Sweepstakes casinos are booming, and besides good games and accessibility, they’re also offering real cash prizes to eligible players.
As casino experts with over a decade of combined experience in the sweepstakes industry, the SweepsKings team is here to help you learn what it takes to win real money at sweeps casinos, so let’s start from the top.
1. Understand Sweepstakes Casinos with Cash Prizes
Sweepstakes casinos are social casinos with real cash prizes. In other words, real money payouts are possible, but you’ll have to understand certain concepts and deploy smart strategies to get there.
First and foremost, only “eligible” players can participate in sweeps prizes, meaning that they can collect sweeps coins from bonuses/promotions and later convert them to money. Needless to say, all reputable sweeps casinos only allow adults to play, so you’ll have to be at least 18 years old to register unless the age restrictions are set higher.
To find out if you’re eligible to play at your chosen casino, check their Terms and Conditions – they always indicate which states and/or territories are not supported.
Now that you know how to check if you’re eligible to play, let’s briefly talk about what you can do at a sweepstakes casino:
- Sweeps casino platforms use gold coins and sweeps coins. Gold coins are free-to-play currency used to demo slots and play for fun. Sweeps Coins are treated as bonus money, hold monetary value, and are used for cash prize redemptions.
- Unlike land-based and real money casinos, sweeps casinos are required by law to offer free in-game currency for free. This is usually done via AMOE and welcome bonuses.
- Since sweeps coins are “bonus money”, you will need to wager them the specified number of times (at least once) to make them redeemable for cash prizes. Furthermore, all sweepstakes casinos set a “minimum redemption threshold”, which is the lowest amount of redeemable sweeps coins you must have to request a real cash prize.
- Bonuses and promotions are an integral component of trustworthy sweepstakes casinos. Contests, tournaments, giveaways, daily races, and similar events are usually free to participate in, so check them out.
- Real cash purchases are always optional at legit sweepstakes casinos. However, nearly all platforms offer purchasable gold coin packages. Casinos usually award free sweeps coins on select (or all, depending on the site) GC packs.
- To buy any gold coin pack, you will need to choose an available payment medium (such as credit cards, online banking, or e-wallet). The majority of social casinos with cash prizes require players to pass a know-your-customer (KYC) check before any coin purchases or redemptions can be made.
2. Identify the Best Free SC Bonuses
According to current laws in the majority of US states, sweepstakes casinos aren’t allowed to sell services or items of value – doing so would put them in the same boat as real cash online casinos, and they would be required to have a license to operate.
That’s why all sweeps platforms offer some free currency to players on various occasions – upon sign-up, upon account verification, via daily refills, on gold coin purchases, and so on.
Even though all sweepstakes casinos offer free SC bonuses, each offer is different. Some platforms offer more gold coins, others award more sweeps coins; some have hefty bonuses but impose various bonus restrictions or high wagering requirements while smaller offers tend to be easier to claim.
It’s important to note that not all SCs are pegged to USD at a ratio of 1:1. You may occasionally bump into sweepstakes casinos that offer thousands of free sweeps upon sign-up.
Fortune Coins is a good example since their welcome bonus awards 630,000 gold coins and 1,400 free Fortune Coins (sweeps). Their FCs are pegged to USD at a ratio of 100 FC = $1, so in other words, their welcome bonus awards $14 worth of free sweeps, which is still a huge bonus.
Finally, we at SweepsKings encourage you to check the Bonus Rules at all sweepstakes casinos you visit to see how easy or difficult meeting these terms will be.
3. Sign Up at 10+ Sweepstakes Casinos
As we mentioned, sweepstakes platforms offer free sweepstakes coins that you can later redeem for cash prizes. The best way to earn the most money at sweepstakes casinos is to sign up on as many platforms as you can.
Collect welcome bonuses from each sweepstakes platform you register on, and wherever possible, collect your daily refills. Again, check the bonus rules to see when (and if) your sweeps coins can expire; ensure to play at least a few games every other day to retain the status of an active player.
However, it’s imperative to choose legit, trustworthy casinos. Numerous platforms run by shady operators exist only to take your money; they have rigged games and possibly malware-infected websites, so to stay on the safe side, do a bit of research and consult our guides and reviews.
- Amazing slots
- Sign up bonus
- Daily promos
- Paris Hilton ambassador
- Pragmatic Play slots
- Weekly tournaments
- 10+ fish games
- Progressive jackpots
- Best welcome bonus
- Referral bonus
- Daily rewards
- Slots and skill games
4. Claim As Many Free Tokens as Possible
Many sweepstakes casinos have other promotions besides the welcome bonus. You can keep collecting daily refills, enter giveaway contests, and participate in raffle events without spending a cent of your own money. Moreover, our recommended sweepstakes casinos have tons of regular bonuses for existing users, such as alternative methods of entry (“AMOE” or mail-in) bonuses, game-specific promotions, and more.
One of the main reasons why we’ve recommended signing up at as many sweeps casinos as possible is that many platforms frequently launch new promotions; more importantly, they launch new promo codes, drop codes, and time-limited bonuses.
These special events usually offer significantly higher free token rewards relative to staple bonuses like AMOE or daily/hourly bonuses.
5. Test Games and Find The Best Odds with Gold Coins
Gold coins hold no monetary value and are mainly used to play slots, table games, and other casino-style titles for fun. However, they are also very convenient for testing games at sweeps platforms (especially when demoing isn’t available).
