Our reviews are independent and well-researched by our industry veterans. All sweeps sites reviewed here are subject to rigorous hands-on testing. Our goal is to give players everything they need to find sweeps sites that offer fair gaming and a good user experience.
Why reviews are so important
With hundreds of sweepstakes sites available to U.S. players, finding the best options for your preferences can be an overwhelming task.
There’s no reason to settle for the first site you come across, however. Our reviews are meant to separate the different sites into ratings tiers, while explaining which features at a given casino might appeal to you.
The best in class are the ones that offer many games, and plenty of variety among those games. We also consider the availability of different payment options, VIP rewards programs, and bonuses, as well as the overall look, feel, and user experience of a casino.
It can take several hours to evaluate these features of a sweepstakes casino on your own. Those several hours multiplied by the vast number of available casinos can mean hundreds of hours spent trying to find a product that appeals to you.
We’ve already spent hundreds of hours deep-diving into the world of sweepstakes casinos. Our reviews are designed to point you in the right direction toward the very best platforms available in the U.S.
Cross-referencing with third-party reviews
We cross-reference with third-party sites and provide that data in our reviews to give you the full 360 view of how each operator performs – both good and bad.
If a sites gets a consensus A+ across multiple reviews at different sites, you can make a good bet that it’s truly a good product that’s worth your time. Lower scores are handed out for sites that don’t meet the same standards and need improvements. Our reviews will reflect those areas.
We use a weighted grading system
When testing a sweeps casino, we spend many hours combing the different features within the site. We also meticulously go through the terms and conditions to ensure bonus offers and playthrough requirements are in line with industry standards.
Games and Software
The number of games at a site is important, as is the variety of different game types. We know you want to see slots, but also have options to play live dealer games, traditional table games, and arcade-style games (like Plinko and Mines).
During our review process, we evaluate the number of overall games, the quality of those games, the availability of different game types, and the selection of games within each game category.
To get an A or 5-star rating in this category, casinos must have all of the options below.
- Jackpot and community games: Jackpot games give you the opportunity to win six-figure Sweeps Coins jackpots (or perhaps even larger) in one spin. Community games can reward you for simply playing any game at a sweepstakes casino at a given time. If a community jackpot hits, and you’re one of the lucky winners, you’ll share the jackpot with some of your fellow players.
- Solid in-browser experience or mobile app: Not all of the sweepstake sites have a dedicated mobile app, but they should at least have a good in-browser experience taking into consideration that most of their customers play from a mobile device.
- Good UX: User experience is paramount because players should be able to jump into the games whenever they want, find the games they’re looking for, and navigate purchases with ease.
- Mobile options: If a sweepstakes casino does offer a dedicated mobile app in the App Store or the Google Play Store, that’s generally a plus. In the cases where there isn’t a mobile app, we take a good look at how a site’s UX translates to a mobile browser.
Live Dealer
Live dealer games aren’t available at every sweeps casino, so the casinos that do offer these games get added rating boosts.
The appeal of live dealer games (live-streamed table games with a human dealer) makes this game type one of the most popular at casinos that do offer them.
To get a high rating in the live dealer category, a sweeps casino must have plenty of traditional table game favorites like blackjack, baccarat, and roulette. If a casino offers multiple variations of each of these staples, that’s a plus.
The best in class casinos go beyond the classics in the live dealer category, presenting money wheel games and unique titles like Teen Patti, Sic Bo, and others. The most popular sweeps casinos are always trying to introduce new titles in this category as well.
Bonuses and Promotions
Bonuses and promotions significantly factor into the overall rating we assign to a sweepstakes casino. The best in class offer plenty of ways to collect free Sweeps Coins, and extend those opportunities to both new and existing players. To obtain a top rating in this category, a casino must offer regular promotions and fair terms and conditions for players.
When we evaluate a sweeps casino’s bonuses and promotions, we look for what the casino offers in the following categories:
- Multiple ways to obtain free sweeps
- Mail-in promotions
- Reasonable terms and conditions
- Loyalty program
Let’s take a deeper look at what we evaluate in each of these categories:
- Multiple ways to obtain free sweeps: This goes without saying – the more the merrier when it comes to the ways in which you can claim free Sweeps Coins. To get a perfect score here, a sweeps casino needs to extend a solid mail-in offer, a player-friendly daily login bonus, and recurring social media giveaways.
- Mail-in promotions: Sweepstakes casinos must include some kind of mail-in offer in order to legally operate as a sweepstakes gaming site. The process for these offers is very similar across the different sweeps casinos. You mail in a written request for free Sweeps Coins, and you must follow a very specific set of instructions given by the casino. If you follow the instructions exactly, you’ll generally get 3-5 SC per request. This is important because if even one minor detail is incorrect, your mail-in request is void.
- Reasonable terms and conditions: The T&C section should include the terms of bonus offers and Sweeps Coins redemption.
- Playthrough requirement: A casino’s playthrough requirement dictates how many times you have to wager Sweeps Coins before they’re eligible for redemption. This number is generally between 1x and 3x. Casinos with a 1x playthrough requirement will always score high in this category.
- Expiration dates: Some casinos place an expiration date on Sweeps Coins, meaning they disappear from your account if you don’t play or redeem them in a ceratin number of days.
