Online sweepstakes casinos may be experiencing legal problems in the US, but the popular iGaming sites maintain a decent-sized market throughout Canada.
Since late 2024, a growing number of states over in America have opted to start banning these casino-style sweepstakes platforms following controversy surrounding the ‘Sweeps Coins’ playing model, which allows players to redeem prizes like gift cards and cash transfers if they collect enough of these virtual coins.
In the eyes of New York, California, Maine, and a handful of other states, it’s a form of unregulated gambling, leading to the wave of bans over the past couple of years.
Most of the big-name sweepstakes operators are expanding to other international markets following these bans, including Canada and Australia.
Sweepstakes Casinos Are Legal in Most Canadian Regions, Opening Up Opportunities for Market Growth
Currently, sweepstakes casinos are operating in what’s known as a legal “gray area”, meaning they aren’t classified as fully legal or illegal under law.
In Canada specifically, there are no specific laws that outright prohibit sweepstakes casinos, although Ontario has strict online gambling regulations where sites need to be registered with iGaming Ontario (iGO) if they wish to operate there, making it so that sweepstakes casinos can’t get a foothold in the Ontario market.
Outside of that, Canadian players in other parts of the country can sign up with offshore sweepstakes casinos as freely as they like, with most going for the casinos seen on the Sweeps Kings website, including McLuck, WOW Vegas, and Crown Coins Casino, all of which are US-based but have opened their doors to Canadian players over recent years.
The appeal for Canadian players, at least, is that sweepstakes casinos offer a freemium model, allowing players to join and play thousands of casino-style games for free with the chance to redeem prizes offered on top.
Compared to traditional online casinos, it’s a different type of experience where you’re playing with virtual coins rather than real money, which has led to the sweepstakes casino space exploding in popularity post-COVID.
Players are under no pressure to deposit money with sweepstakes operators and it’s this exact reason why they were able to take over the US market to begin with until recent regulatory crackdowns.
Debate is still ongoing as to whether sweepstakes casinos are, indeed, legitimate gambling sites or simply fun free-to-play alternatives, but the likes of New York and California believe it to be the former.
New York State Gaming Commission Chairman Brian O’Dwyer labelled sweepstakes casinos as “unscrupulous, unsecure, and unlawful”, while NY Attorney General Letitia James stated that the state ban was necessary because ““Online sweepstakes casinos are illegal, dangerous, and can seriously ruin people’s finances.”
Canada, however, has yet to take any legal stance at all on sweepstakes casinos and no province has publicly moved against them either.
VGW Exited the Canadian Market Last Year
One of the main reasons why Canada hasn’t taken legal notice of sweepstakes casinos yet is due to how small the sweepstakes casino market is in the Great White North.
VGW, the operator behind popular sweepstakes casino likes like Chumba Casino (which has over 1 million registered US players) and LuckyLand Slots even opted to pull out of Canada altogether last year, with a spokesman saying:
“We can confirm that, following careful consideration, we’ve informed players of a decision to phase out our brands that offer products in Canada (Chumba Casino and Global Poker). We understand this is an adjustment after many years and our valued Canadian players may be disappointed.
“This decision wasn’t taken lightly and our focus is on ensuring players are fully informed about the changes, and that this transition is as smooth as possible. Ultimately, this is a difficult but strategic, isolated decision. Our Canadian business is relatively small, as the vast majority of our players reside in the larger US market, where we will concentrate our management focus, resources and investment going forward.”
However, after leaving the Canadian sweepstakes market, VGW may look to reverse its decision if the list of states banning sweepstakes casinos in the US continues to grow, with Virginia, Maryland, and others currently looking to do so.
Outside of VGW, though, most of the other major sweepstakes casino operators are still accepting players, despite the Canadian market yet to experience the explosive levels of growth seen in the US.
Over ten and counting states in the US have now officially either passed legal bans against sweepstakes casinos or introduced measures to restrict them, fueling the fire as to whether these casinos are actually safe.
Canadian players still have the freedom to sign up with these casinos, and it’s a fair assessment that they are much safer platforms compared to regular online casinos, as there’s no actual real-money wagering involved.
However, Canadian sweepstakes fans must be aware that sweepstakes casinos do come with an element of financial risk if you opt to purchase coin packages including ‘Sweeps Coins’.
For those concerned about safeties and regulations, the best option is to simply join these platforms and play for free using ‘Gold Coins’, as they require no type of monetary deposit at all and give you access to all of the available casino games for free.
It’s expected that sweepstakes casinos will eventually get a serious hold of the iGaming market in Canada, too, and this will likely be the trigger point for provinces to start taking a closer legal look at them, much like how New York, California, and other states over in the US have done.
Until then, Canada’s sweepstakes casino market will go largely unregulated and you can expect US operators to push to take advantage of this.
