Social/Sweepstakes Casinos & How to Win Cash Prizes
Social and sweepstakes casinos, such as Chumba Casino, LuckyLand Slots, Funzpoints, and Pulsz, offer nearly everyone in the country the chance to take home cash prizes just for playing free-to-play online games.
Whether your state regulates its own legal online gambling industry or not, it’s 100% legal to play casino games for prizes on sweepstakes sites almost everywhere on the North American continent.
As long as you’re 18 or older in the US in Canada, you can sign up for a chance at cash prizes. No purchase is necessary.
These sites operate in accordance with sweepstakes laws, which create sort of a loophole when it comes to online casino gaming in Indiana. Read on for more details on how social/sweepstakes casinos work.
It should take you just a short while to get the hang of how these sites operate, and after you catch on. You’ll also find welcome bonuses, promotions, tournaments, and great casino slots and table games on social/sweepstakes casino sites.
Social and sweepstakes casinos sign-up bonuses 2023
What to expect from a social/sweepstakes casino
Social casinos operate on a simple premise: Playing is always free, and some tokens are redeemable for cash prizes.
How do social and sweepstakes sites operate?
Social casinos use two types of tokens. Sweepstakes entry coins are always free, and they have no monetary worth on their own. When you win these coins from casino gameplay, however, you can redeem the winnings for cash prizes.
Sweepstakes casinos also offer a second coin system, which you can use to play games just for fun. You can’t redeem this type of token for prizes, but you can purchase it. Depending on the site and the amount of tokens you buy, the site will include an amount of redeemable coins with your purchase as an added bonus.
For instance, Chumba’s $30 Gold Coin deal comes with 10,000,000 Gold Coins and a bonus of 30 FREE Sweeps Coins.
Social casinos are legal in most US states, including states that prohibit online casino gambling.
Legal social/sweepstakes casinos in the US
To sign up for a new account with a social or sweepstakes casino, you’ll need to be at least 18 years old. Visit the site you’re interested in joining by using one of our links and click on the sign-up button to get started.
You can rest assured that social and sweepstakes sites are fair and safe casinos on which to play. Sweepstakes sites are 100% legal in most US states.
The outcomes of all spins are determined by random number generators, independent testing laboratories have certified as fair.
Top social/sweepstakes casinos
While other social casinos are out there, we’ve picked three for this review based on players’ top picks, operator experience and reliability, caliber of casino games and overall appeal of each individual site.
Read on to find out what makes each of these sites — Chumba Casino, Funzpoints Casino and LuckyLand Slots — stand out from the competition.
Chumba Casino
Chumba has been around since 2012, and offers the largest game library of all social casinos, with about 80 titles available. Owned by Virtual Gaming Worlds, Chumba also stands out as it’s the only sweepstakes casino that has table games.
Sign up for a new Chumba account to get 2,000,000 Gold Coins and 2 FREE Sweeps Coins to try games out in both modes for free.
Any Sweeps Coins winnings are yours to do with as you like. You can redeem them for cash prizes (minimum redemption limits apply) or use them to play more games for the chance to increase the size of your prize. You’ll also qualify for a first purchase bonus of $30 worth of Gold Coins for just $10. That includes 10,000,000 Gold Coins with 30 FREE Sweeps Coins as an extra bonus.
Funzpoints Casino
As the only sweepstakes casino mentioned here that isn’t owned by VGW, Funzpoints has a number of differences that make it stand out.
For starters, not only can you win cash prizes when playing with sweepstakes coins, called Premium Funzpoints, but you’ll earn free entry tickets into the daily $350 jackpot draw while playing games.
You can’t purchase entry tickets, but you will earn them pretty fast while playing games. At the same time, you’ll be getting points in the site’s loyalty program, which helps you earn discounts on purchases of Standard Funzpoints (the Gold Coins equivalent) that come packaged with free Premium Funzpoints.
Points also are important because that will unlock games as you climb higher in the program. All but three games are locked to new players, until you start earning points and leveling up. As you level up, you also get to play special mini games with guaranteed prizes.
You’ll be able to play all regular games when you spin using Premium Funzpoints. Games are also all unlocked in Standard mode when you play with Standard Funzpoints you’ve bought, for up to 30 days past your purchase date.
You’ll receive a welcome bonus of $2.50, or 250 Premium Funzpoints, to try all the games for free. You can spin the Funzwheel prize wheel every three hours to add free Standard Funzpoints to your balance, along with the chance to win jackpot draw tickets.
On your first purchase of up to $20, you’ll also get double the usual number of Standard and Premium Funzpoints.
LuckyLand Slots
Another VGW sweepstakes site, LuckyLand Slots debuted in 2019. This social casino uses a proprietary platform and about 40 in-house games that feature opulent graphics and the most up-to-date features and bonus games.
Enter one of LuckyLand’s daily tournaments to win a share of the seeded tournament prize pool. All you have to do is play the game to enter. Tournaments run daily in both Gold Coin and Sweeps Coin modes.
More opportunities to play for free are in store for players with LuckyLand’s 50 free spin program. Tied in with Facebook, this program allows you and your friends to exchange up to 50 free gift spins every day.
