The differences between a legitimate, reliable sweepstakes casino and a scam platform are rarely apparent for beginners to notice. Both types can feature hundreds of games and sleek websites, yet one is meant for players to enjoy and the other is there to take your money.
To ensure our players have a safe, pleasurable gaming experience, SweepsKings experts have created a comprehensive guide to finding a reliable sweepstakes casino. We warmly advise you to check out our tips and recommendations before starting your search.
#1 Understand How Sweepstakes Casinos Operate
Sweepstakes casinos have elements of social and real-money online casinos, but most importantly, they are free-to-play gaming platforms. The first thing you need to know about sweeps casinos is that you’ll never have to spend a cent if you’re playing at a reliable platform.
What set sweepstakes casinos apart from other casino types are several unique features:
- They use a dual currency system, featuring gold coins and sweeps coins. The former holds no monetary value while the latter can be used to redeem prizes.
- Sweepstakes casinos offer cash prizes instead of real money payouts. To claim these prizes, you must be an eligible player (from a supported state) and meet all the bonus rules (wagering requirement and minimum SC redemption threshold).
- Sweeps platforms are required by law to ensure real money purchases aren’t necessary. This is done by providing free bonuses and alternative methods of entry (AMOE) to sweeps prizes.
- Unlike real money casinos, sweepstakes casinos are legal in the majority of US states. You can learn how to play at a sweepstakes casino from your state as a beginner through the linked article.
In a nutshell, sweepstakes casinos are social casinos with money prizes. If you’re playing at a reputable venue, you’ll receive a hefty no deposit bonus and gain access to regular promotions that will perpetually feed your balance with additional free coins.
We at SweepsKings have published comprehensive guides about how sweepstakes casino bonuses and currencies work (see our gold coins & sweeps coins guide), so check them out for more info.
#2 Identify and Research Owner
This might be a time-consuming process, but it’s imperative to find out who is running the show at sweepstakes casinos you’re about to register with.
The individuals, groups, or companies running the site are the ones who will have access to your information, which can include sensitive data like billing information should you decide to purchase gold coins.
The quickest way to find out who is running a sweepstakes casino is to check the website’s Terms and Conditions. You may notice that some sweeps casinos won’t reveal any information about their owner, in which case we recommend skipping those particular platforms.
Our reviews and guides feature a ranking devoted to this topic called “Safety & Trust Factor”, which explains in great detail everything there is to know about the reviewed casino’s owner, such as sister sites, years of operation, state/country of incorporation, and more.
#3 Check Licenses or Game Studios
Sweepstakes casinos can be legal and legitimate even if they don’t have a license. Moreover, there are only a handful of sweeps platforms that have one, but the lack thereof shouldn’t be considered an instant red flag.
More importantly, we recommend checking the game studios your chosen sweepstakes casino is working with. Since game vendors are required to have a license, reputable i-gaming studios and developers will provide games and essentially partner only with casinos that deserve their trust.
Most sweepstakes casinos have filters that allow you to sort their games “by provider”, but in case you can’t see this option, search the names of available games along with the suffix “software provider”, “vendor”, or “provider” in Google.
Currently, over 100+ i-gaming studios are powering the US sweepstakes, so keep an eye out for the leading ones, such as:
- Pragmatic Play
- NetEnt
- Playson
- Hacksaw Gaming
- BGaming
- Slotmill
- Habanero
#4 Assess Security and Safety
A reputable sweepstakes casino will go above and beyond to ensure its players are safe from bad actors and malicious software. This is typically done by securing the platform via two-factor authentication (2FA) and deep encryptions like secure sockets layer protocols (SSL).
Know-your-customer (KYC) and geolocation features are also a must since they ensure only eligible players can play.
#5 Read Expert Reviews
Setting up an account, claiming bonuses, and finding good games can take up hours of your time, which is a waste if you end up not liking the casino. Moreover, you shouldn’t click on any links and websites you come across as they might contain viruses or spyware.
To help our players avoid potentially dangerous platforms and choose sweepstakes casinos with the best games, payment systems, and bonuses, our team regularly rolls out fresh reviews and updates our older content.
Our reviews are based on objective-oriented criteria and dive deep into the fundamental aspects of every social and sweepstakes casino we’ve covered, including but not limited to:
- Promos & bonuses
- Games
- Payment systems
- Safety and security
- Customer support
- UX and interface
- Casino owner, track record, and legitimacy
We aren’t affiliated with any sweepstakes casino operator, and all of our reviews are made after months of extensive testing efforts. SweepsKings sweepstakes casino guides and reviews are solely there to inform you of all available options.
