A federal judge in Georgia's Northern District has dismissed a civil lawsuit against VGW Holdings Limited, highlighting the challenges of litigating against offshore online sweepstakes casinos.

Judge Thomas Thrash ruled that the court lacks jurisdiction over VGW Holdings Limited and its subsidiaries, which operate popular platforms like LuckyLand Slots, Chumba Casino, and Global Poker.

The plaintiffs, Georgia residents who claimed losses from gambling on VGW's platforms over four years, failed to establish personal jurisdiction over the company. Despite VGW's websites being accessible to Georgia users and accepting payments from them, the court deemed these interactions insufficient to satisfy the state's business transaction requirements.

VGW operates from Malta and is registered in Australia and Delaware. The judge noted that applying Georgia Code to overseas businesses would be problematic, as VGW's limited state connections don't render it "essentially at home" in Georgia.

Gaming industry attorney Daniel Wallach emphasized that this ruling demonstrates the difficulty of using private civil litigation to challenge the legality of sweepstakes casino operations.

Several states, including Connecticut, Idaho, Michigan, Montana, and Washington, have issued cease-and-desist orders to VGW, leading to their withdrawal from these markets. Kentucky, Louisiana, Nevada, and Washington, D.C. have declared such online sweepstakes casinos illegal gambling operations.

The regulated U.S. gaming industry maintains that these sweepstakes casinos operate illegally, despite their business model of offering initial free play followed by purchasable "sweeps coins" that can be converted to real money.

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