Michigan Sweepstakes Casinos

Social casinos like Rush Games and BetRivers.net are up and running, but they only provide entertainment value through free-play virtual currencies. Despite legal prohibitions, several sweepstakes casinos are still active in Michigan, but only some of them can be considered legal – or better said, “not illegal”.

Our experts at SweepsKings have deeply researched Michigan’s gambling laws and regulations, scoured the market for all online gambling alternatives, and are here to guide you to the best sweepstakes casinos you can visit.

Michigan Gambling Laws: Online Casino Legal Updates

Michigan’s online casino operations are regulated by the Michigan Gaming Control Board (MGCB). This institution was established in 1996 but began working the following year under the authority of the Michigan Department of Treasury.

The board first legalized charitable casino gaming in 2012 with executive order 2012-4, and it took seven more years until online casinos were green-lighted in 2019.

To this day, sweepstakes casinos haven’t been formally legalized or banned, but all unlicensed organizations, whether they be social or sweeps sites, are de facto unallowed to operate.

How You Can Play Slots and Casino Games in Michigan

There are several licensed and regulated online casinos that accept players from Michigan, including BetMGM, DraftKings, Caesars Palace, FanDuel, and Golden Nugget. They’re among the leading brands in the US and are as such the safest places where you can play hundreds of slots, tables, and live dealer games.

Additionally, Michigan is home to 26 brick-and-mortar casinos located in Allegan, Wayne, Berrien, Calhoun, and several other counties. Some like Kings Club have been around since 1985. The tactile feel of pressing buttons on real machines may sound appealing, but you’ll probably have to drive hundreds of miles to get to top land-based casinos.

If you’re looking for slots to play purely for fun, you can try social casinos like BetRivers.net. These sites offer free play slots in abundance but usually feature dated games from obscure developers.

Sweepstakes casinos have an edge over all of the aforementioned casino categories. Similar to real money casinos, they source digital slots, jackpots, and other i-gaming titles from high-end studios like Pragmatic, NetEnt, or Betsoft.

They must offer free bonuses since they’re legally obliged to ensure cash purchases are unnecessary. Speaking of which, sweepstakes sites typically offer real money prizes, available by playing through and redeeming sweepstakes coins.

How are sweepstakes casinos legal in Michigan?

Technically, Michigan state laws never defined what “sweepstakes” are. The (dated) common definitions that some legislators use when relying on reasoning by analogy are closer to lotteries than modern-day sweepstakes casinos.

This created a loophole – if you’re not physically present where sweepstakes take place (which is impossible since the sites are online) and are not required to pay a fee to enter, the first hurdle is gapped. These conditions are just the start, though. Michigan is a bit stricter than other US states and deems unlicensed gambling venues and websites illegal.

The only exception in the Michigan Penal Code applies to, quote “promotional activity that is clearly occasional and ancillary to the primary business of that person.” Some sweepstakes casinos were formed as charity organizations with occasional sweepstakes, such as Golden Hearts Games, but even they recently left Michigan due to an avalanche of legal difficulties to sustain the site in the long term. Prominent sweepstakes casinos have since began exiting states with legalized online gambling (CT, DE, MI, NJ, PA, WV) to avoid similar controversies.

“Unlicensed games of chance” where both the organizer and the participant don’t know the outcome are also expressly illegal under Michigan law. Only a few sites remain that rely on licenses from their partners (i-gaming studios powering their sites) that fall under the gray legal zone.

In conclusion, the only options for sweepstakes-like sites for Michigan players include:

• The few licensed sweepstakes and social casinos that are still running
• Non-casino sites with gambling-esque activities like Bingo or games of skill
• Underground sites that offer little to no protection to the player

Overview Of The Best Sweepstakes Casinos in Michigan

Only a handful of sweepstakes and social casino sites remain operational in Michigan. We at SweepsKings have tested over a dozen viable platforms and have shortlisted the most legitimate places where you can enjoy casino-style games.

1.   Rush Games – Best Overall

Although licensed by IGC, Rush Games casino is among the few legal and legitimate social casinos available to Michigan players.

It strives to emulate an authentic casino-like experience with a 250 VR welcome bonus, hourly refills, over 700+ live games including Evolution-powered live dealers, and Pragmatic’s top slots.

Rush Games has an exceptional rewards program where playing games allows you to grab free Bingo tickets and spin the wheel for bonus virtual credits.

Abiding by Michigan state gambling laws, Rush Games casino doesn’t offer cash prizes. However, we dubbed it the best sweepstakes casino because it rivals the leading US sweeps casinos in all other fields – from gaming variety and payment method diversity to smooth UI and generous bonuses.

2. Bingoport – Best Bingo Games

Aptly named Bingoport, this site is a Bingo-exclusive platform where players can play casual bingo games or stake their access tokens for cash prizes or Amazon vouchers.

What’s unique about this casino-esque site is that all wagers are preset – 100 port tokens are required to participate in free play Bingo rooms while 1 access token is wagered in the Gold Lobby where real money prizes or vouchers can be won.

We loved how smoothly free-play elements weave into prize play. You can play free bingo in the Bronze Lobby by staking 100 port points per game. Accumulate at least 1,000 PPs and you can join Silver Tourneys. All players ranking among the top 10% receive 2 free access tokens, which are wagered in the Gold Lobby for prizes, rewards, and vouchers.

Even though Bingoport has zero slots, jackpots, table games, or any game besides its bingo lobbies and tournaments, it’s a safe, beginner-friendly platform where Michigan players can score cash prizes for free.