#6 Consider What Players Have to Say
Player testimonials can give you a glimpse into what you can expect at any given sweepstakes casino, but they are fairly easy to manipulate (e.g. competitors often order “smear reviews” while casino owners sometimes order “positive” ones).
Even so, there are a few platforms that have consistently delivered unbiased reports on sweepstakes casinos, with the most notable being Trustpilot.
At any rate, we encourage you to approach everything you read online with a grain of salt and critical thinking.
#7 Evaluate the Reliability of Payment Options
Whether you plan to buy gold coins or redeem your sweeps, it’s important to understand which payment methods are available to you at a sweepstakes casino.
As a rule of thumb, it’s safe to trust in widespread banking methods like American Express, Visa, or Mastercard, as well as popular e-wallets like Google Pay, PayPal, or Skrill.
Avoid sweepstakes casinos that accept and promise payments off-site via platforms like Discord or CashApp.
#8 Ensure Contacts Work
In our years of testing sweepstakes casinos, we’ve established that the majority of scam sites put active efforts into ensuring players can’t reach the support team/owner. They typically do this by either having no one manning the support lines or by downright providing false contact information.
If the casino has a live chat feature, use it to see if it works. Send an email to the provided address, and you may even earn some free currency. Go to the casino’s social media pages and send a direct message to their team.
Finally, call the phone number that they’ve provided and inquire about the casino’s services. A dependable sweepstakes platform is a site where support is available 24/7.
#9 Are Purchases Really Optional?
What makes sweepstakes casinos legal is a series of policies that ensure purchases are truly optional.
In other words, you’ll never be asked to make a real-money purchase at a legit platform while the best sweepstakes casino will take a more proactive approach like for example WOW Vegas reminding players that purchases are unnecessary with links to AMOE (alternative mode of entry) instructions on every page.
Additionally, purchases are optional only if you’re receiving enough free currency to play via no deposit bonuses, sign-up offers, regular refills, and other promos.
Let me give you a few examples of “pay-to-play” sweepstakes casinos where purchases aren’t as optional as claimed:
- The welcome bonus is poor
- Regular promotions aren’t available for free or to all users (e.g. locked behind a VIP level)
- No no deposit bonuses, AMOE, or daily refills, meaning that you’ll eventually run out of coins
#10 Do They Support Responsible Social Gameplay?
Problem gaming is a widespread issue that leaked from land-based casinos into the sweepstakes space. It relates to overspending even when no purchases are necessary, and it’s a major problem in this industry.
Fortunately, most sweepstakes casinos take this issue seriously and include a variety of RSG tools that players can use to achieve control over their spending tendencies, including but not limited to:
- Bankroll limits: you can designate daily, weekly, and/or monthly limits on all in-game purchases. Reaching the limit will prevent you from future spending until the next day, week, or month, respectively.
- Playtime notifications: if you’re spending more time gaming than you feel you should, you can set notifications that will remind you to take a break.
- Timeout: allows you to lock your account for a short period, preventing you from accessing the casino.
- Self-exclusion: functions similarly to timeout, but typically covers a larger stretch of time (e.g. 6+ months).
Besides responsible social gaming tools, most sweepstakes casinos also offer tips about addressing problem gaming and links to authoritative websites that can help you with these issues.
Legit Sweeps Casinos
- Excellent referral program
- Sleek desktop app
- 800+ games from premier studios
- McJackpot network
- iOS and Android apps
- All-around exceptional
- Live dealer games
- 150% first purchase bonus
- 50 SC for cash prizes
- Live games by Playtech
- Partnered with streamers
- Tremendous slots coverage
- Paris Hilton ambassador
- 1,300 slots, live, and bingo
- VIP Transfer
It would take weeks or even months to register and test every sweepstakes casino available online, especially given the fact that new platforms are launching quite often.
To save you the trouble of hunting platforms with hefty bonuses, plenty of games from reputable providers, and clean track records, we’ve compiled a comprehensive list of the best legit sweepstakes casinos available to US players.
Conclusion
The sweepstakes casino industry has a lot of moving parts – every platform with a shred of relevancy is constantly updating its games, policies, bonuses, and banking methods to remain competitive.
However, the casinos SweepsKings deem reliable and trustworthy have consistently outperformed their contemporaries and continue to reward their players’ trust.
Stick with us if you’re looking for the best that the sweepstakes industry has to offer – we constantly update our content to keep you in the know about the best offers at the top US sweeps platforms. At the very least, ensure you utilize our 10 tips above to track legit sweepstakes casinos and have fun without compromising your safety.
Author: Sara Miljkovic
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