Warning: Undefined array key "post_type_share_twitter_account" in /var/www/vhosts/casinonewsblogger.com/public_html/wp-content/themes/cryptocurrency/vslmd/share/share.php on line 24
- A New Jersey senator has introduced a bill to regulate dual-currency sweepstakes in the state
- If approved, the sweepstakes games will be brought into the state’s iGaming fold
- Lawmakers prohibited dual-currency sweepstakes in the Garden State this past August
Just five months after New Jersey lawmakers approved a prohibition on dual-currency sweepstakes games, one senator is hoping to regulate the contests and bring them into the iGaming fold.
Sen. Joseph P. Cryan (D-20) introduced S1500, a bill to legalize dual-currency sweepstakes games and regulate them under the state’s existing iGaming structure. Sweepstakes operators will be required to receive an iGaming permit and partner with a licensed casino to operate in the state.
Sweepstakes operators will be subject to the same legal requirements and standards of all other iGaming operators in the state.
Regulating Dual-Currency Sweepstakes
According to Cryan’s legislation, residents 21 years of age and older will be able to access the contests. Operators will be required to use age verification tools for customers and will be subjected to the same iGaming tax rates on gross gaming revenues as other operators.
The bill defines dual-currency games as the following:
“Provides participants with an opportunity to play authorized gambling games or provides an experience equivalent to, or with similar statistical odds of winning as an authorized gambling game, except that the game does not require any initial monetary investment on behalf of the participants to play and instead is played primarily with free currency; and (2) awards to participants at random, as a bundle with the purchase of free currency, or upon the completion of certain specified tasks, currency or promotional gaming credits which can be wagered on games and are redeemable for cash, prizes, or other things of value. An online sweepstakes casino may additionally offer tokens, coins, chips, credits, or other forms of currency for purchase or exchange that are directly redeemable for cash, prizes, or other things of value.”
New Jersey taxes iGaming gross gaming revenues at a rate of 19%.
The bill currently sits in the Senate state government, wagering, tourism and historic preservation committee.
New Jersey Banned Dual-Currency Sweepstakes
Gov. Phil Murphy (D) signed legislation into law this past August to ban dual-currency sweepstakes, set fines and penalties for those who engage in such, and criminalize proxy betting in the Garden State.
The governor signed Rep. Clinton Calabrese’s (D-36) bill, A5447, and Sen. John J. Burzichelli’s (D-3) bill, S4282, into law. Both pieces of legislation were approved by the Assembly and Senate in late June.
New Jersey is the fifth state to pass legislation to prohibit sweepstakes games.
Under the legislation, sweepstakes are defined as “promotional, advertising, or marketing event, contest, or game, whether played online or in-person, in which something of value, such as a prize or prize equivalent, is awarded, either directly or indirectly through means such as a dual currency system of payment that allows a participant to exchange the currency for a prize or prize equivalent.”
The legislation, however, allows companies to host sweepstakes games in which participants receive entry through the purchase of food or non-alcoholic beverages.
The legislation also sets firm fines and civil penalties for operators offering unlawful gambling operations in the state. A first offense will result in a fine of $100,000, while a fine of $250,000 will be assessed for every subsequent offense.
Additionally, for each cease-and-desist order ignored by an operator, regulators will be able to assess a $25,000 fine for each violation.
