š® What are sweepstakes casinos, and how do they work?
Sweepstakes casinos are online gaming platforms where you get to play casino-style games like slots, roulette and blackjack. But how do sweepstakes casinos work differently from regular online casinos? Well, there is no actual real money gambling involved; you can play for free and you can even potentially redeem real-world prizes too.
Now that you know the basics of what sweepstakes casinos are, itās time to have a look at the main pros and cons of using these sites rather than regular real-money online casinos:
Sweepstakes Casinos: Pros & Cons
- Always play for free
- Redeem real world prizes
- Good choice of casino-style games
- No real-money gambling
- Potentially smaller game selection
š Our top 10 sweepstakes casinos – At a glance
In order to clarify what sweepstakes casinos are, itās probably best to take a look at a few examples of these gaming platforms. So here is a handy table that showcases the 10 best sweepstakes casinos along with details about where they are available, what payment options they have and what their welcome offers are. Plus youāll get to see what games are available – perfect for seeing which platforms are likely to have the highest RTP casino slot machines to get you a better chance of claiming your next win:
| Operator | Types of Games | Number of Games | Payment Options | Legal States | Bonus Offer |
| Stake.us | Slots, Live Dealer, Table Games, Poker, Scratch Cards, Stake Originals | 700+ | Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, Dogecoin, Tron, Ripple, Bitcoin Cash, Tether, Credit Card (limited to 50,000 customers) | All states except for Idaho, Vermont, New York, Nevada, Washington, Kentucky, and Michigan. | $55 Stake Cash + 260K Gold Coins + 5% Rakeback |
| Sweeptastic | Slots | 900+ | Visa, MasterCard, Discover, Diners Club, Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, Tether, USD Coin, Skrill, Monero, NEO, Stellar, Tron, Cardano, Dash | All states except for Idaho, Nevada, Washington, Kentucky, and Michigan. | 70,000 Lucky Coins + 44 Sweeps Coins |
| McLuck | Slots, Live Dealer, Slingo | 1,200+ | Visa, MasterCard, Apple Pay, Google Pay, Bank Transfer | All states except for Idaho, Nevada, Washington, Kentucky, and Michigan. | 7,500 Gold Coins + 2.5 Sweepstakes Coins |
| Wow Vegas | Slots | 1,200+ | Visa, MasterCard, Skrill, Apple Pay, Diners Club, Discover, Trustly, American Express, Bank Transfer | All states except for Alabama, Georgia, Idaho, Kentucky, Michigan, Nevada, and Washington. | 1.75M WOW Coins + 35 Free Sweepstakes Coins |
| Sportzino | Slots, Social Betting | 589 | Visa, Mastercard, Discover, Trustly, Skrill, Bank Transfer | All states except for Idaho, Nevada, Washington, Kentucky, and Michigan. | 1,550,000 Gold Coins + 45 Sweepstakes Coins |
| Vegas Gems | Slots | 400+ | Visa, MasterCard, Bitcoin, Ethereum, Dogecoin | All states except for Idaho, Nevada, Washington, Kentucky, and Michigan. | 1,000 Gems + 50% Extra gems on your first Shards purchase |
| Hello Millions | Slots, Slingo | 2,400+ | Visa, MasterCard, Apple Pay, Google Pay | All states except for Idaho, Montana, Michigan, Nevada, Georgia, Kentucky, Alabama, and Washington. | 65,000 Gold Coins and 27.5 Sweepstakes Coins |
| Zula Casino | Slots | 700+ | Visa, MasterCard, Skrill | All states except for Idaho, Nevada, Washington, Georgia, Kentucky, and Michigan. | 100,000 Gold Coins + 10 Free Sweepstakes Coins |
| Fortune Coins | Slots | 550+ | Visa, MasterCard, Skrill, Trustly, Discover | All states except for Idaho, Nevada, Washington, Kentucky, and Michigan. | 650,000 Gold Coins + 1,400 Fortune Coins |
| High 5 Casino | Slots, Live Dealer, Slingo | 1,900+ | Visa, EcoPayz, Interac, MuchBetter, Neosurf, Paysafecard, AstroPay, Euteller, Skrill, Neteller | All states except for Idaho, Nevada, Washington, Kentucky, and Michigan. | 5 Sweeps Coins + 250 Game Coins + 600 Diamonds |
š Our top five sweepstakes casinos – An in-depth look at each operator
Now that weāve had the question of, āWhat are sweepstakes casinos?ā clarified with the examples in the table above, itās time to take a closer look at some of the featured brands. Here are some mini-reviews thatāll help you find your perfect sweeps casino:
š Stake.us – Get your exclusive welcome offer here
Stake.us: Pros & Cons
- Exclusive welcome offer
- Redeem real-world prizes
- Stunning Stake Originals
- Immersive live dealer games
Sign up to Stake.us for the first time and you could get a welcome offer that gives you 55 Stake Cash, 260,000 Gold Coins and 5% rakeback. This is good news because Stake Cash can be potentially redeemed for prizes like cryptocurrencies, gift cards and merchandise.
