🎰 First things first, what is a sweepstakes casino?
Before I dig into the Illinois sweepstakes law, it’s probably smart to define what it means to play at a sweepstakes casino. Simply put, it’s a gaming site where you don’t actually need to spend real money on casino-style games, but instead play with virtual credit.
The fact that these sites don’t involve real-money gambling means that sweeps casinos aren’t subject to the same kinds of regulation that governs standard online casinos. So not only does it make Texas sweepstakes casinos legal, but it also means that you can play at these sweeps gaming platforms from anywhere in the Prairie State. Here are some key pros and cons for doing so:
Pros & Cons
- Legal in Illinois
- Always play for free
- Redeem real world prizes
- Play casino-style games online
🚀 Are sweepstakes casinos legal in Illinois?
Yes, the Illinois sweepstakes law allows you to legally play at all of the sweeps casinos featured on this page. This is despite the fact that regular real-money online casinos aren’t legally available in the Prairie State.
You won’t find too many sweepstakes laws in Illinois that are different to what you’ll get anywhere else in the US. While New York sweepstakes casinos will have a cap on the value of the prizes that you can redeem, you can redeem as much as you want in IL if you meet the applicable redemption requirements. Just note that you will usually have to be at least 18 years old to play at Illinois sweepstakes casinos.
🎯 Top legal sweepstakes casinos in Illinois- At a glance
The Illinois sweepstakes law is flexible enough to allow all of the biggest and best sweeps gaming brands to operate in the Prairie State. Check out this table to see which sites you could be playing at:
| Operator | Bonus Offer | Number of Games | Types of Games |
| Stake.us | $55 Stake Cash + 260K Gold Coins + 5% Rakeback
| 1,000+ | Slots, Live Dealer, Table Games, Poker, Scratch Cards, Stake Originals |
| Sweeptastic | 70,000 Lucky Coins + 44 Sweeps Coins
| 400+ | Slots |
| McLuck | 7,500 Gold Coins + 2.5 Sweepstakes Coins
| 700+ | Slots, Live Dealer, Slingo |
| Wow Vegas | 1.75M WOW Coins + 35 Free Sweepstakes Coins
| 900+ | Slots |
| Sportzino | 1,570,000 Gold Coins + 45 Sweepstakes Coins
| 589 | Slots, Social Betting |
| Vegas Gems | 1000 Gems + 50% Extra gems on your first Shards purchase
| 400+ | Slots |
| Hello Millions | 15,000 Gold Coins + 2.5 Sweepstakes Coins
| 700+ | Slots, Slingo |
| Zula Casino | 100,000 Gold Coins + 10 Free Sweepstakes Coins
| 700+ | Slots |
| Fortune Coins | 650,000 Gold Coins + 1,400 Fortune Coins
| 550+ | Slots |
| High 5 Casino | 5 Sweeps Coins + 250 Game Coins + 600 Diamonds
| 1,200+ | Slots, Live Dealer, Slingo |
🤖 How do sweepstakes casinos comply with Illinois rules?
While Illinois sweepstakes casinos will come in a variety of shapes and sizes, they will all have to work in a roughly similar way. This means that, in order to satisfy the current Illinois sweepstakes law, they will need to incorporate the following features:
You won’t find any Illinois sweepstakes casinos that offer real money gambling. Instead, these sites have to follow Illinois sweepstakes rules by letting you play with virtual credit only. This usually comes in the form of Gold Coins that you use to play for entertainment purposes, or Sweepstakes Coins that can be used to redeem real-world prizes.
The Illinois sweepstakes law demands that you should always be able to enter the sweepstakes games with no purchase necessary. As such, you should find that you get lots of promo offers that give you free credits to play with.
You cannot directly win money at Illinois sweepstakes casinos. However, you can play sweepstakes games in Illinois with Sweepstakes Coins and redeem prizes like cash prizes, gift cards and merchandise. Just note that you’ll usually have to fulfil some playthrough requirements before you can do this.
While the Illinois sweepstakes law requires you to be able to play with no purchases required, you will be given the option to purchase Gold Coins packages from these gaming platforms. Remember that these Gold Coins are used to play just for fun, meaning that no prizes will be redeemable with these coins.
Know your customer verification
All legit Illinois sweepstakes casinos will have some kind of verification procedure in place. This will feature various Know Your Customer requirements to ensure that you are playing from within Illinois and that you are at least 18 years old.
💎 Our top 5 sweepstakes brands for Illinois
You could have a pretty good time at any of the Illinois sweepstakes casinos listed in table above. However, I’ve carried out these mini-reviews of my five favorite sweeps brands to help you find your perfect gaming platform:
1. Stake.us
Stake.us: Pros & Cons
- Nearly 1,000 casino-style games
- Exclusive sign up offer
- Redeem real-world prizes
- Excellent VIP club
This is arguably the most exciting sweeps casino on the market right now. After all, not every sweeps casino has partnered up with Drake. Signing up to Stake.us from the banners on this page will get you an exclusive welcome bonus that gives you 260,000 Gold Coins to play for fun, 55 Sweeps Cash to potentially redeem for real world prizes, and 5% rakeback to give you a further helping hand.
There are nearly 1,000 casino-style games here, including top slots from Pragmatic Play, fun scratchcards from Hacksaw Gaming, some stunning live dealer games and, of course, those Stake Originals like Dice, Mines and Limbo. On top of this, Stake.us has lots of deals for existing customers ranging from daily races to a generous VIP club.