3.   Loyal Royal Casino – Best Welcome Bonus

The freshly relaunched Loyal Royal Casino was initially a tiny sweepstakes casino running bespoke software. They recently partnered with Ruby Play and brought a range of exciting Megaways (or better said RP’s proprietary “Immortal Ways”) to boost the site’s humble selection of slots and video poker games.

This casino is as close as it can get to regular sweepstakes sites available in other states with daily Spin the Wheel, weekly reloads spanning from 35-50% matches, and a solid first-purchase deal awarding a generous boost of 5,000 LC + 10 Royal Rubies on any package.

Loyal Royal has an edge over the (lax) competition in Michigan since they’ve set the Ruby redemption threshold as low as 50, which is slightly lower than the industry’s average.

4.   ZitoBox Casino – Best Prize Redemption Rules

ZitoBox is a decent alternative to Loyal Royal Casino and an excellent choice for Michigan players with 150+ slots, arcades, fish games, and amazing jackpots.

The site’s interface and design may look a bit dated, and the only payment options are cards and bank transfers. Still, they’re partnered with big-league studios like SG Interactive and Wazdan and offer massive match bonuses that scale with ZP pack sizes. Additionally, ZitoBox hosts regular contests with colossal pots and proactively fosters a free play environment with time-limited coupons you can grab on their Facebook page.

As soon as you’ve accumulated and played through at least 500 Zito Points ($5), you’ll be able to request a reward card. This redemption threshold is roughly 20x lower compared to what most US sweepstakes prescribe.

5.   Skillz Games – Best PvP Skill-based Games

On paper, Skillz Games may appear as the polar opposite of sweepstakes casinos – it doesn’t have any slots, all of its games are based on the player’s skill rather than chance, and independent developers (as opposed to i-gaming studios) keep releasing new games.

However, Skillz Games utilizes a sweepstakes currency called Z Coins, which can be used in real cash tournaments to win cashable prizes. Moreover, they have casino-like bonuses, such as the alternative method of entry (mail-in), daily activity bonuses, and more.

Skillz offers some of the most diverse online gaming categories, encompassing arcades, bingo, board & dice games, bubble shooters, dominoes, chess, pool, puzzles, and thousands of card-like games such as Spades and Solitaire.

No real-money purchases are necessary to play at Skillz Games – you can participate in free-play tournaments every day and stake your bonus Z coins in cash tournaments whenever you’re ready.

Why Our Experts Selected These Brands

Knowing how strict Michigan gambling laws are, we prioritized brands that adhere to all state regulations and aren’t expressly forbidden to operate in Michigan.

Normally, we’d test every game, payment method, bonus, and customer support channel sweepstakes casinos have to offer, compare them to the leading alternatives, and critically assess the quality of each element. However, barely over 5 sites passed the first step of our typical reviewing process – legitimacy and legality.

Fortunately, each of these brands brings something unique to the table:

Rush Games is among the best social casinos in the US

Bingoport brings competitiveness into bingo play and allows you to net real cash rewards

Loyal Royal is home to dozens of feature-rich games

ZitoBox has the most pro-player bonus rules

Skillz Games boasts over 20,000+ unique mobile-friendly titles

How Payments Work

Real money purchases must be optional at all US sweepstakes casinos. However, you can use any of the available online payment methods, such as credit cards, mobile wallets, e-wallets, or even cryptocurrency at some sites, if you wish to top up your balance or redeem your winnings.

One of the key rules that differentiates sweepstakes casinos from their real-money counterparts is that credits, or sweeps coins, cannot be purchased under any circumstances. At most sites, you’ll be able to purchase gold coins and receive some free sweeps coins as a gift. Otherwise, sweepstakes currency must be claimed through promotions or won through gameplay & contests.

Redemptions at sweeps casinos resemble cashouts at real gambling sites with minor modifications – instead of making your “bonus funds” into “cashable funds” via gameplay, you’re essentially doing the same with “unplayed sweeps” and “redeemable sweeps”. Once you’ve satisfied the bonus rules, you’ll be eligible for a cash prize redemption.

You’ll typically encounter a limited number of redemption methods, primarily credit/debit cards and digital wallets.

Can you win real money playing sweepstakes casino games?

You will usually receive some free sweeps upon registration, but you will need to wager these coins, usually at least once, to make them redeemable. Just like real money casinos have “minimum withdrawals”, sweepstakes sites have minimum redemptions, so you’ll need to accumulate sufficient “redeemable” sweeps.

Real cash prizes and vouchers are typically awarded to eligible players who meet the minimum redemption threshold

Your Gaming Options at Michigan Sweepstakes Casinos

The few sweepstakes casinos still running in Michigan have hundreds of games in their libraries, covering a diverse range of i-gaming categories, so let’s summarize the trendiest options you’ll have access to:

Bonuses and Promotions at Michigan Online Casinos

All sweepstakes casinos must feature at least a handful of promotions to ensure that you don’t have to pay to play.

After reviewing over 120+ sweepstakes casinos across the US, we’ve noticed that roughly the same promotions are offered at Michigan sites, which include:

Aspects in Favor and Against Sweepstakes Casinos in Michigan

After months of research and testing Michigan sweepstakes casinos, we’ve processed sufficient amounts of data to pinpoint key advantages and drawbacks of the few sites that still operate in this state. Below is a quick summary of aspects that go in favor and against playing at Michigan sweepstakes casinos.

Other Gambling Options for Michigan Players

Local brick-and-mortar and online casinos are not constantly pressured into adjusting to the ever-changing demands of MGCB as much as Michigan sweepstakes casinos are, not to mention that there are significantly more options available to you.

If you’re into slots and not overly concerned with cash prizes, we recommend social casinos like Rush Games.

Other legitimate alternatives include local lotteries, sportsbooks, and horse racing venues, as well as their online counterparts.