Welcome to the ultimate Esports.net guide to online sweepstakes casinos in the US. Here, you’ll get the full list of sweepstakes casinos, along with a deep dive into what makes them stand out in the market.
We’ll break down how sweepstakes casinos work, offering a legal and exciting alternative to traditional casinos. We’ll cover everything from the games available to the best promotions you can claim, giving you all the key details at your fingertips.
- Play for fun with a totally free social casino
- Sweepstakes-style rewards and regular promotions
- Strong community focus & social engagement
- Massive progressive jackpots
- Great offerings for existing customers
- Several payment options like Skrill, Trustly and Apple Pay
- A daily spin on the Infinity Wheel
- Find Fish Shooting games
- Good offers on Coin Packages
- Great VIP program
- Several first-purchase options
- Daily login-bonuses
- Multiple bonus offers to choose from
- Games from over 30 providers
- Nearly 700 games to choose from
Best Online Sweepstakes Casinos Overall: McLuck vs Crown Coins
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- McLuck Casino
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- Crown Coins Casino
- Welcome Bonus: Crown Coins wins with its sweepstakes welcome package for extra coins.
- No Deposit Bonuses: McLuck has more no deposit bonuses for free Sweeps Coins, including a sign-up offer.
- Games: McLuck wins with a collection of over 1,200 games, while McLuck offers around 500.
- Prize Redemption: Tie. Both sweepstakes casinos make redeeming real money prizes easy.
- Customer Support: Tie. Customer support is handled very well on both platforms.
Pick McLuck Casino if… you want more bonuses and rewards without making a purchase.
Pick Crown Coins Casino if… you want a large gaming library with slots from leading developers.
Types of Sweepstakes Casino Bonuses
All sweepstakes casinos have to let you enter their sweepstakes with no purchase necessary. This means that as a new and existing customer, you should always be able to get free Sweepstakes Coins via a range of bonuses.
So let’s have a quick look at just some of the promo offers that you can expect to find at all good sweepstake casinos in the USA:
- Welcome Bonuses: This is where you just have to register your first ever account to get free Sweeps Coins and Gold Coins to play with.
- Purchase Bonuses: You will get a bumper amount of Gold Coins for purchasing one of the relevant packages and you might even get some free Sweeps Coins as a bonus.
- Daily Login Bonuses: These deals will simply give you free credit for logging into your account every day.
- Wheel Spins: Spin a prize wheel every few days or hours to get your rewards.
- Loyalty Bonuses: Keep playing at the sweepstakes casino and pick up reward points that can be traded in for perks like free credit and enhanced customer care.
- Mail-in Offers: Send in a postal request to the sweepstakes casino asking for free SC and they will quickly honor your request.
Best Sweepstakes Casinos With No-Deposit Bonuses
The good news is that all sweepstakes casinos will keep you fully stocked with plenty of no deposit bonuses. Take a look at the following list to see which sweepstakes casinos you should be playing at:
| Sweepstakes Casino | FREE Sign-up Bonus Offers |
|---|---|
| WOW Vegas | 250,000 WOW Coins + 5 SC |
| High 5 | 250 GC + 600 Diamonds |
| McLuck | 7,500 GC + 2.5 SC |
| Pulsz | 2 SC |
| Crown Coins | 100,000 CC + 2 SC |
| Realprize | 2 SC |
| Stake | 250,000 GC + 25 SC |
| Carnival Citi | 10,000,000 GC + 5,000 SC |
| Megabonanza | 7,500 GC + 2.5 SC |
| Jackpota | 7,500 GC + 2.5 SC |
| HelloMillions | 15,000 GC + 2.5 SC |
| Chanced | 20,000 GC + 2 SC |
Best Online Sweepstakes Casinos for Bonuses: Pulsz vs PlayFame
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- Pulsz Casino
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- PlayFame
- Sign Up Offer: PlayFame is slightly ahead with 7,500 GC and 2.5 SC, compared to 5,000 GC and 2.3 SC at Pulsz.
- Daily Login Bonus: Tie. Both real money sweepstakes casinos have solid daily login rewards with free SC.
