Sweeps-based site Global Poker has wrapped up its exit from the Connecticut online poker market in the face of ongoing legal pressure from the state's Department of Consumer Protections since early February.
Global Poker notified its Connecticut players in mid-September of its decision to pull out of the state and required its players to withdraw their balances.
On February 9, 2024, Connecticut's Department of Consumer Protection issued a cease-and-desist notice to Global Poker's Australia-based parent Virtual Gaming Worlds (VGW), the largest US-facing operator using the sweepstakes-style model. Sweeps sites employ a dual-currency system that gives users an option to play the bonus sweeps coins for cash and prizes. VGW also owns and operates the Chumba Casino and Luckyland Slots online brands, which have also been pulled from the Connecticut online market.
Five states now prohibited
The C&D notice sent to VGW accused the company and its sites of offering unlicensed online gambling without a permit to do so. Connecticut has authorized online gambling in several forms, including online poker, but no sites have received regulatory approval to date. Whether VGW attempted to negotiate with Connecticut authorities between the February notice and the September pullout is unknown.
Connecticut was quickly added to the list of prohibited jurisdictions found within Global Poker's Terms and Conditions page, which was updated on September 16. Connecticut becomes the fifth US state, along with Idaho, Michigan, Montana, and Nevada, where Global Poker is unavailable. The site is also available in most of Canada, excepting the province of Quebec, where players are similarly barred.
New ClubWPT Gold site likely to be blocked
Connecticut is also likely to become a no-go state for other sweeps-based iGaming sites. A half dozen or so of those sites offer online poker, a number that will tick upward in 2025 with the launch of the World Poker Tour's ClubWPT Gold platform, another sweeps-based site. ClubWPT Gold was announced last month but has yet to commence live play. That site's initial Terms of Service are already available, however, and currently list Idaho, Michigan, Montana, and Washington, but not Connecticut, as prohibited jurisdictions.
The uncertainty continues as opponents of sweeps-style offerings continue to pressure state regulators on the issue. In August, The American Gaming Association (AGA), the largest lobbying entity representing the US's powerful casino-entertainment industry, published a memo urging authorities to crack down on sweeps sites that are 'potentially skirt[ing] gaming laws'.
States where some forms of online casino-style are already regulated appear to be the likeliest to out pressure on sweeps-based offerings, viewing them as direct andd unwanted competition. VGW removed its brands from another online-regulated state, Michigan, earlier this year. VGW was also served with a cease-and-desist notice from another US state with regulated online gambling, Delaware, but its brands remain available there at the present time.
