Sweepstakes casinos and social gaming sites are becoming increasingly popular in the US. This has been accompanied by a rise in the number of people who want to play social casino games for real money. However, there is still a lot of confusion about whether such a thing as a real money social casino actually exists. This guide is here to reveal whether you can play at the best social casinos with real money.
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The best social casino sites right now
- Stake.us: The best range of promotions for new and existing customers
- BetRivers.net: Excellent variety of table games
- Fortune Coins: Quality welcome bonus for new customers
How different social media casinos compare for Cash and Offers
Site | Best for | Bonus offer | Casino games |
Stake.us | Promo offers | 5% rakeback deal | 200+ slots and Stake Originals |
BetRivers.net | Table gaming | No welcome bonus but free coins every four hours | 400+ slots, blackjack, roulette, other table games |
Fortune Coins | Welcome bonuses | 140,000 Gold Coins and 500 Fortune Coins | Dozens of slots and ‘fish games’ |
Win Money Playing at Sweepstakes Casinos
Many people play casino games for fun but it’s also true that the chance of winning money is a big part of the appeal. However, social casinos and sweepstakes casinos operate a little differently, and so this guide examines whether you can play social casino games for real money.
Can you play social casino games for real money?
When people look for a real money social casino, they expect to be able to wager on the casino games with cash. However, social casinos will only let you play with virtual credit that has no cash value. Such virtual credit may be called anything from Gold Coins and Sweeps Cash to Sweepstakes Coins and so on.
It’s important to note that different types of virtual coins will often allow you to do different things. However, the key thing to remember is that you cannot directly play social casino games for real money, but you can sometimes win prizes at some social gaming platforms.
How Does The Coin System Work?
While you cannot play social casino games for real money, you will instead be able to use virtual credit as your stakes. Here are how the main types of virtual credit ordinarily work:
- Gold Coins: Also known as GC or G-Coins, these can only be used to play the casino games in a standard mode. This is where you only play for fun and you won’t have any chance of winning any prizes. You are usually able to purchase Gold Coins from the social gaming site.
- Sweepstakes Coins: These might be called anything from Sweeps Cash to Fortune Coins and they can be used to enter promotional sweepstakes games. This is where you might win prizes for taking part rather than it being a direct result of your gameplay. You won’t be able to purchase Sweepstakes Coins.
How To Play Without Buying Coins?
Many social casinos will give new customers virtual credit just for signing up to their gaming platforms for the first time. Plus you might find many more deals that offer you ways of getting your account balance topped up.
You can usually find out information about such special offers in the promotions page of the social casino site. However, the brand’s terms and conditions page or FAQ may also give you ideas about where to get some free credit. All of this should be enough to stop you from having to actually purchase any coins.
How To Get Free Sweeps Coins?
Different social casinos will each give you different ways of picking up sweeps coins for free. Here are the most common ways of picking up this kind of virtual credit:
- Welcome bonuses: For example, Fortune Coins serves up 500 Fortune Coins (a kind of Sweeps Coin) for new customers.
- Daily login bonuses: Some social casinos give you Sweeps Coins just for logging into your account every day or even every few hours.
- Social media giveaways: Lots of social gaming platforms host social media giveaways where you can win Sweeps Coins just for doing things like answering trivia questions.
- Postal requests: You can often get Sweeps Coins by sending a postal request to the social casino in a way described in the brand’s terms and conditions.
- Tournaments and challenges: Brands like Stake.us are well known for hosting regular tournaments, races and battles that give you a kind of Sweeps Coin prize for beating other gamers.
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Best Sweepstakes & Social Casinos
While you won’t find any real money social casino in the US, you will get a choice of dozens of different social gaming platforms. It’s worth shopping around to see which one is right for you, but this guide has found that the following social casinos offer the best gaming experience. Here are the key features of each site:
- Stake.us: This brand has shaken up the social gaming scene in a relatively short amount of time. While it keeps a regular method of using virtual credit for your gameplay, it’s the sheer variety of games and promotions that keeps Stake.us ahead of its rivals.
- BetRivers.net: A much-respected social casino brand, BetRivers.net has possibly the largest collection of casino games that you can play for free. While you can’t win any prizes at BetRivers.net, it’s hard to overstate just how many games are featured here.
- Fortune Coins: Lots of people have turned to Fortune Coins in recent years. Much of this is down to the fact that this site lets you play dozens of slots for free, but the fact that there are some prizes to be won doesn’t hurt.
The Best Sweepstakes Casino: Stake.us Casino
While all gamers have their own favorites, few people would disagree with the fact that Stake.us offers a good example of what you should be looking for in a social casino. Not only has the brand partnered up with major music stars like Drake, but it offers customers a legal and safe way to play hundreds of casino games for free.
This means that rather than playing casino games for real money, you’ll be using either Gold Coins or Stake Cash as your stakes. Gold Coins can only be used to play for fun, but Stake Cash allows you to play promotional sweepstakes games where you might get to win prizes such as branded merchandise.
The casino game collection at Stake.is impressive. Not only are there hundreds of online slots from respected developers such as Hacksaw Gaming and Pragmatic Play, but there are also dozens of Stake Originals.
These are exclusive games created by Stake.us and some of them are based on classic table games like blackjack and roulette, while others such as Crash give you a whole new way to play. Plus with an impressive range of promotions and missions for existing customers, it’s little wonder that Stake.us is making waves in the social gaming scene.
