High 5 Games has confirmed plans to end operations in a total of six states that are currently offering legal casino games.
Specifically, the operator stated it will no longer be accepting new sweeps players or purchases from existing players in Connecticut, Delaware, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and West Virginia.
The move will be implemented on 14 March, as the landscape for sweepstake casino operators continues to evolve in 2025.
In what was described as “a landmark case”, High 5 Games was recently ordered to pay over $24.94m in damages, after it was found that the firm’s social casino platform operated against gambling laws in Washington.
As a result of the verdict that followed a court ruling from 2024, a class of Washington consumers will receive the $24,940,366.15 sum.
This figure is made up of nearly $18m the class had suffered in damages after losing money on High 5’s website, as well as additional damages of around $7m.
Despite the operator arguing that it had done nothing wrong, evidence shown to the jury alleged that High 5 had targeted high-risk customers in Washington that were prone to losing large amounts of money on its website.
The sweepstake sector recently came under fire from American Gaming Association (AGA) CEO, Bill Miller, who revealed his belief that they are “a newer category of unregulated actors”.
He continued: “These entrants deploy legal acrobatics to avoid calling themselves betting or gambling, only then to offer products that most would most universally would agree are gambling, yet without the safeguards and regulatory constraints that build consumer trust, promote responsibility and support state budgets.”
It prompted a strong response from the SPGA, which accused the AGA of “trotting out the same tired canards about social sweep social sweepstakes that self-interested critics have peddled for months”.
