Play On WA is an effort representing social gaming companies and players in Washington State. It seeks to create a fact-based conversation about social casino gaming that protects consumer choice and ensures that the community fully understands the industry and our impact for players, businesses, and Washington’s innovation economy.
Social casino games are casino-style games like slots, poker and bingo that are played online or via mobile apps. But unlike a traditional casino or a sweepstakes casino, it is not possible to withdraw money from social casino games.
Consumers who play social casino games do so because of the joy that they experience and the chance to compete and to interact with a like-minded community. Crucially, they know and understand that they are playing for enjoyment and know that they will not receive real money or anything of real-world value.
Hundreds of thousands of people play social casino games across the state.
Social casino games are for adults and are rated as such.
Very few players are spending money on social casino daily. Data from across the industry shows that between 1% and 3% of players are making payments daily.
There is a recently filed suit by the state of Washington against companies in the social casino industry that alleges that some of their games are illegal gambling.
The difference is that sweepstakes casinos offer dual currencies, one of which can be redeemed for real-world cash and/or cash equivalent prizes, whereas social casino games do not offer any cash out. This is a critical difference and results in them being treated differently from a legal perspective in many States across the US.