If you followed our advice and signed up on multiple legit sweepstakes casinos, you probably have an abundance of gold coins in your wallets. This will enable you to test hundreds of games before you find a few that you like and, more importantly, games that pay better than most.
Slot games are ideal if you’re a beginner since they’re widespread in virtually all casinos. Some of our favorite games include:
- Wanted Dead or a Wild by Hacksaw Gaming
- Gates of Olympus by Pragmatic Play
- The Dog House by Pragmatic Play
- Arabian Nights by Net Ent
- Hit the Route by BGaming
- Aztec Magic by BGaming
- 5 Mariachis by Habanero
- Coin Volcano by 3 Oaks
You may also want to consider playing table games at sweepstakes casinos that support them since they tend to have significantly higher return-to-player (RTP) scores than slot games. Note that at some platforms playing games doesn’t count toward the rollover progress, meaning that you can’t make your sweeps redeemable by playing them. Here are some of the most popular table game types that you may want to try:
- Blackjack
- Baccarat
- Poker
- Roulette
- Sic Bo
- Hi-Lo
- Andar Bahar
- Fish tables
At SweepsKings, our team is constantly testing casino style games that are popular in sweepstakes casinos from vendors like Pragmatic, NetEnt, BGaming, and more. If you feel like you’re wasting hours of your time testing games personally, you can check our guides for recommendations and in-depth breakdowns of the most popular casino game mechanics.
6. Identify the Sweepstakes Redemptions Rules
We briefly mentioned that all sweeps coins you’ll receive at any sweepstakes casino are treated as “bonus funds”. To make them redeemable for real cash prizes, you will need to meet the casino’s bonus rules.
Each sweeps platform has a different set of conditions. While the details may vary from site to site, the types of bonus conditions you’ll encounter are more or less the same everywhere. Let’s have a quick breakdown of the most common bonus terms and conditions at sweepstakes casinos:
- Player eligibility – this clause defines who can play, participate in sweeps gameplay, collect sweeps coins, and redeem them for cash prizes. It usually dictates the minimum age requirement (typically 18+) and supported states.
- Playthrough requirement – often referred to as the “rollover” requirement, this section tells you how many times your sweeps coins must be wagered before they can be redeemed. The industry’s standard is 1-2x, but some sites set the playthrough requirement as high as 5x. For example, if the rollover is 2x and you currently have 30 sweeps, you’ll need to play through 60 SCs to make them redeemable.
- Minimum redemption threshold – this term defines the minimum of redeemable sweeps coins that must be in your wallet before you can request a cash prize. Usually, sweepstakes casinos set the threshold lower for gift card redemptions at approximately 25 SC while real cash prize redemptions are possible once you have 50-100
7. Try Your Luck with Sweeps Coins
Now that you’re familiar with how sweepstakes casinos and their currencies work, it’s time to test your luck with sweeps coins.
Gaming-wise, playing with sweeps is identical to playing with gold coins. The only difference is that you’ll have to make careful decisions about which game to play and adjust your wagers (since you won’t have tens of thousands of sweeps at your disposal).
To start playing for sweeps, you only have to tap the slider next to your in-game wallet or the balance icon itself. Once the sweeps coins are highlighted, you’ll enter the promotional mode and will be wagering your sweeps coins instead of your gold coins.
Managing Your Sweeps Coins
Slots, table games, scratchies, jackpots, and virtually any titles you can play at sweepstakes casinos are games of chance, meaning that luck plays quite a factor in how things will play out.
However, the tips we’ve included in this guide should help you retain full control over your sweeps coins and ultimately lead you to the main goal – converting your sweeps coins into real cash.
Even though all sweepstakes casinos offer an in-game store where you can buy additional currency and receive extra sweeps coins for free, we advise you to play and spend responsibly. Reputable sweeps platforms offer several Responsible Social Gaming (RSG) tools that you can use to manage your spending, such as:
- Purchase limits: designate how much you can spend each day, week, and/or month.
- Gaming limits: set a timer for your gaming session. After it expires, you will automatically be logged off from your profile.
- Timeout: take a break from the casino for a few days, weeks, or months. You will not be able to log into your profile during this time.
- Self-exclusion: works just like timeout, but has an extended period of effect, usually expressed in years.
- Account closure: forfeit all your gold and sweeps coins and permanently close your casino profile using this RSG tool.
How To Redeem Your Prizes
After meeting the bonus rules and accumulating sufficient (redeemable) sweeps coins, you will be able to convert your sweeps into a real cash prize. To do so, you will usually need to perform the following actions:
- Tap the “Redeem” button
- Verify your profile by passing a KYC test
- Choose from the list of available redemption methods (e.g. Trustly, Credit Cards, e-wallets)
- Provide your banking details
- Choose how many sweeps you wish to redeem
The Sweeps Rules we referenced earlier are sometimes outlined in the casino’s Terms and Conditions. Check both pages to learn how your chosen casino has structured the prize redemption process.
Conclusion
Winning real money at sweepstakes casinos is easy if you’re playing the right games at legit sweeps platforms and continuously collecting all free sweeps that the casino has to offer.
We at SweepsKings are committed to bringing you the latest sweepstakes casino guides, reviews, and tips, so check them out to optimize your chances of winning real cash at our recommended platforms.
Author: AlexW
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