Play From Home Sweepstakes

Play-from-home sweepstakes have been popular in the U.S. since the 19th century.

These days, they work a little differently than they did back then. Not only are call-in and mail-in sweepstakes popular, but online sweepstakes, such as free online casinos are also a fun way to play sweepstakes from home.

How Do You Play Sweepstakes From Home?

Sweepstakes games are widely available across the U.S. and are legal in most states.

To participate, you must provide personal information, such as your name and address. Some sweepstakes will also ask you to fill out a questionnaire with questions about your personal buying or brand preferences.

There are various methods of sweepstakes entries, including call-in, mail-in, and social media sweepstakes, as well as internet sweepstakes casinos.

Call-In

Call-in sweepstakes require you to call a toll-free number to win. These types of sweepstakes are a popular promotional tool used by radio stations and podcasters.

Some call-in sweepstakes require you to be the 100th caller (or another arbitrary number) to win, and you may need to answer a question that requires some skill.

You’ll also need to provide personal information and you may be required to enter a raffle to qualify.

Mail-In

Many sweepstakes are mail-in sweepstakes.

Companies use this type of game to promote a product or a service. Industries that have popularized mail-in sweepstakes include clothing companies, homecare brands, and food producers.

Even with play-from-home sweepstakes that encourage you to purchase a product or service, you can still send a hand-written postcard, letter, or self-addressed stamped envelope to the company’s sweepstakes address to get free chances to play.

Some sweepstakes are also mail-in only, meaning you’ll need to send a piece of mail to an address (following the sweepstakes instructions) to get your playing pieces.

You’ll also need to provide personal information.

You may not compulsively “win” a prize with every mail-in sweepstakes entry just for following the instructions. Some entries will simply enter you into a raffle. If your entry is drawn in the raffle, you’ll win a prize.

Social Media

Social media sweepstakes have become more popular in the past two decades. With this type of promotion, you’ll need to interact with a company’s social media accounts, including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and more to qualify.

Some of the qualifying actions may include:

• Liking a page

• Sharing a page with your friends

• Commenting on a post

Internet Sweepstakes Casinos

Similar to sweepstakes drawings, sweepstakes casinos operate under the same sweepstakes laws.

With a sweepstakes casino, you’ll use virtual currencies, usually Gold Coins and FREE Sweeps Coins, which act as your “ticket”. With these Coins, you’ll play online casino games that act as the “raffle”.

If you win the online casino game, you’ll win the “raffle” and you can potentially redeem FREE Sweeps Coins for prizes, including cash and gift cards, once you’ve won a minimum amount.

Some sweepstakes casinos combine the two above methods. FREE Sweeps Coins can never be purchased, but they can sometimes be won by interacting with a sweepstakes casino’s social media page. They can also be awarded when you mail in a handwritten request, following the sweepstakes casino’s instructions.

FREE Sweeps Coins are also usually awarded when you sign up for a player account and provide your personal information – similar to how many call-in sweepstakes work.

What Prizes Can You Win From Sweepstakes At Home?

The whole point of participating in sweepstakes drawings at home and playing at sweepstakes casinos is to win prizes. Most sweepstakes offer gift cards and cash prizes.

Gift Cards

Some sweepstakes award gift cards to major retailers. Some of the retailers include popular brands like VISA gift cards, Walmart, Amazon, and more. The best part is that you can win these sweepstakes from home.

Cash Prizes

Some sweepstakes also award cash prizes that you can win playing from home. You’ll receive your prize by check or by providing your bank account information.

Best Play From Home Sweepstakes

Because sweepstakes casinos combine mail-in sweepstakes with the excitement of online casino gaming, this is the best option if you want to win cash and prizes from home.

Many other types of sweepstakes don’t just reward you for playing. You need to mail in or call in just to be qualified for the drawing.

Hundreds to thousands of other participants may also be qualified to participate, meaning you’ll be pitted against these other contestants, lowering your odds of winning.

At sweepstakes casinos, you won’t compete against other players (unless you’re playing a live game). You’ll simply be playing against the house.

Playing at sweepstakes casinos is also more fun than participating in a mail-in or call-in sweepstakes. These platforms combine the thrill of winning a sweepstakes contest with the fun of playing online casino games you already enjoy.

If you’re like us, and you’d rather have fun playing your favorite games, check out some of the best sweepstakes casinos in the following sections.

Chumba Casino

Chumba Casino is possibly the most well-known sweepstakes casino. Its play-at-home casino games are designed by some of the biggest names in iGaming. Choose from dozens of slots, table games, and roulette games.

If you win at least SC 100, you can redeem your Free Sweeps Coins for gift cards or cash prizes.

Chumba Casino is offering new players 2,000,000 Gold Coins, plus 2 Free Sweeps Coins upon new account signup. There’s also a first-purchase bonus of $20 off a Gold Coins Purchase, plus 30 Free Sweeps Coins.

If you love this sweepstakes casino, you can play at other sites like Chumba Casino, including sister sites LuckyLand Slots and Global Poker.

McLuck Casino

Another sweepstakes casino that offers a huge selection of games is McLuck Casino. Play over 300 games by developers like Pragmatic Play and 3 Oaks.

McLuck specializes in slots but offers a lot of games with different features, including jackpot, MegaWays, and tumbling reels.

New players can get a no-purchase promo for 7,500 Free Gold Coins, plus 2.5 FREE Sweeps Coins. There’s also a first-purchase promo for 50,000 Gold Coins for $9.99, plus 25 Free Sweeps Coins.

