized legislation in favor of issuing cease-and-desists directly to specific operators.
Advertising “Social Plus” gaming is also becoming more difficult. A recent Google policy update expressly excludes from its “Social Gaming” category any operator awarding cash prizes. To meet its definition, there must be “no opportunity to win something of value.”
That means that sweepstakes casinos would fall under the same umbrella as real-money online casinos, as far as Google is concerned. Although real-money gambling operators and their affiliates can advertise through Google, there are limits on how and where they can do so.
Furthermore, any affiliate site promoting “social gaming” is ineligible to advertise through Google, while conventional gambling affiliates can, under the same rules as the gambling operators themselves.
