Sweepstakes casinos have completely taken over the US. These fast-growing sites go as far back as the late 2010s but it’s only over the past five years that they’ve gotten extremely popular (we’re now talking about a $6.9 billion industry). And with players signing up to these sites in droves, it’s only right to take a look at the buzz surrounding sweepstakes casinos to see if it’s actually justified. 

Sweepstakes Casinos Are Free-Play, Yet Still Offer Prizes

So, let’s unpack what sweepstakes casinos actually are. 

Really, they’re just like regular online casinos, offering the same games and layouts. 

However, in sweepstakes casinos, all of the casino-style games, from slots to roulette, are free-to-play. Yes, free. You might think it’s weird for a casino to offer its games for free, but it’s exactly what they do. 

You can play games for free using virtual ‘Gold Coins’. Essentially, these coins are designed just for fun and let you play for as long as you like. And even when you do run out of Gold Coins, these casinos will hand some straight back over to you in the form of ‘Daily Login Bonuses’ or even birthday bonus offers. 

The twist is that you can also compete for prizes using ‘Sweeps Coins’. These prizes typically include gift cards, merchandise, and cash transfers. All you have to do is redeem them through the menus once you’ve collected enough of the required coins. 

Even casual players can potentially turn 5, 10, or 15 free Sweeps Coins into an avalanche of prizes, so it’s no surprise that sweepstakes casinos have caught the attention of the new generation. 

As for real money, sweepstakes casinos don’t let you bet it. It’s effectively money-free gambling. The only option for players is to use the virtual currencies of Gold Coins or Sweeps Coins, otherwise you can’t play. 

Leaderboards and Tournaments Make for a ‘Social’ Experience 

It doesn’t stop there, as most sweepstakes casinos come packed with leaderboards and tournaments as well. 

The leaderboards are usually focused around the number of coins collected, points won, and total hours played (you can sometimes find VIP-only leaderboards depending on which site you use). 

Then there are tournaments, like WOW Vegas’ Thursday Thriller and WOW Weekender, where players get to play slots and other games and potentially win Sweeps Coins that can be redeemed for real-world prizes. 

On top of this, chat rooms are a big deal in sweepstakes casinos, allowing players to come together as part of an actual community, just like you get to do when playing video games. 

It’s very much a ‘social’ experience (this is why sweepstakes casinos are often called social casinos) and one that’s got millions of players hooked. 

Not only are you getting access to free-to-play games and huge potential prizes, but there are things like leaderboards and tournaments thrown on top to turn it into a genuine gaming experience, something that you just don’t get from typical casinos. 

Mobile-Friendly Play and Instant Access 

Smartly, sweepstakes casino operators have also started to dominate the mobile market, with a growing number of them now offering downloadable apps. This includes Pulsz, High 5, and Chumba Casino (Chumba Lite), all of which have entered the app market so that fans can enjoy instant access on-the-go. Again, many traditional casinos are still yet to do this, and it’s giving sweepstakes operators a serious advantage. 

We know that Gen Z and Millennials love mobile play. That’s a given at this point. And because there are now so many sweepstakes casino apps out there, it’s driving player counts through the roof. 

Time2Play has recently reported that mobile app engagement will be responsible for 70% of all sweepstakes casino growth between now and 2028, showing that the sweepstakes phenomenon is very much mobile-driven. 

And when you’ve got mobile players hooked in today’s extremely competitive gaming space, you’re doing something right. 

Chumba Casino, Yay Casino, and Other Operators Are Booming 

As we speak, the leading sweepstakes casinos have millions of combined players. 

Chumba Casino surpassed 1 million unique users several years ago, while the Pulsz casino app has been downloaded over 1 million times from the Google Play Store. 

Yay Casino and Drake-backed Stake.us are also booming at the moment, as well as WOW Vegas (who currently have a multi-million dollar sponsorship deal with pop culture icon Paris Hilton). 

It’s not just hype at this point: sweepstakes casinos are a genuine alternative to traditional online casinos and they’ve latched onto a market space that not many people even realized was there to begin with. 

Now, instead of throwing endless money at the walls inside online casinos, new and old players alike are signing up with sweepstakes casinos, where they can effectively play for free and still have the opportunity to win prizes. 

The pressure is completely removed from the table and — if you want to — you can simply enjoy the gameplay side of casinos rather than the tense, overly serious need to compete for money. 

Ultimately, it’s why Gen Z and Millennial players keep signing up in big numbers and there’s absolutely no sign that the sweepstakes train is going to slow down now that so many of these operators have signed deals with pop culture figures and streamers on Kick and Twitch. 

Sweepstakes Casinos Have an Edge Over Traditional Casinos

From what we can see, sweepstakes casinos are, indeed, worth the hype. 

Time and time again, gaming trends appear only to then suddenly fade away just years later. But this hasn’t happened with sweepstakes casinos, which have been growing year-on-year since the days of the COVID-19 pandemic, back when they originally exploded. 

And whenever something sticks in gaming, there’s usually a good reason for it. With sweepstakes casinos, they’ve added a fun prize-winning element to the casino ‘experience’, where players no longer have to stress about betting actual money. Instead, it’s all virtual coins-based, with the opportunity to win prizes as an add-on. 

The traditional gambling model seen in regular casinos will probably never die. BetMGM, FanDuel, and other online casinos are just too big and well-known at this point. However, what sweeps casinos have done is make the casino industry more accessible to casual gamers and young players, hence why they’re so popular. 

Before the new decade, hardly anyone was playing casino games online. Now, though, it’s a different story, as it feels like almost everyone has at least played slots or roulette, and this commercialization is largely because of sweepstakes casinos. 

It’s a new way to gamble and play responsibly, so it gets a giant thumbs up from us — and we think this new type of casino will be around for a long while yet.