- Loyalty Rewards: Pulsz wins with the dedicated loyalty program and competitive rewards scheme.
- Mail-in Bonus: Pulsz has a slightly better mail-in bonus worth 5 SC, while PlayFame only offers 4 SC.
- Purchase Bonus: With a package of 60,000 GC and 25 SC for $9.99, PlayFame has the best first purchase deal.
Pick Pulsz Casino if… you are a frequent player and want to benefit from one of the best loyalty programs online.
Pick PlayFame Casino if… you want a solid welcome offer and then take advantage of the first purchase bonus.
What is a Sweepstakes Casino?
Most online sweepstakes casinos look and feel just like regular real money online casinos. This means that you can load up the sweeps site from your browser and play sweepstakes casino games like slots or even table games such as roulette and blackjack.
However, the key difference is that all USA sweepstakes casinos won’t feature any form of real money gambling. Instead of this, you will be playing the casino games with virtual currencies that have no value outside of the sweepstakes casino itself. It’s this fact that enables sweepstakes casinos to be legal in most states across the US.
- Sweepstakes casinos let you play slots and table games online
- There is no real money gambling at sweepstakes casinos
- Sweepstakes casinos are legal in most US states
How do Sweepstakes Casinos Work?
All American sweepstakes gaming sites will work in roughly the same way. Rather than featuring any real money gambling, they will operate according to the following principles:
- Play with virtual currencies: You will play the games at sweepstakes casinos with virtual currencies that are usually called Gold Coins (GC) and Sweeps Coins (SC) rather than your own cash.
- Redeem prizes: You cannot directly win money at sweepstakes casinos. Instead, you can redeem your SC winnings for prizes like cash, crypto, gift cards, and merchandise.
- Play for free: All USA sweepstakes casinos must let you play with no purchase necessary. This means that you should always be able to get some free GC and SC to play with.
- No deposits possible: You cannot make cash deposits at sweepstakes casinos like you can at regular online casinos. Instead, you can make optional purchases of GC packages. Note that Gold Coins can only be used to play for fun.
Online Sweepstakes Casinos vs. Social Casinos
Generally, the terms sweepstakes casinos and social casinos are often used interchangeably. Sweepstakes casinos let you redeem prizes, social casinos are intended for entertainment purposes only. So sweepstakes casinos give you the best of both worlds and have a significant advantage.
So let’s have a quick recap of the main pros and cons of playing at sweepstakes casinos:
Advantages of Sweepstakes Casinos
- No risk of losing your own money
- Legally available in more states
Disadvantages of Sweepstakes Casinos
- Sometimes smaller game selection
- Slower redemption of prizes compared to direct cash winnings
Why are Sweepstakes Casinos so Popular?
Above all, sweepstakes casinos have grown to be popular simply because they offer you a free alternative to playing regular casino games with your own money. Not only that, but you can redeem cash prizes and legally do it from most states in the US. Little wonder that the number of new sweepstakes casinos is growing on a monthly basis.
Gold Coins vs Sweeps Coins: Distinctions to Know About
So how do sweepstakes casinos work in terms of their virtual currencies? The key thing to understand is that there are usually two virtual currencies and they are usually called Gold Coins and Sweepstakes Coins. Neither have any direct cash value outside of the site, and we’ll look at how they work below.
Understanding the Two Virtual Currencies
| Gold Coins (GC) | Sweeps Cash (SC) |
|---|---|
| Gold Coins are the form of virtual currency that you use to play the casino games in a standard mode. This means that you cannot redeem any prizes with Gold Coins. You can either get Gold Coins for free or purchase them as a package. | Sweepstakes Coins let you play the casino games in a sweepstakes mode. If you win back enough Sweepstakes Coins, you can redeem them for a prize. You can only get Sweepstakes Coins for free. |
Gold Coins (GC) are a virtual currency that you use to play the casino-style games in a standard mode. This means that you cannot redeem any prizes with Gold Coins. You can either get Gold Coins for free or purchase them as a package.
Sweepstakes Coins, or SC, let you play the casino games in a sweepstakes mode. If you win back enough Sweepstakes Coins, you can redeem them for a prize. You can only get Sweepstakes Coins for free.
