Sugar Rush, Sweet Bonanza, and Other Slots Have Been Pulled from Sweepstakes Casinos

Pragmatic Play has exited the US sweepstakes casino market, so fan-favorite slots like Sugar Rush are now unavailable.

Pragmatic Play has made the shock announcement it will be leaving the US sweepstakes casino market.

Up until this month, it had been supplying hundreds of games to the likes of Stake.us, WOW Vegas, and McLuck. However, with all the controversy surrounding sweepstakes casinos at the moment, the award-winning iGaming company has decided to jump ship.

For sweepstakes players, it’s a real disappointment. They will now no longer be able to access Sugar Rush, Sweet Bonanza, Wolf Gold, or any of the other classic games they’ve gotten hooked on over the past few years.

It’s also bad news for the sweepstakes casinos, too, as their game libraries are looking a little emptier and they’re no doubt going to lose some of their die-hard players.

Pragmatic Play Deals Major Blow to Sweepstakes Casinos Amid Legal Pressure

It’s been a tricky year for sweepstakes casinos, filled with lawsuits, cease and desist letters, and a growing number of states filing anti-sweepstakes bills.

And now, it’s gotten even worse, with Pragmatic Play, who SweepsPlays call a “leading supplier of high-quality video slots”, deciding to pull all of its games from sweepstakes casino sites.

To put this into perspective, it officially means sweeps players will no longer be able to access free-to-play slots like:

• Sugar Rush
• Big Bass Bonanza
• Wolf Gold
• Sugar Rush 1000
• Alien Invaders

Of course, Pragmatic Play doesn’t just supply slots, either. It also has a bunch of other games, including Bingo, live dealer games, and even Crash games, so it’s safe to say that sweepstakes operators won’t be taking the news lightly. After all, these games have huge player bases and have become real favorites ever since sweepstakes casinos exploded back during the COVID-19 pandemic.

It’s not just Pragmatic Play who are going anti-sweepstakes. Just days after Stake.us was handed an illegal gambling lawsuit by Los Angeles, Evolution, another key player in the supplier space, pulled all of its games from the site. Playtech has also decided to pull out of all California sweepstakes casinos, too, with CEO Mor Weizer saying sweeps casinos are “immaterial” and that they only contribute to less than 1% of their revenue.

Then there’s Play’n GO, another huge provider of online casino games like poker. Interestingly, Play’n GO have been against sweepstakes casinos from the very beginning, officially stating they “will never supply games to sweepstakes casinos” due to the fact these casinos don’t follow an established legal framework.

All in all, it’s bad news for sweepstakes casinos, who will need to bounce back quickly from this to avoid losing out on too many players. Then there’s the case of the sweepstakes players themselves, who desperately want Pragmatic Play alternatives now that games like Sugar Rush will no longer be available.

What Should Sweepstakes Casino Players Do Next?

Any sweepstakes players who were fans of Pragmatic Play’s titles will now, sadly, have to play some different casino games.

The good news, though, is that there are plenty of alternatives.

Some of the other big-name providers include Relax Gaming (100+ games), Hacksaw Gaming (120+ games), Betsoft (200+ games), Evoplay (250+ games) and BGaming (200+ games), all of which supply their games to a range of sweepstakes casinos.

If you look at Relax Gaming, it has its extremely popular Money Train slot series, as well as the ‘Dream Drops’ jackpot mechanic, where jackpots across the different slot games can reach unbelievable levels.

The point is that there are other options outside of Pragmatic Play and, at least for now, there are around ten providers on the market who are just as good when it comes to overall game quality.

Sweepstakes Casinos Maintain Strong Hold on Free-Play Market

Despite Pragmatic Play pulling out of the sweepstakes casino market for, seemingly, the inevitable future, sweepstakes casinos are still going to maintain a strong hold on the free-play casino market.

We’ve seen over the years that free-to-play games have become popular across gaming in general, so the fact it’s happened in the casino space as well isn’t that much of a shock.

Love or hate sweepstakes casinos, they’ve got the free-play market locked down, and until more states start to outright ban them, they won’t be disappearing any time soon.

In fact, most sweepstakes casinos look set to continue experiencing record levels of growth, including the likes of Chumba Casino and Stake.us, who are adding thousands of new players to their already huge player bases every day.

As for whether Pragmatic Play’s exit from the sweeps market inspires other software companies to do the same is unlikely. Revenue across social casinos in 2024 was estimated at around $7.1 billion, and it’s not the type of money most casino providers would be willing to walk away from.