Stake.us contains an impressively varied game portfolio. It features over 700 slots from leading developers like Pragmatic Play, and youāll also find lots of table games, scratchcards and thereās even a live sweeps casino. Just remember to check out those Stake Originals like Crash, Plinko and Mines that offer you a whole new way to play.
$55 Stake Cash + 260K Gold Coins + 5% Rakeback
š¤ Wow Vegas – A great choice for slot gaming fans
Wow Vegas: Pros & Cons
- Over 1,200 slot games
- 24/7 customer support
- Excellent promo offers
- Redeem real-money prizes
Iād totally recommend Wow Vegas for anyone who likes slot games. After all, there are over 1,200 slot games here and they come from some massive developers such as Betsoft and Pragmatic Play. Youāll also get a decent welcome offer to get you started as you get 1,750,000 Wow Coins to play for fun, as well as 35 Sweepstakes Coins to potentially redeem for cash prizes and branded merchandise.
Wow Vegas also features a stunning range of deals for existing customers including referral bonuses, daily coin rewards and a VIP star system. Furthermore, with 24/7 customer support, you should feel well taken care of here.
35 SC FREE and 1.75M WOW Coins
š” McLuck – Quality live sweeps casino games here
McLuck: Pros & Cons
- Nearly 1,300 slot games
- Quality live sweeps casino
- Excellent mobile app
- Redeem cash prizes
This is a relatively new sweeps casino that has made a big impact thanks to its impressive collection of nearly 1,300 slot games, and youāll also find a nicely stocked live sweeps casino here. Itās also worth downloading the McLuck app to your iOS or Android device as this will give you a seriously convenient way to play.
McLuck isnāt shy about putting on some spectacular deals with 7,500 Gold Coins and 2.5 Sweepstakes Coins for new customers, and existing customers can enjoy lots of McJackpots and a well-structured rewards program. With the ability to potentially redeem cash prizes and gift cards, this brand has everything that you should be looking for in a sweeps casino.
27.5 SC FREE and 57.5K Gold Coins
š High 5 Casino – Play these exclusive slot games
High 5 Casino: Pros & Cons
- Exclusive High 5 slots
- Nearly 2,000 casino-style games
- Quality sweepstakes casino app
- Cash prizes redeemable
One of the biggest reasons to play here is the fact that it contains lots of exclusive High 5 slots that you arenāt going to find anywhere else. Beyond these, youāll enjoy nearly 2,000 slots from major developers like Pragmatic Play and a small but perfectly formed live sweeps casino.
High 5 Casino has a decent welcome offer to start you off as youāll get 250 Game Coins to play for fun, five Sweeps Coins to redeem for cash prizes and gift cards, as well as 600 Diamonds that can be used to trigger the Boost on Demand feature. With one of the best sweeps casino apps on the market, this brand is worthy of a closer look.
5 SC FREE + 250 Game Coins and 600 Diamonds
š Vegas Gems – A sweeps casino with a crypto twist
Vegas Gems: Pros & Cons
- Unique crypto games
- First purchase bonus
- Redeem cash prizes
- Takes cryptocurrency payments
Are you into cryptocurrencies? Then you need to check out Vegas Gems. After all, this brand doesnāt just let you purchase credit with Bitcoin, but itās also got an impressive range of crypto games like CoinFlip, Towers and Crash.
Vegas Gems also gets the basics of sweepstakes gaming right, as it’s got over 500 slots from major gaming studios like Pragmatic Play and Softswiss. Youāll also get a first purchase bonus for signing up – this bonus means that you get 50% extra Gems on your first purchase of Shards. Just so you know, Gems are used to potentially redeem prizes, whereas Shards are just used to play for fun.