How to Purchase Gold Coin Packages
While you cannot make deposits at sweepstakes casinos, you can make purchases of GC packages, or bundles.
So the key thing to understand is that you can use standard fiat payments like cards and e-wallets to purchase Gold Coins at most sites, or you could use the likes of Bitcoin, Ethereum and Litecoin at a crypto sweepstakes casino like Stake.us to do the same. Here is a step by step guide for what you need to do:
- Navigate to the Gold Coins purchase page
- Browse through the various available GC packages/bundles
- Select your preferred payment method
- Complete the purchase and start playing
How to Get Free Sweeps Coins
The good news is that all legit sweepstakes casinos will keep your account topped up with free Sweepstakes Coins. Here are just some of the deals that will give you this virtual credit:
- Daily login bonuses: Here you just have to log into your sweepstakes casino account every 24 hours to get a daily dose of free Sweepstakes Coins to play with.
- Social media giveaways: You can often get free Sweepstakes Coins just by completing some tasks like sharing posts, tagging friends and solving puzzles on the sweepstakes casino’s social media feeds.
- Postal requests: Here you just have to send in a postal request to the sweepstakes casino’s company address asking for free SC and they will do it for you.
How to Redeem Prizes at the Best Sweepstakes Casinos
While it’s fun to play casino games for free at a sweepstakes casino, it gets more enjoyable when you know that you can redeem Sweepstakes Coins for prizes like gift cards, merch, cash, and crypto. Let’s have a closer look at how this works:
Most sweepstakes casinos will have more or less the same process by which you can redeem your prizes. This means that you will usually have to do the following:
- Verify your account by submitting the required photo ID and proof of residence
- Make sure that you have won back the minimum amount of Sweepstakes Coins
- Pick whether your prize is cash, a gift card or some merchandise
- Confirm your prize redemption request and wait for it to be actioned
Minimum Prize Redemption
- Each sweepstakes casino will have its own minimum prize redemption amount.
- This means that you might have to have 100 Sweepstakes Coins in your account to redeem a cash prize at one sweepstakes casino, and it could be half that amount somewhere else.
- Just note that gift cards tend to have a lower redemption threshold than cash prizes.
Purchase Methods and Redemption Options
It’s important to understand that you will usually have to use the same payment method for redeeming cash prizes as you used for making your Gold Coins purchases. Just note that gift cards will be sent to the email address used upon signing up, while merchandise will be sent to your home address.
Each sweepstakes casino should make it as simple as possible to redeem a cash prize. Take a look below to see what payment methods can usually be used for doing so:
- ACH bank transfers and e-wallets like PayPal
- Gift cards that are usually sent to your email address
- Cryptocurrencies like BTC, ETH, DOGE and LTC
| Gold Coins (GC) | Sweeps Coins (SC) | |
|---|---|---|
| Usage | Playing in standard mode | Playing in sweeps mode |
| Prize Redemption | Cannot be redeemed for prizes | Can be redeemed for prizes when accumulated and redemption threshold met |
| How to Obtain | Purchased in bundles or received for free in welcome bonuses, daily login bonuses or other promos | Received for free via one-time welcome bonuses, daily login bonuses, other promos and regular gameplay |
| Purchase Methods | Credit/debit cards, ewallets, cryptocurrencies | Cannot be purchased. Must be obtained for free. |
| Game Mode | Standard mode (for fun) | Sweepstakes mode (with prize potential) |
| Prize Redemption Process | Not applicable - can't be redeemed. | Verify account, meet minimum balance, choose a prize. |
| Redemption Methods | Not applicable - can't be redeemed. | ACH bank transfer, ewallets, gift cards and cryptocurrencies. |
Understand How We Rate Sweepstakes Casinos
We’ve established a rigorous test process that we use to rank and rate every sweepstakes casino that comes on the scene. This means evaluating everything from the site security to the games on offer. All of which should help you find a sweepstakes casino that you can trust and that offers you a superior way to play.
