The SweepsPatrol Blacklist (2026): Casinos We Won't Recommend
Quotable verdict: Every casino on our rankings passed testing. These are the ones that didn't - or that carry unresolved legal exposure serious enough that a star rating alone would mislead you.
Every other list on this site is a "yes." This one is the honest "no," and we think it's worth maintaining in public rather than quietly excluding brands and letting readers wonder why. Some review sites still show live-looking template content for casinos that stopped paying players a year ago. That's not an accuracy gap we're willing to leave unaddressed.
A brand lands in Closed when it has stopped operating, stopped paying redemptions, or shut down in a way that left players with confiscated balances - documented, not rumored. A brand lands in Caution when it's still operating and still appears elsewhere on this site, but carries an unresolved government civil or criminal enforcement action, a corporate conduct issue serious enough that a reasonable player would want to know before funding an account, or a reputation pattern so divergent from the headline score that the score alone would be misleading. We link every entry to real alternatives, because a warning without a next step isn't especially useful.
Closed
- ·Operator Living Pixels Studio LLC ended all Sweeps Coin redemptions with no advance notice in April 2025, citing vague “regulatory issues.”
- ·Support, including the phone line, went dark immediately; pending redemptions above the site's own 100 SC minimum were never paid. A class-action lawsuit followed.
- ·The domain still loads in some regions, redirecting some visitors to an unrelated offshore crypto casino. Any site listing it as active is running stale content.
- ·Parent company Heuston Gaming shut the platform down after roughly two years, citing leadership turnover and intensifying competition.
- ·Players were told to redeem outstanding balances by April 30, 2025 or forfeit them entirely — the site closed the next day.
- ·An orderly wind-down that still cost players who waited: a redemption window is not a guarantee.
Caution
Still operating, and in some cases still on our rankings — but each carries something you should know before you fund an account.
- ·The Los Angeles City Attorney filed the first-ever US government civil enforcement action against a sweepstakes operator against Stake.us in August 2025.
- ·Named in 14+ lawsuits, including a New York suit alleging underage gambling and a Virginia federal racketeering case tied to celebrity promotion.
- ·Its Trustpilot sits at a strong 4.4–4.6/5 — genuinely good user experience and genuinely serious legal exposure can coexist; we say both.
- ·Our published trust gate keeps any brand facing an unresolved government enforcement action out of the top 10, regardless of raw score.
- ·Arizona's Department of Gaming has filed a federal lawsuit declaring Modo an illegal gambling operation.
- ·Named in the Illinois Gaming Board's February 2026 cease-and-desist wave.
- ·In January 2026, an Illinois Senate leader's campaign accepted a $50,000 donation from Modo's parent while Modo was under active state scrutiny — redirected to charity after press coverage.
- ·Its consumer Trustpilot score is a decent 4/5 — a star rating alone can't carry this story, which is why Modo isn't among our 30 tested brands.
- ·Still on our rankings — flagged for a genuine divergence: its own Trustpilot page sits at 2.3/5 (“Poor”), sharply below sister brand Pulsz Casino's 4.3–4.4.
- ·Shared operator Yellow Social Interactive has settled three class-action lawsuits since launch, with a fourth in motion.
- ·We don't treat the two Pulsz products as reputationally identical — and neither should you.
If you've experienced or documented something that belongs on this list - an unpaid redemption, a pattern of stalled support, anything that looks like what happened at Ding Ding Ding - email tips@sweepspatrol.com with what happened and any documentation you have (screenshots, dates, account correspondence). See our contact page for what to expect back and how quickly.
21+. This page reflects publicly documented events and our own testing; brands change status, and we re-verify this list on the same schedule as the rest of our data. If gambling has stopped being fun, call or text 1-800-GAMBLER. Responsible gaming resources.