Are Sweepstakes Casinos Skill-Based?

Sweepstakes casinos are booming with Gen Z and Millennials, but do they require any actual skill to win?

By now, you’ve heard about ‘sweepstakes casinos’.

You might have even played inside one.

They’re the hottest commodity in iGaming, having first exploded all the way back in 2020.

Since then, it’s been five years of non-stop growth, with the likes of Stake.us and Chumba Casino receiving over 1 million sign-ups.

So, we know that traditional online casinos are largely skill-based, but is this still the case with sweepstakes casinos?

Let’s unpack all of your sweepstakes casino-related questions.

Are Sweepstakes Casinos Skill-Based?

When you look at sweepstakes casino game libraries, most of the popular games require absolutely no skill at all:

• Slots
• Roulette
• Scratch cards
• Bingo
• Instant win games

These games are, in fact, played on pure luck, and there’s pretty much nothing you can do to affect the outcome. You simply play, have fun, and hope you win.

? Let’s imagine you play the Sugar Rush slot with 10 Sweeps Coins. When you hit that spin button and the candy symbols start dropping onto the grid, it’s all based on luck, as these slot games use Random Number Generators (RNGs). For instance, if you get five matching Gummy Bears, you’ll win some coins, but it's all by pure chance.

This is actually why sweeps casinos are so popular at the moment, as there’s no skill gap and the games are, for the most part, completely beginner-friendly. When it comes to the above-mentioned games, the only slightly tricky part is deciding how many coins to bet, when to increase your bets, and at what point you should stop playing. Outside of that, you don’t need any skill.

Interestingly, there are, indeed, a small number of sweepstakes casino games that do require skill. There’s poker, which is heavy on strategy, as well as slightly simpler games like blackjack and video poker, which still require some level of strategy, although not to the same level as poker.

But for the most part, almost all the games you’ll ever find in sweepstakes casinos are luck-based, not skill-based.

What Are Sweepstakes Casinos?

For those not familiar with them, sweepstakes casinos are a new type of casino where all of the games are free-to-play (F2P). You play using Gold Coins when you’re doing it just for fun, or you can switch to Sweeps Coins when you want to compete for prizes. These prizes typically include cash transfers and gift cards, which you can redeem once you have enough Sweeps Coins in your account.

What’s great about these casinos is that you can’t directly bet or win real money. Yes, real money has been removed from the table (literally). Instead, the only option is to play with fun virtual coins.

It’s something that players have taken to in huge numbers, with Chumba Casino, Stake.us, WOW Vegas, and others pulling in millions of players. They’re hooked, and you can’t blame them. After all, it’s not often free-to-play casinos come along and still offer you the chance to win prizes.

Not to mention, what you typically find with sweeps casinos is that they’re extremely interactive. You get to climb leaderboards, earn points, compete in tournaments, and do all types of other things that you typically associate with regular video games. In a way, you could say they’re like the modern version of classic online casinos.

How Sweeps Casinos Actually Work

When you join a sweepstakes casino for the first time, you’ll typically be handed some free coins, such as 1 million Gold Coins and 2 Sweeps Coins (this is currently what the popular Chumba Casino gives to new account holders).

With your coins, you can then navigate the game menus and play all the games you like. As we mentioned before, you can play just for fun using Gold Coins, or, alternatively, play with Sweeps Coins and hopefully win some prizes.

1 Sweeps Coin converts to around $1. So, if you were to play Thunder Crash in the Thunderpick casino and won 200 Sweeps Coins, this means you’d be able to redeem $200 worth of prizes.

Over time, the aim is to keep playing all the games, from slots to roulette, until you have a large enough collection of Sweeps Coins to start redeeming prizes. This, for the most part, is what every player is looking to do.

If you ever run out of coins and need a top-up, sweepstakes casinos allow you to purchase more of them directly through the site. Or, you can simply wait to receive coins for free using things like Daily Login Bonuses or special promotions, which are extremely common in the sweepstakes world.

Popular Sweepstakes Casinos

Sweepstakes casinos have gotten insanely popular over the past few years, so many new operators have launched and there are now close to 200 active sweepstakes casino sites on the internet. The choice is plenty, but it’s recommended you join one of the popular sweepstakes casinos if you’re a first-time player. This way, you’ll get the best possible experience.

Chumba Casino

Chumba Casino is an all-time classic sweepstakes casino. It’s been around since all the way back in 2017 and has well over 1 million players to this day. What’s amazing about Chumba is that the site is simple, easy to use, and there’s only around 200 games to choose from, including a handful of site-exclusives. Most sweepstakes casinos have thousands of games, but Chumba very much goes for quality over quantity, and it pays off in a big way. You also get 200,000 Gold Coins and 1 Sweeps Coin just for logging in every day, which is one of the best daily login bonuses around.

Stake.us

Stake.us is arguably the second-biggest sweepstakes casino. Ever since it signed a sponsorship deal with rapper Drake and all of the big casino streamers on Kick and Twitch started streaming on there, Stake.us has become a household name. The site itself has over 3,000 casino games (1,800 of which are slots) along with races and raffles, social media giveaways, and even a VIP club where you can unlock exclusive benefits and bonuses.

WOW Vegas

WOW Vegas certainly brings the ‘WOW’ factor with its huge catalogue of over 2,000 casino games, including classic slot titles like Buffalo King and Sweet Bonanza. Sponsored by Paris Hilton, this particular sweepstakes casino also has weekly tournaments and promotions you can opt-in to, including the Paris' Lucky 8 promo, where it’s possible to win a share of 10,000 Sweeps Coins across selected slots for that particular week. And even though WOW Vegas does offer other games, it’s mainly focused on slots, making it perfect for those who want luck-based casino games more than anything else.

Moonspin

Launched in 2023, Moonspin is still one of the relatively new sweepstakes casino sites, bringing an awesome space-like theme and over 1,000 games. What’s interesting about Moonspin, though, is that it’s a very futuristic casino where almost all of the games are fresh and exciting, including Slots, Dice, Crash, and Limbo games. They’re perfect for new-generation players who want something that’s completely separated from the classic casinos of the past, and Moonspin certainly delivers on this.

High 5

Finally, you might also want to check out High 5. This site has been around since way back in 2012, so well over a decade. Since then, over 1,500 games have been added to its catalogue, and High 5 also makes sure to offer regular leaderboard events, special promotions, and more. Not to mention, High 5 is arguably the best sweepstakes casino when it comes to keeping its game library updated with all the latest titles (just last week, they added Crystal Clusters, Fire Stampede 2, Piggy Riches 3, and a variety of other new slot games).

Sweepstakes Casino Games Mainly Require Luck, But Always Have a Strategy Ready

So, whichever of these sweepstakes casinos you opt to join, you’re generally going to find that almost all of the games require zero skill.

If that’s what you’re looking for, start with games like slots, roulette, and scratchcards, as they’re by far the easiest. Or, if you want some skill-based sweepstakes casino games, your best bet is to go with the likes of poker and blackjack, which require you to learn rules and use strategy.

Even with the luck-based games, it’s still recommended you have some type of strategy ready. What do we mean by this? Well, for example, if you look at games like slots, a good strategy is to only pick slots with a high RTP (e.g. 96.5% or above) while knowing the exact amount of money you’ll cash out whenever you reach it.

Sure, you can play without a plan or strategy in mind, but randomness in luck-based games can quickly drain your coins if you’re not concentrating.