Once an industry grows to the size and scope the current digital casino market has, it’s not just one component that drives success. Online casinos have revolutionized how people play casino games forever, but that’s not the only facet that has led to a considerable uptake in the number of people playing their casino games online. Sweepstakes casinos are one area that operates differently from a conventional digital gambling platform, and today we will be taking a deep dive into this topic and exploring how sweepstakes have continued to find an audience throughout the years.
Defining Social & Sweepstakes Casinos
Social casino games operate around one simple, key basis. You can play casino games like you can at a traditional casino, but no money exchanges hands. You’re simply playing the game with either in-game tokens or on a free-to-play basis, a bit like a demo game. A sweepstakes casino operates in a similar fashion but will generally have a much more prominent range of games available. This includes hundreds of slot games, where you can play with in-game tokens again, and you don’t have to set any time and deposit limits like you do in a regular casino, as you are not at risk of losing any cash.
As you can with a traditional casino, you can explore sweepstakes casinos reviews and find out which sweepstakes and social casinos command a higher rating than their counterparts. You can also decipher which is best for you, as reviews often indicate gaming range, quality and positives and negatives about the provider.
Sweeping through history: The birth of Sweepstakes
Throughout history, sweepstakes have taken on a different meaning depending on the region you live in. In the United States, sweepstakes refers to casinos where you don’t need to spend any money. However, the original word derives from centuries ago when merchant seamen would pool their money together and gamble on a particular outcome, and then the winner would obtain the prize.
As the idea of casino gaming became a much bigger and bolder movement in the early 20th century, sweepstakes casinos provided an excellent avenue for people who enjoyed the idea of a casino but didn’t want to lose money or didn’t have the money to spend in the casino. In today’s global market, it takes on many different meanings, but the market is flourishing now more than ever because of the way that the internet has transformed the gambling market.
Brushing up on the basics: Sweepstakes, contests and lotteries
In the UK, a sweepstakes game commonly refers to a contest such as the national lottery or the Euromillions, which has witnessed colossal wins over the last decade. Sweepstakes can also refer to a group of people, such as a work syndicate, pooling their money together and sharing any jackpot they win. The term also extends to sports like horse racing, including prominent events where people will randomly enter a draw, and each person bets on a random horse. The winner then receives the total prize pool. This is known as a sweepstakes contest.
Important sweepstakes rules
Again, this can depend on the area where you live. However, for games in the US, it must involve no money exchanging hands. However, if it is a contest, such as the horse racing sweepstakes in the last section, then there must be a fair number of entrants, with a maximum number of tickets allowed to ensure the sweepstakes jackpot is paid out as fairly as possible among all entrants.
Types of games Sweepstakes & social casinos offer
Any game you can find in a traditional casino, such as poker, blackjack, roulette and slot machines, translates easily to sweepstakes casinos. As long as you don’t have to use any money to place your bet, you can use in-game tokens to play any of these games, and the rules will remain the same.
Social casinos operate in a similar fashion, and the terms are generally interchangeable. While some sweepstakes casinos might offer you the chance to buy in-game tokens and then potentially receive a prize, this isn’t in the true spirit of a sweepstakes game. The whole purpose of this type of casino is to allow you to play casino games without having to worry about spending any money.
What is the purpose of sweepstakes & social casinos?
The purpose of traditional online casinos is to turn a profit. These companies use marketing strategies and techniques to bring people on board. While sweepstakes casinos clearly want to bring people to their site, the primary source of income comes from advertising, so it is a totally different method of generating a viable business model. However, this isn’t the only reason people use social and sweepstakes casinos.
Educating people on how casino games work is one of the main goals of social casinos and sweepstakes. Not to mention that people will want to play some of these games without dealing with the worry that could come from losing money.
Although some players argue that the whole point of casino gaming is to play with money and experience wins and losses, that’s not the case for everyone. Some people enjoy playing poker or slot machine games without worrying about monetary loss, and this is where sweepstakes casinos step in and provide a worthwhile service.
Finding ways to approach any task cost-effectively is critical; it is part of sound monetary management. If you use a traditional casino, setting deposit limits to ensure you don’t spend too much money is crucial. In addition, you need to set time limits to ensure you don’t stray into difficulty.
Sweepstakes and social casinos explained: How they work.
By generating interest in casino gaming through educative tools and informative, traditional casino-like designs, sweepstakes and social casinos have found a core audience. The essence remains that of a standard casino, and they work in an essentially identical fashion. However, as we touched on previously, the whole purpose of sweepstakes casino gaming is to generate revenue in other ways.
Digital advertising on the site brings in revenue, as does the ability to market their games effectively. There will always be a market for people who want to play sweepstakes casinos, but within the vastness of the internet, the challenges lie in bringing them to the site. However, the websites themselves work like any other casino, but you use in-game currency or tokens to play the game instead of actual money.
States where sweepstakes & social casinos are legal
The legality of gambling in the United States is a hot topic at the moment. The walls are coming down for many states, some of which have only recently allowed gambling within state lines for the first time in their history. Social and sweepstakes casinos are unanimously legal in the United States, apart –from Washington. Idaho residents will find they have limited access to sweepstakes casinos.
You can play sweepstakes casinos online everywhere, but it is always best to check, as these regulations can often quickly. However, as sweepstakes don’t involve monetary gain or loss, they don’t face the same harsh regulatory scrutiny as their traditional counterparts. Sweepstakes and social casinos benefit from no money changing hands, so they fall out of the range of general online gambling laws, which gives the providers more flexibility, and makes them legal in most states.