How Sweepstake Casinos Use Gold Coins and Cash Tokens to Reward Players

Sweepstake casinos offer more than social casinos.
Sweep coins are the key to winning prizes.
Legal prize-based gaming in 49 US states.

How do Social and Sweepstake Casinos Differ?
Why Offer Gold and Sweep Coins?
What is Sweepstakes Cash?
Are Sweepstake Casinos Legal?
Try Sweepstake Gaming for Yourself

Traditionally, sweepstakes were a form of socially accepted gambling where people would enter giveaways and promotions to win prizes. To avoid sanctions by the US government, these giveaways evolved from pay-to-play lotteries into no purchase required sweepstakes.

With the advent of online casino games and the subsequent suppression of real money gambling in the USA, savvy providers began offering free-to-play casino games. Since these games did not reward players with direct cash payouts based on the amount they wagered, they were not classified as gambling and, therefore, illegal.

How do Social and Sweepstake Casinos Differ?

While many players use social and sweepstake casinos interchangeably, this is not technically true.

A social casino allows players to enjoy a wide range of games of chance, including online slots, video poker, blackjack, and roulette, using free coins. Wins on these games allow players to progress higher up leaderboards. The ultimate reward is nothing more than bragging rights.

All of the above is true in a sweepstake casino, but there is one crucial difference: players can enter sweepstakes to win prizes.

Why Offer Gold and Sweep Coins?

While these gaming sites focus more on player entertainment than their traditional cash-focused online casino peers, they still need to monetise their offerings to keep the doors open.

To do this, operators offer Gold Coins, the in-game currency used to play the available games. Players are awarded Gold Coins for joining the site, often receive a small number of bonus tokens each time they sign in, and can be purchased for real money.

Including boosters such as double payouts for a period of time or unique avatars for the player account incentivises the purchase of Gold Coins. All of these build on the bragging rights aspect of the leaderboard system these sites revolve around.

Sweep Coins are the other currency players can earn, and these are used solely for entering prize draws and other promotions that offer tangible rewards.

Fans of promotional giveaways can generally earn more of these coins by:

Entering free events with Sweep Coin prizes
Engaging with the sweep casino on social media
Winning them in random prize draws
Referring new players to the sweepstake site

Due to their roots, sweepstakes allowed participants to enter via snail mail. Online sweepstake casino sites honour this tradition and often reward players with Sweep Coins for mailing in their details.

What is Sweepstakes Cash?

As we have discussed, a crucial element of the legality of online sweepstake gaming sites is the separation of the tokens (be they Gold Coins or Sweepstake Coins) from any real money gambling. These sites have a third type of coin called "Sweepstake Cash" to clearly distinguish between their fun-play and real money offerings.

A player's Sweepstake Cash balance is the real money value of any prizes, rewards and promotions they have won using their Sweepstake Coins. This is real money that can be paid out to the players and has to be kept separate from any gaming to avoid being considered real money gambling.

Are Sweepstake Casinos Legal?

Sweepstake casinos operate within a well-established legal loophole. They are permitted as long the casino games they offer are for entertainment only and do not pay cash prizes based on the amount wagered.

To further distance the prizes they offer from the value of player spending, the value of sweepstake prizes has no connection to player purchases, account level or anything that you can purchase to individualise your account. All purchases either help you climb the leaderboard or are cosmetic in nature.

The precedent has been so well established that sweepstake gaming is legal across the United States, with the only exception being Washington. Even then, the reasoning is thin. The Washington Gambling Commission states that sweeps "combine elements of two legal gambling activities to create a third type of contest that is not authorised", adding that it is choosing not to authorise sweepstake games, which is why they are not allowed.

Try Sweepstake Gaming for Yourself

If you want to try your hand at Sweepstake casino games, we recommend visiting Stake.US and opening a new player account. The site is legal across the United States, offering players access to over 200 world-class casino games for free.

Players at Stake.us enjoy a range of promotions, including Daily Login Bonuses, Slot Races, Rakeback offers, Mail-a-Request coins and bonuses when purchasing any Gold Coin bundles.

Creating a new account takes less than a minute and allows you to enjoy a premier payment-free online casino experience. You can also skip the manual sign-up process by joining an existing Facebook, Gmail or Discord account.

Beth Walker 11 Apr 2023 View more