Every sweepstakes casino that we review will have to succeed in the following areas before we recommend it to you:
1. Bonuses & Promotions
We’ll analyze what kinds of bonuses you can get for signing up and see what promos like daily login bonuses existing customers can get too. So that whether it’s a social casino sign-up bonus, a daily login deal or a referral bonus, you can be sure that it offers fair value.
2. Range of Games
Each sweepstakes casino should have hundreds if not thousands of slot games from major developers. There should also be a decent range of table games like roulette, blackjack and baccarat. A selection of instant-win games like Crash and Mines wouldn’t go amiss either, and that’s true regardless of whether you are playing at a sweepstakes casino or a social casino.
3. Coin Purchase & Redemption
You should be able to purchase Gold Coins packages in a variety of denominations with a payment method that suits your needs. It should also be simple to redeem your prizes and the whole prize redemption process should be efficiently handled.
4. Mobile Experience
The sweepstakes casino should make it easy to play at its mobile-optimized site from the convenience of your smartphone or tablet. We’ll also be on the lookout for any decent iOS or Android sweepstakes casino apps.
5. Security & Trust – How to tell if a sweepstakes is legitimate
We’ll make sure that the sweepstakes casino is legally allowed to operate in the states that it covers. We’ll check to see whether there is adequate fair play certification and that you get the player protection tools you need to keep your gameplay in check.
6. Other Features & Support
Our reviews will also go in-depth to see how good the customer service team is, and we’ll examine everything from the reward programs to any available tournaments to ensure that you stay fully entertained.
Are Sweepstakes Casinos Legal in the US?
Yes, sweepstakes casinos are legal in most states in the US except in Washington and Michigan. Idaho restricts gameplay to GC only, so there’s no prize redemption available.
This means that you should be able to play at these gaming sites everywhere from Florida to Hawaii and most states in-between. So how do sweepstakes casinos work in regards to the law? Let’s have a closer look.
Understanding Sweepstakes Casino Laws
In order to operate under US sweepstakes law, these sweepstakes casino sites will have to abide by the following principles:
- Only offer games of chance
- Let customers enter the sweepstakes with no purchase necessary
- Not feature any form of real money gambling
As such, there are some pretty significant differences between top sweepstakes casinos and their real-money counterparts. Regular real money casinos will require that you make a deposit of your own money, gamble that cash on the casino games and then withdraw whatever you win.
In contrast, sweepstakes casinos don’t accept deposits, have to let you play for free, and then you can only redeem prizes with the free SC with no direct payouts.
Which States Allow Sweepstakes Casinos?
Most states in the US will let sweepstakes casinos operate within their borders. However, each state has the power to set its own sweepstakes laws and permit certain sweepstakes brands and not others.
States like Washington, Idaho, Nevada, and Michigan have much tighter restrictions than other states, while New York imposes a lower ceiling on the maximum prize values that you can redeem. Here is a quick overview of the sweeps gaming laws of some of the biggest states:
- California: It’s legal to use sweepstakes casinos provided you are at least 18 years old.
- Texas: It’s also legal to play at sweepstakes casino sites, provided you are 18 years or older.
- Florida: Again, it’s legal to play at sweepstakes casinos from Florida from the age of 18 years upwards, although you can only redeem up to $5,000 in prizes.
Responsible Gaming for Sweepstakes Players
Just because you are playing with virtual currencies doesn’t mean that you can afford to get careless. Take advantage of whatever tools the sweepstakes casino has to offer to keep your gameplay under control.
The good news is that there are federal and state-level guidelines to promote responsible play at sweepstakes casinos. This means that you should always be able to access player protection tools to keep your gameplay in check.
Here are a few further resources you can check out should you feel like your gaming is getting out of hand:
- National Problem Gambling Helpline (1-800-GAMBLER)
- GamTalk & Online Support Communities
- State-Specific Resources & Counseling Services
Check back with our updated list of sweepstakes casinos
We’ve shown you that sweepstakes casinos offer a great alternative to regular real money casinos. After all, they are legally available in most states, you can play for free, and you can even redeem cash prizes. Our list of sweepstakes casinos gives you some good ideas for where to get started. So sign up to one of these sweepstakes casinos and start playing.
