Social online casinos, or sweepstakes casinos, as they’re often referred to, represent the only safe and legal option for US gamblers outside of regulated states. If you’re looking to try your luck online but don’t want to deal with shady offshore operators, these are your best bet.
Many players have heard about social casinos and the fact that you can win real money playing on these sites, but are confused about how it all works. If this describes you, you’ve come to the right place, as this quick-start guide will get you set up in no time.
To answer the biggest and most important questions right at the start: yes, you can win real money prizes at sweepstakes casinos. These social sites aren’t that much different from traditional online casinos, save for a couple of extra steps involved in the process.
Winning Real Money at Social Casinos: The Basics
Outside of the few regulated states, most places in the United States don’t allow online gambling for real money. However, social casinos have found a way to offer your favorite games and give you a chance to win cash prizes without breaking any laws.
These sites operate on a sweepstakes model, which allows them to reward their customers with special tokens, often referred to as Sweeps Coins (although different sites use different names).
You can’t purchase these tokens directly. Instead, you receive them as free gifts for taking different actions, including buying free play tokens. All social casinos offer the free play mode where you can have fun playing games and building your virtual bankroll, but tokens used in this mode cannot be redeemed for real money prizes.
But, this is not where the fun stops. These sites also offer a different, sweeps play mode, where you can use the Sweeps Coins. As mentioned, these Sweeps Coins can be exchanged for real cash prizes.
Let’s explain it through an example. You register with a social US casino like Stake.US Casino and purchase a 100,000 Gold Coin package for $10. As a gift for your purchase, you receive 10 Sweeps Coins, which you can redeem for cash prizes at the rate of $1 for 1 SC.
You take your 10 SC to the slots, play for a while, and get lucky. When you’re done playing, you have 50 SC in your balance.
You can now take these 50 SC to the exchange section of the site and request a prize of $50 in real money. The operator will process your request, issue your prize, and send it directly to your bank account. And that’s how you win real money playing at US sweepstakes casinos!
Banking at Sweepstakes Online Casinos
While there are many ways to obtains Sweeps Coins, including several completely free ones, the easiest way to do it is by purchasing free play packages and picking up your gifts.
To make a purchase, you’ll be able to use several mainstream options, such as major credit and debit cards (Visa, MasterCard, Amex), e-wallets like PayPal, and direct bank payments.
When the time comes to redeem your prize, the casino will usually present a couple of options. For smaller amounts, you can pick up a variety of gift cards, while larger amounts will be sent directly to your bank account.
One thing to keep in mind is that most social casinos have certain minimum thresholds for prize redemption. For gift cards, these can be as low as $20, but if you want to redeem cash, you’ll only be able to do it when you have enough Sweeps Coins to claim at least $50 or even $100 in some cases.
Is There Anything I Should Worry About?
Social online casinos are completely legal in most of the United States with a few exceptions. If your particular state isn’t supported, you’ll be notified during registration. Other than this, there is really nothing to worry about as you won’t be breaking any laws playing on these sites, and these companies are very careful to do things by the book.
Of course, since real money is involved, all the usual rules and precautions apply. You need to play responsibly and set your limits, and many social gaming sites offer tools to help you do just that.
If you still have questions or want more details about the best sites to play on, check out our in-depth guide to sweepstakes casinos. Otherwise, if you got the answers you needed, feel free to pick one of our recommended casinos and jump straight into the action!
