Fake Pragmatic Play Games Are Spreading Across Scam Sweeps Sites

We appreciate those who seek to fill needs in the market by finding innovative business solutions to common customer problems. For instance, Pragmatic Play made the difficult decision to leave the US facing Sweeps market in September. 

This long simmering issue was finally brought to a boil by a high-profile lawsuit in Los Angeles, where city attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto filed a lawsuit not only against sweeps operator Stake.us, but also named many of their games suppliers, which included, amongst others Hacksaw Gaming, Evolution, NetEnt and of course, Pragmatic Play. 

While not a direct litigant the timing was near perfect as only weeks after their decision, the State of California passed AB 831 which made it illegal for any payment processor, geolocation provider or gaming content supplier to promote or support online sweepstakes games in the state. Fines would range from $1,000 to $25,000

While California is a large state, it is far from the entire US market, but apparently with 50 states to track and laws changing monthly Pragmatic Play decided it was time to just back up a bit and move away from the sweepstakes providers as a whole. They made some of the usual comments about their commitment to the regulated market being absolute and went on about their business. 

Most other providers like Hacksaw and Evolution only withdrew from the California market and continue to monitor state by state, so many pundits tried reading into their decision, perhaps a bit more closely than was required. Some speculated that Pragmatic was preparing for a US license, after all they are licensed in more than three dozen countries, why shouldn’t they have a US license?

In any case, they no longer have a US presence as they don’t currently have partnerships with legal regulated online casinos in any of the seven iGaming states either. And this is indeed one of those cases where there is a hole in the market crying out for a fix, as Pragmatic has some immensely popular slot titles. Think Gates of Olympus, Big Bass Bonanza, Sweet Bonanza 1000, and many many more. In fact more than 700, many of them blockbusters. If you want to play Pragmatic Play games in a safe environment check out our list of best Pragmatic Play Casinos.

So while you might have been prepared for a lot of knockoff titles from other producers mimicking some of their greatest hits, what you might not have seen coming was a whole host of scam sweepstakes sites hosting mostly fake, though in some cases pirated Pragmatic Play slots.

They are designed to look like standard dual currency sweepstake sites but instead use crude HTML5 knockoffs of popular Pragmatic Play games no longer offered by US sweepstakes providers to lure players into making a deposit, many times by setting the gold coin pirated slot to pay back far more than 100% RTP in order to entice unwary players into thinking they’ve found a hot slot. Then bait and switch once real funds are deposited. 

Now let’s be clear, this is not sites like Stake or Mcluck or Chumba. These operators may be producing titles similar to Pragmatic Play, but these are legal under copyright law. We are talking about using sites using  fake Pragmatic Play logos, Pragmatic Play loading screens and even officially licensed art and soundtracks. 

If you should come across a site with Pragmatic Play games that is under a year old, offering huge bonuses, has no social media presence, and seems to have gold coin versions of Gates of Olympus or Sweet Bonanza on which you just can’t lose, it would be best to forget that address now, before they scam you. Any deposit is likely to go missing as soon as it hits. If you want to play Pragmatic Play games in a safe environment check out our list of best Pragmatic Play Casinos.

It’s astounding how quickly bad actors can exploit gaps in the marketplace for their own good. And also honestly how easily many players can be misled or taken advantage of by these same bad actors. Buyer Beware has never been more relevant than on the internet, and doubly so when it comes to online gaming sites. If you see a Pragmatic Play title on a sweepstakes site extreme caution is warranted. In a landscape already under heavy  scrutiny, the rise of counterfeit operators is one more black eye for all though legitimate sites trying to do right  by their players.