- Restricted states: Sweepstakes gaming is legal in 46 states, but not all sweeps casinos operate in all 46. The more states a sweeps casino is available in, the better.
Loyalty Program
VIP programs (aka loyalty or rewards programs) are designed to reward players for putting in high volume at a particular sweeps casino. The more you play at your favorite casino, the more rewards you rack up. Some casinos include extensive, multi-level VIP programs, with huge rewards for players who reach the top levels. On the flip side, some casinos don’t offer VIP rewards in any form.
The best VIP programs will offer:
- Cash back bonuses (aka SC back bonuses)
- Bonus multipliers
- Other gifts
A great VIP program can really set a casino apart in our bonuses and promotions ratings.
Customer support and player protection
Top-flight customer support and player security features are essential components for any great sweeps casino to have in place. Here’s a look at some of the things we evaluate when assigning a rating in the customer support and player protection category:
- Easy access to support: To qualify for an “A” rating or 5-star score, a Sweeps Casino must present several different ways to contact customer support. These options should include 24/7 live chat, email, social media, and phone support. Of these options, we put the most weight on the quality of the 24/7 live chat feature.
- Speed: Support should be timely (available in less than two minutes) and be able to answer our questions. We test the speed of customer service by submitting queries to all available channels, and measuring how quickly we get a response from each. We evaluate not only the speed of the initial response to a query, but also the amount of total time it takes to answer the original query and any follow-up questions.
- Knowledgable: Staff should be knowledgeable and help direct customers to the areas they need, as well as answer any questions and follow-ups. When testing customer service in this category, we evaluate the team’s ability to accurately answer the most common and pertinent questions a customer might have about the casino. This rating evaluates the knowledge of the customer service staff, as well as the value of the information provided in the site’s FAQ.
Purchases and redemptions
Purchasing Sweeps Coins and redeeming SC for cash prizes should be easy. Our review team dives into the available options for purchases and redemptions, as well as the average time it takes for a redemption request to complete and the cash prize to appear in a customer’s bank account (or as a gift card).
Easy and secure methods
A great sweepstakes casino will offer several different ways to purchase Gold Coins ( and receive Sweep Coins as a gift).
When assigning a rating in this category, our team looks at:
- The number of available purchase methods
- The reputability of the available purchase methods
- The availability of credit/debit cards as purchase methods
- The availability of cryptocurrencies as purchase methods
- The number of available redemption methods
- The reputability of the available redemption methods
We expect a sweeps casino to have the most basic purchase methods (debit/credit cards) and redemption methods (bank transfer, gift cards) in place, at minimum.
If a casino also includes crypto, e-wallets and Apple Pay/Google Pay, that will likely produce a great rating in this category.
Fast processing to claim prizes: Claiming your prize shouldn’t take weeks. If it does, you’re at the wrong place. Our team tests each redemption method available at a sweeps casino and confirms the average processing time. They will also work with customer support to see how knowledgeable they are in troubleshooting.
Player protection
We also test each casino and look for the available responsible gaming (RG) tools it offers, as well as the site’s player security protocols. U.S. players currently have access to hundreds of sweepstakes casinos/online casinos. RG tools and player security are very important to us and the viability of both at a sweeps casino weighs in as a big factor in our ratings.
- Data protection: We have reviewed the policy and terms and conditions pages at each site along with the policy page to understand how data is protected. Players provide financial and personal information. It’s paramount that this kind of information stays secure, and that your sweepstakes casino of choice employs the highest available levels of security measures to keep that information safe.
- KYC checks: KYC (Know Your Customer) protocols require the casino to verify the identification of every player. While KYC checks are often a pain point for the player, it’s an important step that improves the chances that the site is running a legitimate operation. KYC measures protect both you and the casino by ensuring that you’re of legal age and located in an eligible jurisdiction when you play.
- Self-exclusion: These sites should include self-exclusion tools among their RG tools. Self-exclusion allows you to implement a period of restricted access to a sweepstakes casino. Self-exclusion protects players who might have a gambling problem by essentially locking them out of their account for a predetermined period. A top-notch casino should offer multiple timeframes here, beginning with a six-month exclusion period and going up to an indefinite period.
- Time-outs: Time-outs are an important feature and allow players to self-exclude for a period shorter than those outlined in the self-exclusion tool. A solid time-out tool should allow players to take a break from the casino for anywhere up to 30 days.
- Purchase limits: It’s crucial to understand that casino gaming should be for entertainment purposes only. Setting a budget for sweepstakes gaming is crucial, because you don’t want to overextend your wallet and spend money on gaming that cuts into your day-to-day life budget. Purchase limits allow players to set a limit on how much they can spend at a sweeps casino in a given period. That period can be anywhere from one day to one month. This is one of the best tools for setting a budget and sticking with it.
- Account closure: The ability to close your account when you want should be easy. We look for the language a casino uses to separate account closure from self-exclusion within the RG tools section of the site. Activating account closure permanently closes your account. A player usually must send a written email request for account closure, and the casino will send a “confirmation of understanding” that a player must agree to before the closure goes into effect.
All great sweeps casinos must have an easy-to-access account closure feature in place as part of its suite of RG tools.