Sportsgrid Staff
Host · Writer - Published: 11/29/24
You’ve probably seen mention of sweepstakes casinos but if you’ve never played at one, you might wonder what they are. Surely, they are just another type of site where you can do real money gambling at right?
Wrong. Sweepstakes casinos share one main similarity with their real money counterparts – the games. Other than that, they operate completely differently. In the below guide, I explain the main differences, how social casinos work, and finish with 3 recommended websites you can try today.
So, you probably have a firm idea of how regular online casinos work. Keep that image in your mind as we discuss how sweepstakes casinos are different.
The first thing that you’ll notice is that you can’t make deposits. You don’t have a fiat currency account balance and you can only make Gold Coin purchases. Your balance is instead two virtual currencies which are usually called Gold Coins and Sweeps Coins. This is one of the requirements for compliance with US sweepstakes regulations.
The next thing you will see is that there is no real money gameplay. Instead of USD, you use your virtual currencies to play the casino-style games at sweepstakes casinos and the top games on Stake.us and other websites. Gold Coins are typically freeplay only and have no value, whereas Sweeps Coins can usually be redeemed for cash prizes if you meet the minimum redemption requirement.
Whenever I’ve played at RM casinos, I’ve usually found a welcome bonus, and a spattering of bonuses for existing customers. With social casinos, however, you get promos ALL THE TIME! The most common bonus after the welcome bonus is the daily login bonus. You can log in to the sweepstake casino every day and you will get a prize of Gold Coins and Sweeps Coins.
For example, at McLuck you get 2,500 Gold Coins and 0.25 SC every day. This is another feature that the websites have to comply with US sweepstakes regulations and meet the “no purchase necessary” stipulation.
Many RM casinos I’ve tried have a downloadable app that you can get from the App Store or Google Play Store. It’s commonplace and mainly an expected feature for this type of iGaming website.
The same can’t be said for sweepstakes casinos. I’ve only ever found a handful of social casinos that have a real downloadable app that you can get from one of the operating system stores. 99% of the time, there is instead a mobile-responsive browser version of the website that you have to run on a browser like Chrome.
Lastly, sweepstakes casinos have far greater availability compared to their US real money counterparts. Currently, real money sites are only available in around 6 US states which means most of the population has no access to any type of online iGaming.
In contrast, most US social casinos are available in 40+ states. It’s only generally Washington, Idaho, Michigan, and Nevada where sweepstakes casinos are prohibited. With some other states like Montana, Louisiana, and Kentucky sometimes appearing on the restricted lists too.
You should now see how sweepstakes casinos work and what they do differently compared to their real money counterparts. It’s a completely different experience! If this sounds like something you’d enjoy, I’ve hand-picked my top 3 social casinos below to try – they all have superb social casino bonuses and plenty of Gold Coins and Sweeps Coins promotions.
High 5 Casino has a staggering 1,500+ casino-style games and this is one of the biggest game collections I’ve found. It includes video slots, live dealer games, and jackpots from top developers like Pragmatic and Evoplay. When you register an account here you get 5 Sweeps Coins, 250 Game Coins, and 600 Diamonds to immediately try out their epic game library with.
Real Prize Casino features many of the top social casino games that I love playing like Megaways slots, Slingo, and live dealer games. I always enjoy playing blackjack and roulette here, and they have some of my favorite Pragmatic Play slots like Sugar Rush and The Dog House. If you create an account and verify your details you also get a welcome bonus of 100,000 Gold Coins and 2 Sweeps Coins.
If you prefer to play somewhere with a long standing reputation, McLuck is one of the oldest US sweepstakes casinos and it continues to be one of my favorites. It has 40+ Megaways slots and features games from iGaming developers like 3 Oaks Gaming and Fantasma. I also like that they have a solid loyalty club and a progressive jackpot prize wheel.
As you can see, sweepstakes casinos are quite different! The abundance of free coins allows you to have fun and enjoy the games in a no-pressure environment, and things like Gold Coin purchases make them feel similar to video games.
If you want to get started with this type of website, I recommend trying High 5, Real Prize, or McLuck. Whichever one you try first, don’t forget to get your sweepstakes casino welcome bonuses and login every day to get your daily login bonus!
_1682010035.svg)