- Play casino games for free and win prizes
- Innovative Stake Originals games
- Good range of promotions and tournaments
- Legal and safe social casino gaming site
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BetRivers.net – Simply a massive number of social casino games
If you are looking for a social casino with the biggest number of games, then you will need to pay BetRivers.net a visit. This site features literally hundreds of games that come from some of the biggest games developers in the world such as NetEnt, Pragmatic Play and Habanero.
As a result, you can take your pick of famous slot games like Gonzo’s Quest and Mustang Gold at BetRivers.net. Plus this site features the full range of Megaways slots and well as progressive jackpots like Dynamite Dash that open up many more ways of winning a lot more virtual credit.
However, it’s where BetRivers.net gets away from slot gaming that things get really interesting. This is because the social casino offers an unparalleled range of table games that take in everything from blackjack and roulette through to things like sic bo and baccarat. When you factor in the live casino games featured at BetRivers.net, there’s little wonder why so many serious games continue to play here.
So what’s holding BetRivers.net back? Well, there is the fact that you can only play in one kind of virtual currency called Virtual Credit. As a result, this is strictly a play-for-fun site which means that there is no way of winning any prizes at BetRivers.net.
- Over 500 casino games
- Live dealer games included
- Lots of table games
- Play for free
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Fortune Coins – Great for slots gaming
Lots of people come to Fortune Coins as it gives them a simple and free way to play dozens of slot games. There are too many titles to list here but stand-out slots include the likes of Jester, Magic Castle and Pyramids of Giza. Plus it’s important to note that Fortune Coins also features some jackpot slots like Freaky Tiki and there are even some ‘fish games’ if you like social casino gaming with a difference.
Like many social casinos, Fortune Coins lets you play with two different types of virtual credit. These are the standard Gold Coins and then Fortune Coins which are the brand’s version of sweepstakes coins.
Where the social casino excels here is the fact that you can use Fortune Coins to enter promotional sweepstakes and win cash prizes. You’ll need to collect a lot of Fortune Coins to reach the minimum redemption amount, but it does mark this brand out from its rivals.
It’s also worth noting that Fortune Coins has a generous welcome offer that grants new customers no less than 140,000 Gold Coins as well as 500 Fortune Coins. All of this should give you a solid introduction to what this social casino site is all about.
- Competitive welcome offer
- Win real money prizes
- Free to play games
- Good slots collection
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How to choose new social casinos that pay real money
Each sweepstakes casino operates differently and so there are numerous factors that should be analyzed when it comes to finding a place to play. Here are the key ingredients to consider when figuring out which social casino to use:
Games selection
Most social casinos feature lots of slots but only a few include table games like blackjack, baccarat and roulette.
Offers and deals
Make sure that you check out what promos each social casino has for new and existing customers. After all, it is these deals that have the power to keep you topped up with virtual credit so that you don’t have to actually spend your own money to play.
Prizes
Some social casinos have prizes and some don’t. Plus these prizes can vary between gaming sites with some offering merchandise and gift cards, while others let you win cash.
Mobile gaming
There are a handful of social casinos who have their own apps that you can download to your iOS or Android device. However, most brands will simply feature mobile-optimized websites that you can access from the browser of your smartphone or tablet.
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What else to look out for on a real money social casino?
It’s not just the games and prizes that should dictate your decision of which social casino to play at. Here are the other factors that should influence your choice:
Security
Is the social casino fully compliant with US laws? Plus check to see how the brand safeguards your data and make sure that there are responsible gaming tools available.
Usability
No one likes a badly designed social casino site. This is why it’s a good idea to check each site for things like glitchy gameplay and broken links before you start playing. After all, there’s nothing more annoying than a social casino game freezing halfway through.
Bonus offers
It’s always good to go for those bonuses that are clearly explained so that you know exactly what it is that you are signing up for. Beware of those special offers that promise the world as they tend to give you very little in return.
Customer support
You should check to see whether the social casino has a customer service team on standby. Ideally this should be available 24/7 via live chat, email or telephone. Plus don’t undervalue a well-written FAQ section.
Purchase methods
The social casino should let you purchase virtual credit with trusted payment providers. These might include regular debit and credit cards, ewallets, prepaid cards and even bank transfers. There should also be a clearly understandable redemption process.
Game selection
There’s nothing wrong with a social casino that just features a few slot games. However, things always get a bit more interesting when you can play table games like roulette and blackjack. Plus there are growing numbers of social casinos that let you play anything from bingo to live dealer games.
Terms and conditions
Each social casino should include a page of terms and conditions which explains how the site works and what you are allowed to do on there. Such a page should also include information about how the sweepstakes gaming works and what each kind of virtual credit does.
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Conclusion – The future of playing social casino games for real money
This guide has shown you that there isn’t such a thing as a legal real money social casino in the US, but there are some excellent alternatives. Sites like Stake.us offer a collection of casino games that are just as good as what you get at a real money online casino. Plus the fact that such online sites even let you win prizes should not be overlooked. It’s important to note that social gaming sites are a relatively new phenomena, and so there is expected to be an even bigger choice of ways to play for free in the future.
Social Casinos with real money in the US FAQ
1. Can I play at a real money social casino in the US?
No, social casinos in the US are only allowed to let you play with virtual credit rather than real money.
2. How old do I have to be to play at social casinos?
It varies according to which state you are playing from. You have to be at least 21 years old to play in most states, but certain states like Mississippi and Alabama have their own minimum age requirements.
3. Are social casinos legal in all states in the US?
Not necessarily, certain states like Washington are often reluctant to let social casinos operate there. Plus other states such as New York, Nevada and Idaho have also proven resistant to the spread of social casinos.