The sweepstakes casino landscape has lately seen laws being passed to ban them and operators leaving states, but Spree has done something different: removing states from its excluded list.
Alabama and Georgia Removed From Spree Excluded States List
Photo by Flickr, CC BY-ND 2.0
Key Takeaways
- Spree has removed Alabama and Georgia from its excluded states list
- The list now includes 13 states, down from 15
- This comes after California’s anti-sweepstakes bill, AB 831, passed and is now headed to the Governor’s desk
Spree Takes George and Alabama Off Excluded List
Spree, a sweepstakes casino that launched in early 2024, has now removed Georgia and Alabama from its excluded states list.
The change happened on Monday. Before Monday, the list had 15 states, and now, there are 13.
The current list includes Connecticut, Delaware, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Washington, and West Virginia.
It’s worth noting that California isn’t yet on the list despite AB 831 passing and being sent to the Governor. If signed, Spree would have until Jan. 1, 2026, to leave that state.
Of the current excluded states, Connecticut, Montana, and New Jersey have laws on the books against sweepstakes casinos, and New York, like California, has a bill on the Governor’s desk that would ban them.
Alabama doesn’t have laws on the books, but the state has been quite litigious against them. There are nearly 20 active lawsuits against them.
Georgia has also filed lawsuits, but there have been cases where the suits have been dismissed.
Not The First Sweeps Casino to Do This
While this is noteworthy because it’s after the law in California passed, B-Two Operations, the operator of McLuck, PlayFame, Hello Millions, and SpinBlitz, relaunched in Georgia and Alabama in August.
Perhaps these moves have been in response to what’s happening in California, though. According to Eilers & Krejcik, an independent research firm, California may single-handedly account for more than 17% of the revenue in the United States for sweepstakes casinos.
Not only that, but in California, a lawsuit was filed by the Los Angeles City Attorney against Sweepsteaks Ltd. (operator of Stake.us) and game/software providers.
We’ll see if this becomes a trend—sweepstakes casinos that previously excluded certain states from their operations—relaunch in states that don’t have specific anti-sweepstakes laws on the books.
Next up in the sweepstakes casino space, we’ll be paying attention to New York and California to see if those bills are signed into law by Gov. Kathy Hochul and Gov. Gavin Newsom, respectively.