AGA attacks sweepstakes model anew in latest State of the Industry Meeting

The American Gaming Association (AGA) has used the occasion of its latest State of the Industry Meeting this week to run down some of the key issues the sector faced, as well as recap its performance. In an address, though, AGA boss, Bill Miller, once again shone the limelight on the illegal gambling sector, although results have been surging in the regulated market.

AGA aims at sweepstakes social casinos once again

Miller, who is the Chief Executive of the trade body, named sweepstakes social casinos among those forms of gaming that should be dubbed illegal, as their model allowed them to generate profit from games of chance, even though such operators have strongly objected to this wording and repeatedly reminded the AGA, and other critics, that the sweepstakes model existed on a long and well-established historic precedent.

This reasoning has not lessened the AGA’s criticism of the industry, with the trade body going even further to call such platforms’ business models "legal acrobatics" which allowed them to just about avoid calling themselves "betting" or "gambling."

The types of products offered by these platforms, the AGA further rammed in, were most "universally agreed" to be a form of gambling. However, the Social and Promotional Gaming Association (SPGA), a newly set up body has issued a stern rebuttal to this statement, as it has done over the past several months since it was established.

The SPGA argued that the AGA was well aware of how the law worked with most states around the country considering properly operated sweepstakes platforms to be perfectly legal. With this in mind, the SPGA noted that all of its members operated within those established legal frameworks and were not in any sensible way comparable to black market operations, nor offshore sportsbooks and casinos.

The SPGA calls for acknowledgement of the facts

The SPGA has similarly argued that one of the AGA’s key arguments, that sweepstakes platforms were running an illegal model, was irresponsible, and described events that simply were not true. The SPGA further added that its members followed a strict Code of Conduct and ensured age & location verification before accepting customers as well as compliance with KYC and AML policies and processes.

The SPGA has gone so far as to argue that the AGA was pushing forward the narrative presented by a specific interest group:

"The AGA willfully ignores these facts because of a small but vocal cadre of members who are anti-competitive and resistant to innovation. Millions of American adults enjoy the safe and engaging games provided by social sweeps sites. These players love that no purchase is necessary to play or win prizes."

The organization further noted that the AGA was willfully overlooking what American consumers wanted and chose to serve as a cudgel for a "narrow band of protectionist stakeholders." The debate is still ongoing with the SPGA and the AGA at loggerheads over the issue, and some states even venturing so far as to ban the sweepstakes model under mounting pressure.

Image credit: Unsplash.com