There’s a concerning new trend in the world of sweepstakes casinos doing damage to the reputation of the industry. I’m talking about a fresh wave of fake sites marketing themselves as sweepstakes casinos without abiding by the rules of the format.
These are simply scam sites that players should stay far away from – let’s go into how to tell them apart from legitimate sweeps and social casinos below.
There are some telltale signs that set this new batch of fake sites apart:
- They claim to offer popular games by the provider Pragmatic Play (e.g., Buffalo King Megaways, Big Bass series, Zeus vs Hades) but the games are in fact bootleg versions.
- The bootleg games are designed so that you cannot lose, but then players are forced to deposit to withdraw funds or unlock bonuses.
- The terms and conditions are incredibly convoluted and basically nonsense.
- There is a lack of mainstay features from the sweeps format like Alternative Method of Entry and responsible gaming tools.
- Many of these sites share the same user interface/design which is mobile-size only, even when accessed on desktop.
We’ve reviewed a couple of these types of sites, namely SweepsBlast and BigCashSweeps, so you can read our thoughts in-depth there.
We’ve also spotted sites like Litslot (pictured), Sweep777, SnagPrize, Hustle777, and Jackpotions, and added them to our blacklist.
We can’t review each one of these new scam sites that pop up – they are so numerous – but our blacklist is the quickest and best place to see if a site is illegitimate or not.
Pragmatic Play No Longer Supplies Sweepstakes Casinos
One of the first and most obvious red flags at these scam sites is the supposed presence of Pragmatic Play slot games. This is because Pragmatic withdrew from the sweeps vertical in September.
This news was a blow to sweepstakes in general, as Pragmatic was essentially the most popular games provider at many sweeps sites, with a prestigious catalog including slots like Sugar Rush, Sweet Bonanza, Gates of Olympus, and more.
Many players have been upset since the withdrawal, and it seems these fake sites are now exploiting the desire to still play Pragmatic games for Gold Coins (GC) or Sweeps Coins (SC).
However, Pragmatic has drawn a clear line in the sand and stated it will not offer games at US sweepstakes casinos anymore. Therefore, if you see a site offering them, this is a telltale sign the site is illegitimate.
Scam Sites Force Players Into Making Coin Purchases
Another attribute of these new scam sites is the way they push you into making a purchase.
Sweepstakes casinos work on a no purchase necessary rule, meaning that you can gain free GC or SC via multiple bonus routes. You are then able to play casino-style games without spending a cent.
However, if you need to make a purchase to unlock supposedly free bonus coins – as with our experience at BigCashSweeps – this is a major red flag. Another red flag is when a game is impossible to lose on, with the site then prompting you to make a purchase to be able to redeem SC into real cash prizes.
On top of that, if you decide to try and find some clarity from the terms of conditions or sweepstakes rules page, you may be met with incredibly convoluted clauses or plain nonsense. See the below excerpt courtesy of SweepsBlast:
“4. After deposit, 72% of the deposit value will go into the prize pool and you can claim sweep coins equal to 1/50 of your total current bet amount at any time by playing the specified games.
5. After deposit, when the bet amount reaches 110 times the deposit amount, you can claim a reward of 110% of the deposit amount at once by playing the specified games.”
Legitimate sweepstakes sites offer various GC and SC bonuses to players that can be used to play games, and eventually the SC can be redeemed into real cash once the playthrough requirements have been fulfilled. GC plus free SC can be purchased in bundles from the coin store and are used to play and win in the same way.
Other Ways to Spot These Fake Sweepstakes Casinos
Another potential red flag for fake or scam sites is a first purchase offer which seems too good to be true.
For example, at SweepsBlast we were presented with a deal offering 377% extra free SC. To be honest, while this amount of free coins isn’t unheard of in first purchase offers from legit sweepstakes casinos, it is definitely on the high side and rather rare, so it’s another reason – combined with the rest – to be very wary.
Also, we’ve found that many of these sites run the same software, using the same user interface, so once you spot one, it’s easy to recognize them all.
Every once in a while, a new wave of scam sweepstakes casinos will emerge to try and exploit uninformed players. It reminds us of sites like Riversweeps and BitBetWin that became notorious in 2022.
This is exactly why SweepsKings exists – to give players the tools and knowledge to tell bad sites from good ones. Losing funds to a scammer is one of the worst feelings, so we hope all our readers can avoid the heartbreak it causes. By using the checks mentioned in this article and our standard review criteria, we want our readers to stay vigilant and keep their personal information and finances safe.
Author: Alex Windsor
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