Maryland’s gaming regulator has ordered Virtual Gaming Worlds (VGW) to shut down its online casino sites in the state.
In a letter viewed by SBC Americas, the Maryland Lottery and Gaming Control Agency (MLGCA) told VGW that its Chumba Casino and LuckyLand Slots brands are “conducting online gaming activities in Maryland without legal authority to do so.”
The letter, first reported by Daniel Wallach in Forbes, stressed that “online casino gaming (also known as iGaming) is not permitted in Maryland,” only online sports wagering and fantasy competitions.
“The Commission has no record of VGW being issued a sports wagering license, a casino gaming license, or registration as a fantasy competition operator,” said the regulator.
The MLGCA sought to push other operators out of the state earlier this year. Now, it has given VGW until 5 p.m. ET on March 27 to confirm that it will cease offering the related gaming products.
The agency stated that if VGW contends its sites and their wares are legal, it must provide “any legal analysis or opinion interpreting Maryland law that concludes, advises, or suggests that VGW may legally offer sports wagering, casino games or fantasy competition games in Maryland without Commission registration or licensure.”
Failure to comply, said the MLGCA, “may jeopardize the ability of VGW to ever be issued: a license for sports wagering or gaming, registration as a fantasy competition operator, any other license, registration, or certification from the Commission in the future.”
VGW declined to comment when reached by SBC Americas on Monday.
VGW representative made case for sweeps regulation
The C&D sent to VGW was dated March 12. On March 11, a VGW representative testified as part of a House Ways and Means Committee hearing on Del. Eric Ebersole’s HB 1140, one of a pair of companion bills that would stiffen punishments for illegal online gaming and outlaw sweepstakes casinos in the state.
VGW representative Josh White argued that sweeps and social gaming should not fall under the definition of illegal casino gambling and urged the state to regulate the industry rather than ban it.
“VGW uses sweepstakes promotions the same way that McDonald’s and Microsoft do: as a marketing tool where players never pay for a chance to win,” said White in the hearing. He said the bill to ban sweeps is “based on misconceptions that would eliminate a well-regulated and legal form of digital entertainment while pushing Marylanders towards unregulated offshore platforms.”
“A better approach is regulation, not prohibition,” White stressed.
No vote was taken on the House bill, but its companion bill, Sen. Paul Corderman’s SB 860, was unanimously approved 47-0 in the full state Senate on the day the MLGCA sent the letter to VGW. SB 860 is set for a House committee hearing on March 20.
The MLGCA submitted letters in favor of both those bills.