Just for signing up, LuckyLand will give you 7,777 Gold Coins and 10 FREE Sweeps Coins. When you’re ready to make your first purchase, you’ll get a chance to purchase the $10 value Gold Coin deal for $4.99. LuckyLand Slots’ loyalty program will pay off with discounts on Gold Coins, as well.
Want more Sweeps Coins?
All social and sweepstakes casinos will credit your account with redeemable tokens when you write to the company to ask for them. Formatting must be exact, so be sure to check the rules for mail-in requests on each site.
Both Chumba and LuckyLand will give you FREE Sweeps and Gold Coins once a day just for logging in. In addition, both sites host Sweeps Coins giveaway contests on Facebook and Instagram. See page footers for links.
Funzpoints offers a loyalty program that pays off with discounts on Standard Funzpoints packages that come with free Premium Funzpoints.
What games will I find on a social or sweepstakes site?
The first rule to remember on social casinos is that you can play any of the games using either coin system. The second rule to remember is that you have to manually switch between the two. Social sites make it easy to do this, generally via a prominently displayed toggle switch at the top of the home screen or inside any open game window.
For instance, if you want to try a game out before risking your Sweeps Coins to spin, you can set the site to Gold Coins (or Standard Funzpoints mode) and then load the game by clicking on the graphic.
Alternatively, you can enter the game while the site is set to Sweeps Coins (or Premium Funzpoints mode), then switch to Gold Coins (or Standard Funzpoints) tokens from within the game.
If you decide you’d like to play that same game for a chance at cash prizes using sweepstakes coins, you don’t have to close the game window. Just click the toggle switch inside the game to switch between virtual currencies.
Global Poker, Chumba Casino and LuckyLand Slots are set to Gold Coins mode by default when you log in. A pop-up window will give you the choice between Standard or Premium mode every time you log in to your Funzpoints Casino account.
Game developers
The three social casinos on this page offer mostly in-house developed games. At least one social casino that plans to offer third-party, licensed games from well-known game studios, such as NetEnt and IGT, is still in development.
Chumba Casino started off with strictly in-house games, but has augmented its collection in recent years with a number of licensed titles from third-party developers, such as Golden Rock Studios and Reel Play Games.
With about 80 titles, Chumba has the largest game library of these three sites. At this time, LuckyLand offers about 40 slots and instant win games, while Funzpoints offers about 20 slots, along with two versions of keno.
Chumba is the only social casino to offer table games, at least at this time. You’ll find five table games offered on Chumba: Back American Roulette and Back Blackjack from Golden Rock Studios, and Chumba’s Jacks or Better video poker, blackjack and American roulette games.
As far as online slots in Indiana, Chumba likely has a game to tempt you, whatever your taste. Choose from among Chumba’s collection of favorites, as well as a number of recently added titles, like Reel Play’s Buster Hammer’s Carnival, Chumba’s Golden Oz, and Lucky Show, a classic three-reel proprietary slot.
Funzpoints Casino doesn’t have the largest collection of games or feature the most bells and whistles, but the site’s 20 or so games are augmented by a steady parade of booster mini games and Funzone puzzles. A new window will pop up during regular gameplay when you earn enough points to trigger the special side games, which come with guaranteed prizes.
All Funzpoints games are rated low volatility and have an excellent return-to-player ratio, so you can expect to see a lot of low to medium payoffs during gameplay.
Also, be sure to check out Funzpoints’ Four Seasons or Paintball Keno games. These colorful slots offer an exciting twist on keno games in land-based casinos. Or try BonBon Bash, a sweet game chock full of delicious candy fun.
LuckyLand’s proprietary games and web-based platform feature intricate, bandwidth-heavy graphics, including 3D animations, along with a number of the latest technological advances in casino software. While it takes some time to load the site, as well as the games, it’s definitely worth your while.
Global Poker sweepstakes games
VGW acquired a poker platform from Cubeia Sweden in 2016 and launched Global Poker later the same year. The site is the perfect place to learn how to play Texas Hold’em, along with two variations, Omaha and Crazy Pineapple, as well as practice what you’ve learned and keep developing your skills.
Gold Coins games account for about 10% of all site traffic at any given time, seven days a week, around the clock. You’ll find ring games, sit and go tournaments, jackpot sit and go tournaments and multi-table tournaments around the clock.
When you’re ready to play for cash prizes, you’ll find plenty of experienced competition to help you continue your education.
HUDs and other poker programs allowed on other sites are prohibited by Global Poker, but the site’s multi-tabling function allows you to play unlimited ring games simultaneously.
At any given time, anywhere from 60% to 75% of total site traffic will be participating in Sweeps Coins MTTs with tournament entries ranging from micro to high stakes. Remember that you’ll be in Gold Coins mode by default when you log in, so you’ll need to manually set your account to Sweeps Coin games.
Global Poker welcomes new players with a free $10 worth of Gold Coins, which includes 150,000 Gold Coins with a bonus of 30 FREE Sweeps Coins. You’ll also qualify for a $40 Gold Coin deal for $20 on first purchase. This comes with 200,000 Gold Coins with 40 FREE Sweeps Coins as an added bonus.