1000 Gems + 50% Extra gems On Your First Shards Purchase
šŗš² Are sweepstakes casinos legal in the U.S.?
I canāt really give you a guide that asks, āWhat are sweepstakes casinos?ā without clarifying the legal situation about these gaming platforms. The good news is that sweepstakes casinos are available in the vast majority of the US. This is because they donāt involve any real-money gambling and therefore donāt require the same level of licensing and regulation as standard online casinos.
While you can only play real-money online casino games in the states of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Michigan, West Virginia, Delaware and Connecticut, sweepstakes casinos are available almost everywhere in the US, from Florida to Hawaii and most states in-between.
Despite this, itās worth noting that each state has the power to decide which sweepstakes brands they allow to operate within their borders. States like Washington, Michigan, Idaho and Nevada are usually fairly resistant to letting any form of sweepstakes gaming, but itās a good idea to check whether the site you want to play at is legally available in your state. The actual sweepstakes gaming laws will vary according to the state you are playing at. However, all sweepstakes casinos will have to let you enter their sweepstakes with no purchase necessary.
Additionally, certain states like Florida and New York tend to apply lower limits on the value of the prizes that you can redeem. Again, another good reason to check the terms and conditions page of the sweepstakes casino that you are playing at. Hereās a quick summary of the legality of sweepstakes casinos in the US:
- Sweepstakes casinos are legally available in most states
- Each state has its own sweepstakes gaming laws
- Sweepstakes casinos have to let you play with no purchase required
- Washington, Nevada, Idaho and Michigan are less likely to feature sweepstakes gaming
- Florida and New York have lower limits on the value of the prizes that you can redeem
š„ What games are available at sweepstakes casinos?
Itās one thing to know what sweepstakes casinos are, but itās quite something else to actually play at these sites. The good news is that the kinds of games featured at sweeps casinos will largely mirror what you find at regular online casinos and at casinos in the real-world. Hereās a quick look at the kinds of games that you could be playing:
- Online slots including jackpot slots and Megaways slots
- Table games such as roulette, blackjack and baccarat
- Live dealer games including table games and game show games
- Instant-win games such as Crash, Plinko and Mines
- Other games like video poker, keno, bingo and fishing games
š What are the average RTP rates at sweepstakes casinos?
Anyone who wants to know what sweepstakes casinos are will probably want to know what their chances of winning are. Thereās something called a return to player percentage (RTP) that covers this issue.
Each casino-style game will have an RTP and it basically means what kinds of returns you should expect to get over time. So if you played 100 Gold Coins over time on a slot game with a RTP of 96%, you would expect to get a return of 96 Gold Coins. Remember that this is a theoretical average and it doesnāt mean that this is exactly what is going to happen.
Iāve found that the RTP of the games at sweepstakes casinos is largely the same as that of regular online casinos. This means that most
sweepstakes slots
have an RTP of between 95 and 97%, while table games like blackjack and roulette tend to hover around the 97% mark. So while you canāt actually wager at sweepstakes casinos, knowing the RTP can be useful in figuring out which games will give you a better chance of winning more Gold Coins and Sweepstakes Coins.
šµ What payment methods can I use at sweepstakes casinos?
Anyone who knows what sweepstakes casinos are will understand that they can always play at these sites for free. Despite this, you should be given the option to purchase one of the Gold Coins packages.
Gold Coins are the form of virtual currency that let you play in the standard mode which is where you cannot redeem any prizes. However, certain Gold Coins packages may give you some free Sweepstakes Coins as a bonus.
Remember that you cannot make standard deposits at sweepstakes casinos, but you should be able to make one-off purchases of Gold Coins packages with one of the following payment types:
- Credit and debit cards such as Visa and Mastercard
- Ewallets including PayPal, Skrill and Neteller
- Cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, Dogecoin and Tether
- Bank transfers
ā Do sweepstakes casinos have playthrough requirements?
Yes, sweepstakes casinos have something called playthrough requirements which have to be fulfilled before you can redeem any prizes. These playthrough requirements refer to how many times you will have to āplay throughā your Sweepstakes Coins before you put in a prize redemption request.
Such playthrough requirements can vary significantly according to the site that you are playing at. For example, Wow Vegas has 1x playthrough requirements while this figure goes up to 20x at Vegas Gems. Check out this guide to sweepstakes casinos playthrough requirements to see who gives you the simplest way to redeem your prizes.
š¤ Can I get Sweepstakes Coins for free?
