“Sweepstakes Games Make Their Way to the Internet”

Sweepstakes games occupy a hazy status in the Internet world, as some people believe they are just harmless promotions while others believe they are no different from other types of online gambling games.

Much debate is currently surrounding the idea of sweepstakes games entering the Internet world. For those who say that sweepstakes are just another form of online gambling, issues of legality have cropped up. Wyoming, for instance, offers online sweepstakes games. But online gambling is illegal in Wyoming, and since that is the case, the Attorney General feels that the sweepstakes games should be treated no differently than other online gambling games. At the moment there are only eight U.S. states that offer online sweepstakes games.

Though many claim that the sweepstakes games are just like games offered at online gambling sites, sweepstakes operators beg to differ. They say that these games are basically harmless promotional gimmicks, designed to increase sales of phone card companies.

Customers of these phone card companies go into an Internet café and buy an Internet combo package – which includes Internet time, a phone card, and sweepstakes points that can ONLY be used to play sweepstakes games at the café in which the purchase was made and are NOT redeemable for cash. The problem arises when customers earn ADDITIONAL sweepstakes points, which ARE redeemable for cash or prizes. At that point, the line between harmless gimmick and illegal gambling has then been crossed, a phenomenon that the Wyoming Attorney General hopes to eradicate swiftly.