$55 Stake Cash + 260K Gold Coins + 5% Rakeback
2. Wow Vegas
Wow Vegas Casino Pros & Cons
- Great for slot games
- Massive welcome offer
- Top referral bonus
- Major games developers
All slot gaming fans will have a good time at Wow Vegas. After all, this is a sweepstakes casino with over 1,200 slot games that you can play for free. These come from some prestigious gaming studios such as Pragmatic Play, 3 Oaks and BGaming to ensure that you get high-quality gameplay, graphics and audio.
Wow Vegas is a great site for promos too. The sign up offer will give you 1,750,000 Wow Coins and 35 Sweepstakes Coins. After that, you will find referral bonuses, exclusive games, race rewards, daily coin rewards and an excellent VIP star system. These bonuses are perfect for getting a helping hand towards potentially redeeming those real money prizes.
35 SC FREE and 1.75M WOW Coins
3. McLuck
McLuck Casino Pros & Cons
- Redeem cash and gift card prizes
- Over 1,200 slots
- Great live casino
- Top-notch loyalty scheme
This is one of the newest Illinois sweepstakes casinos to come on the market. McLuck offers an excellent variety of games that includes nearly 1,300 slot games, but it was the brand’s live casino-style games that caught my eye. After all, not every sweeps casino lets you play the likes of Gravity Blackjack and Auto Roulette.
McLuck will give you 7,500 Gold Coins and 2.5 Sweepstakes Coins for registering your first account, and from here you can keep playing and hope to trigger one of those McJackpots that will give you even more credits to play with. Moreover, with a great loyalty scheme and a handy Android app, I think you’ll like what you find here.
27.5 SC FREE and 57.5K Gold Coins
4. High 5 Casino
Pros & Cons of High 5 Casino
- Generous welcome offer
- Nearly 2,000 casino-style games
- Great sweeps casino apps
- Redeemable cash prizes
Let’s start with the High 5 Casino welcome offer that gives you 250 Game Coins to play for fun, five Sweeps Coins that can potentially be used to redeem cash prizes and gift cards, and 600 Diamonds that can trigger the cool Boost on Demand feature.
From here, you can use that free credit to play well over 1,900 casino-style games. These contain many top slots from developers like Vivo Gaming and Pragmatic Play, although it’s also worth noting that High 5 has its own exclusive slots here. All of this on top of having one of the best sweeps casino apps on the market, I think that High 5 Casino is worthy of a closer look.
5 SC FREE + 250 Game Coins and 600 Diamonds
5. Vegas Gems
Pros & Cons of Vegas Gems
- Over 500 slot games
- Original games like Crash and CoinFlip
- Redeem real world prizes
- Make crypto purchases
You can play over 500 casino-style games at Vegas Gems and the bulk of these are some classic slot games that come from big name developers such as SoftSwiss and Pragmatic Play. However, most gamers probably come here to play the more unusual games like Towers and Wheel that are more capable of triggering some huge multipliers.
Vegas Gems gives you a decent first purchase bonus upon signing up. So if you purchase one of the Shards packages, you’ll get 50% extra Gems to play with. Just so you know, Shards are used to play for fun, while Gems can be used to potentially redeem real-world prizes.
1000 Gems + 50% Extra gems On Your First Shards Purchase
Social casinos you should look out for
1.
5 SC FREE + 250 Game Coins and 600 Diamonds
Players from United States of America accepted
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
4.
$55 Stake Cash + 260K Gold Coins + 5% Rakeback
Players from United States of America accepted
5.
Purchase Offer: 20 SC FREE and 100K Gold Coins
Players from United States of America accepted
🤩 Getting started with sweepstakes casinos in Illinois
It doesn’t matter whether you are using California sweepstakes casinos or sweeps casinos in Illinois, as most of these sites operate in the same way. Here is a quick rundown of what you need to do to get started with sweepstakes casinos in Illinois:
- Choose one of my recommend sweeps casinos to play at
- Click on the link to be taken to their site
- Register your account by filling in the registration form
- Create your username and password
- Enter in any promo codes to get your welcome offer
- Submit your application
- Verify your ID by submitting a selfie and some photo ID
- Browse the casino games
- Click on a game to play from your web browser
- Enter the amount of virtual credits you want to play with
- Start playing
🎉 Overall great reasons to play at Illinois sweepstakes casinos
I’ve shown you that there is little to stop you from signing up to one of my recommended sweeps casinos from anywhere in the Prairie State. This means that you could soon be playing anything from slots in Springfield to roulette in Rockford. Not only do each of these brands let you play for free, but you could even redeem some pretty cool prizes just for playing your favorite games.
Of course, the success of sweeps casinos means that we can expect many more of these brands to start popping up all over the state in the coming months. So keep an eye on this page to see the hottest sweepstakes casinos to come to Illinois.
Our most recommended social casino bonuses
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
❓ Illinois sweepstakes casinos FAQ
🤔 Do you have to pay to win sweepstakes?
Certainly not. In fact, all sweepstakes casinos have to let you play with no purchase necessary.
❓ What are the sweepstakes laws by state?
While each state will have to let you enter the sweepstakes games for free, you’ll find that there may be further rules ahead. For example, Florida sweepstakes casinos will only let you redeem prizes of up to $5,000 at a time.
🎰 Is online casino gambling legal in Illinois?
No, you cannot legally wager real money at online casinos from anywhere in Illinois. However, you can legally use sweepstakes casinos, where you can play online casino-style games for free and potentially redeem real money prizes.
🎁 Can I get a sweepstakes casino no deposit bonus?
Yes, because all sweepstakes casinos have to let you play for free, and they don’t have the function to accept your deposits since only purchases can be made at sweepstakes casinos. As such, most sweepstakes casino bonuses will be a “no deposit bonus”.
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