5 Moments That Make or Break Your Sweepstakes Casino Session

5 Moments That Make or Break Your Sweepstakes Casino Session
Alicia Butler
Written by:
Alicia Butler
Andrew McDermott
Fact checked by:
Andrew McDermott
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Updated: August 21st 2025

Understanding how sweepstakes casinos work can be a little challenging if you’re new to this type of online casino gameplay. Yet, once you’ve found your footing, you’ll find that most sweepstakes casinos are very similar.

To ensure you make the most of your gameplay, we’ve compiled a list of five moments that make or break your sweepstakes casino session. If you want to walk away from your gameplay with the best chances of winning, these steps will steer you in the right direction.

1. Claiming Your Bonuses

Welcome Bonuses: If you don’t claim your welcome bonuses upon creating a new player account and completing qualifying actions, you could be missing out!

Make sure you complete all qualifying actions required to claim your no-deposit bonus (including entering your phone number and email address, opting into marketing emails and texts, verifying your account, linking your account to Google and Facebook or other social media, and using any bonus codes).

Once all of your qualifying actions have been completed, you’ll want to check your Gold Coin and Sweepstakes Coin balance to ensure that you’ve been credited the right amount.

Daily Login Bonuses: If you forget to claim your daily login bonus, you could be missing out on Free Sweeps Coins and Gold Coins. Each day you log into your account, head over to your account settings or the Gold Coin store to claim your login bonuses.

Promotions for Existing Players: Always check sweepstakes casinos’ promotions pages to see which promotions you’re eligible for. Opt in to races and tournaments, check out friend referral bonuses, keep an eye on your rewards or VIP status, and sign up for contests and bonus drops on social media.

Purchase Bonuses: Most sweepstakes casinos offer Gold Coin purchase bonuses that often come with bonus Free Sweeps Coins. Most of these bonuses are time-limited offers, so be sure to make your purchase within the allotted time.

2. Purchasing Gold Coins

Sweepstakes casinos often offer deals on Gold Coin purchases. These deals are offered for a limited time (see purchase bonuses above), so you’ll need to strike while the bonuses are hot.

With many Gold Coin options, you’ll also get a bonus of Free Sweeps Coins. Make sure you choose a Gold Coin purchase option that comes with Free Sweeps Coins if you want the chance to redeem your SC for cash prizes.

3. Playing the Right Games

Checking RTPs: Before you play games with Sweepstakes Coins, which can be redeemed for prizes once you’ve won the minimum amount in gameplay and cleared all playthrough requirements, check each game’s return-to-player percentage (RTP).

Not all sweepstakes casinos offer this information on game title cards, so you may need to look up RTP on the developer’s website or within the game’s information tab.

The higher the RTP, the more likely you are to win Gold Coins and Sweepstakes Coins.

Checking Volatility: The RTP refers to the percentage each game awards Gold Coins or Sweepstakes Coins over time. (A slot machine with a 98% RTP will award 0.98 SC for every 1 SC played over time.)

The volatility refers to the size and frequency of wins. A game with high volatility awards bigger wins less frequently; one with low volatility awards smaller wins more often. Play medium-volatility games for a chance at both big wins and more frequent ones.

Playing Games With Gold Coins First: The first time you play any casino game, you should try the game with Gold Coins first to get a feel for the mechanics of the game, including special features, bonus rounds, free spins, and more.

Sometimes, the games players enjoy the most aren’t the ones with the highest RTPs.

4. Checking Playthrough Requirements/Redeemable Sweeps Coins

Checking Playthrough Requirements: At all sweepstakes casinos, Sweepstakes Coins must be played at least once before they can be redeemed for prizes, including cash prizes and gift cards.

The number of times you must play Sweeps Coins before they’re eligible for redemption depends on the casino, yet most sites set the playthrough requirement at 1x (meaning you need to play Sweeps Coins once); however, some sweepstakes casinos set playthrough requirements at 3x to even 10x.

Always check the terms and conditions at Sweepstakes Casinos to ensure you understand the playthrough requirements and how many times you need to play your SC before you can redeem it for prizes.

Keeping an Eye on Redeemable Sweepstakes Coins: The good news is that most sweepstakes casinos will keep a rolling tally of your played and unplayed Sweeps Coins.

To check your Unplayed SC balance and Redeemable SC balance, click your account, on the SC icon at the top of the screen, or the “redeem” button. You should see both balances listed on the screen.

Understanding Redemption Minimums: Before you can redeem Sweepstakes Coins for prizes, you’ll need to win a minimum number of them (and have cleared all playthrough requirements).

The most common redemption minimums for cash prize redemptions are 20 SC, 30 SC, 50 SC, 75 SC, and 100 SC. For gift cards, you may only need to have a minimum of 10 SC or 20 SC.

5. Redeeming Sweepstakes Coins for Cash Prizes

Choosing the Right Redemption Method: The most common Sweepstakes Coin redemption methods include cash prizes and gift cards.

For cash prizes, ACH bank transfers are almost always an option (though these may take longer to process. Other cash prize redemption methods include Skrill, PayPal, Trustly Online Banking, cryptocurrency, and debit cards.

Understanding Redemption Times: The amount of time it takes for you to receive your prize can vary depending on the sweepstakes casino and the redemption method.

Gift card redemptions can be processed instantly (though it could take up to 48 hours for you to receive your prize by email). PayPal, Skrill, cryptocurrency, and debit card cash prize redemptions are often processed faster than other redemption methods.

Of course, the individual sweepstakes casino’s processing time may vary as well.

Checking Redemption Fees: Though not terribly common, some sweepstakes casinos charge redemption fees. These fees vary based on the redemption method.

For example, Stake.us charges a fee for some cryptocurrency redemptions (depending on the type of crypto you use). Fees vary, but the average fee is around 5 SC.

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Alicia Butler

Alicia is OddsSeeker's Lead Editor & Fact Checker! She's been reviewing online casinos, sportsbooks, and other gaming since 2021, but has well over a decade of experience writing and editing for some of the largest online magazines and brands since 2011! Over her career, Alicia has worked as a travel and entertainment writer & editor contributing to widely read digital publications such as The Spruce, The Balance and The Spruce Pets, VeryWell, and TripSavvy. Alicia makes sure our readers can trust every word - holding both our team & our gaming operator partners to the highest standard to ensure that our readers always have the best possible experiences playing gaming online! Beyond OddsSeeker, Alicia is a marketing expert, entrepreneur, and avid traveler based in Connecticut!

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