Yes, now that weāve had sweepstakes casinos explained, you should understand that you can always get Sweepstakes Coins for free. After all, this is the form of virtual currency that lets you play in the sweepstakes mode where there has to be no purchase necessary to participate.
As such, you should be able to get your free Sweepstakes Coins via at least some of the following promotions:
- Welcome offers:
Get free credit for signing up to the sweeps casino
- Daily login bonuses:
Receive free coins for logging into your account every day
- Social media giveaways:
Complete simple tasks on social media to get free credit
- Daily races:
Play more than anyone else to get your free coins
- Referral bonuses:
Get a friend to sign up to the sweeps casino and receive your reward
- Postal requests:
Send in a postal request asking for free coins and the sweepstakes casino will do it
- Purchase bonuses:
Buy one of the special Gold Coins packages to get free Sweepstakes Coins as a bonus
- Reward programs:
Keep playing at the sweeps casino and get rewards ranging from free coins to superior customer support
š How to redeem your Sweepstakes Coins for real prizes
Most people who are asking what sweepstakes casinos are will be pretty keen to see how they can get their hands on some of those redeemable prizes. So the key thing to remember here is that you can only redeem prizes if you play through the Sweepstakes Coins form of virtual currency the required number of times. As well as that, you should keep the following factors in mind:
Minimum prize redemption threshold
This refers to the minimum amount of Sweepstakes Coins that you are allowed to redeem. For example, you might need to have won at least 100 Sweepstakes Coins to redeem a cash prize, but this amount might drop down to 50 Sweepstakes Coins for a gift card prize. Donāt forget that these thresholds might also vary according to whether you got these Sweepstakes Coins through a special offer, or whether you won them through gameplay.
Chances are that those Sweepstakes Coins will have some strict time limits. Itās often the case that your Sweepstakes Coins will expire if you have failed to use them within 60 days. Check out this guide to sweepstakes casinos redemption time limits to see who gives you the greatest amount of time to redeem your cash prizes.
šÆ Conclusion – Get ready to enjoy the best in sweepstakes gaming entertainment
Now that you know what sweepstakes casinos are, youāll be ready to start playing at one of the gaming platforms. Be sure to check out some of the reviews on this site to see which sweeps casinos are legally available in your state, as well as who has the best fit in terms of games and promo offers.
I should also note that many more sweepstakes casinos are being launched each and every month and Iāll be updating this guide accordingly. So be sure to check back here to see who is spearheading the sweepstakes gaming revolution.
Our favorite sweepstakes casino bonuses in September 2024
1.
5 SC FREE + 250 Game Coins and 600 Diamonds
Players from United States of America accepted
Requirements (WR): 1x Bonus
2.
25 SC FREE and 57.5K Gold Coins
Players from United States of America accepted
3.
27.5 SC FREE and 57.5K Gold Coins
Players from United States of America accepted
Requirements (WR): 1x Bonus
4.
$55 Stake Cash + 260K Gold Coins + 5% Rakeback
Players from United States of America accepted
Requirements (WR): 3x
5.
Purchase Offer: 20 SC FREE and 100K Gold Coins
Players from United States of America accepted
Min. Deposit: 20
š What are sweepstakes casinos FAQ
š„ How do sweepstakes casinos work?
Sweepstakes casinos let you play casino-style games online with virtual currency rather than your own money. You can always play for free at these sites, and if you play with the free Sweeps Coins form of virtual currency, you might be able to redeem real world prizes.
šµ Can you win real money on sweepstakes?
No, you cannot directly win real money on sweepstakes casinos. However, you will be given the opportunity to redeem real money prizes if you play through the Sweepstakes Coins form of virtual currency the required number of times.
š Where can I get a list of sweepstakes casinos?
Right here in this guide. This is the place where you see 10 of the best sweepstakes casinos, and Iāll tackle the thorny question, āWhat are sweepstakes casinos?ā too.
ā Are online sweepstakes casinos legal in my state?
It depends where you are playing from, but sweepstakes casinos are generally available in most states. The states in which you might have problems with playing at online sweeps casinos are usually Washington, Nevada, Idaho and Michigan, but read this guide to get further information about the biggest sweepstakes brands.
š Is sweepstakes considered gambling?
No, because you donāt actually wager real money on the casino-style games. Instead of this, you will be playing with two different forms of virtual currency that have no cash value outside of the actual sweepstakes casino site.
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