You can redeem your Free Sweeps for gift cards once you’ve won at least 10 SC and for cash prizes once you’ve won at least 75 SC.

Pulsz Casino

One of the more established sweepstakes casinos is Pulsz.

This sweepstakes casino also specializes in slots, but it also offers Keno, HiLo, classic dice games, and classic mine games. Play over 400 at-home sweepstakes games.

New players can get a no-deposit bonus of 2.3 FREE Sweeps Coins, plus 5,000 Gold Coins. There’s also a first purchase promo for 173,500 Gold Coins for $9.99, plus 15 FREE Sweeps Coins.

Free Sweeps Coins can be redeemed for gift cards once you’ve won at least 50 SC and for cash prizes once you’ve won at least 100 SC.

If you love bingo, this sweepstakes casino has a sister site, Pulsz Bingo, dedicated to the popular game. Join one of five live bingo rooms every day to potentially win cash prizes or gift cards.

High 5 Casino

One of our favorite at-home sweepstakes casinos is High 5 Casino.

Not only does High 5 offer slots and table games, like many other sites – but it also offers live dealer games and you can play around 800 games on a dedicated sweepstakes mobile app.

New players can get a no-deposit promo for 5 Free Sweeps Coins, plus 600 Free Diamonds.

Once you’ve won at least 50 SC, you can redeem for gift cards, and once you win at least 100 SC, you can redeem for cash prizes.

How to Participate in Sweepstakes

To participate in the above sweepstakes and claim your new player bonus, you’ll need to sign up for a new user account.

To sign up for an account, claim your Free Gold Coins and FREE Sweeps Coins, play casino games, and potentially redeem your Free Sweeps for gift cards and cash prizes, follow these steps:

• Sign up for a new user account using the “Claim Offer” or similar type button.

• Fill out the forms with the required personal information.

• Use a promo code if applicable.

• Verify your email address and mobile number.

• Start playing online casino games with your Free Gold Coins and FREE Sweeps Coins.

• If you run out of Gold Coins, you may be able to get more for free by accepting log-in bonuses, interacting with the casino’s social media accounts, or requesting more by mail.

• Buy more Gold Coins in the store if you don’t want to wait for free coins.

• Once you’ve won a minimum number of Free Sweeps Coins, you can redeem them for gift cards or cash prizes, using the “Redeem” button.

Choosing the Right Internet Sweepstakes at Home

It’s not feasible to participate in every internet sweepstakes promotion. There are a lot of barriers to entry that might make a potential prize not worth your time.

Before choosing an internet sweepstakes to play at home, it’s important to target the right game.

What to Consider

Before entering, you might want to consider if it’s even worth your time to participate. There’s a high barrier to entry for a lot of sweepstakes, so choose wisely and consider the following factors.

Odds of Winning: The odds of winning some internet sweepstakes are pretty low. If you’re pitted against hundreds or thousands of other participants, your odds of winning are greatly reduced.

Nature of Prizes: Some prizes offered through internet sweepstakes promotions aren’t worth your time. If you’re playing against other participants, only to win a $10 prize, is it worth it?

Ease of Participation: Calling a radio station over and over or waiting on hold isn’t the easiest way to win a couple of $30 concert tickets. Consider how easy it will be to win a prize before participating.

Wait Times: Some sweepstakes force you to wait weeks or even months to find out if you’re a winner. These drawings aren’t really worth your time, either.

Sweepstakes casinos have streamlined the process of entering a contest. You find out right away if you’re a winner, and you won’t be pitted against hundreds or thousands of other participants. Instead, you’ll play against the house.

How to Avoid Sweepstakes Scams

All sweepstakes aren’t created equally, and certainly not all of them are created with the best intentions. Thus, it is important to perform due diligence when participating in sweepstakes of any kind.

Below are some general guidelines you should follow to help protect yourself from potentially risky sweepstakes.

Don’t Provide Information to Untrusted Sites

Be careful who you give your personal information to, especially your name, address, phone number, and banking info.

Remember, if something is free, your personal information is usually the product. This isn’t always a “bad” thing, but just be wary of the sites you share information with. Make sure sites use encryption technology to safeguard your information.

Be Wary of Too-Good-to-be-True Promotions

If a promotion seems too good to be true, it probably is. If you need to pay a lot of money to participate in a promotion, it could be a scam.

Avoid Sweepstakes Requiring Up-Front Payment

All legit sweepstakes sites don’t require you to pay to play. If you need to make a purchase to qualify, it’s probably not worth your time.

We only recommend sweepstakes casinos that don’t require any purchase to play. We also thoroughly check each sweepstakes casino no-deposit bonus, and we won’t recommend a site with a predatory promotion.

Play From Home Sweepstakes Games

Most mail-in or call-in sweepstakes are pretty basic and not very entertaining – unless you win.

On the other hand, play-from-home sweepstakes games at free sweeps cash casinos are fun, whether you win or lose. Just some of the games available include slots, table games, Keno, and live dealer games.

Slots

The most common sweepstakes games you’ll find are slot games. This is – by far – the most popular game available at sweepstakes casinos.

The outcome of slot games is determined by random number generators, which is similar to how the outcomes of lottery games are determined.

The biggest difference? Each game has its own return-to-player percentage (RTP), which is the percentage that the game pays out winnings, and its own volatility, which denotes how often you’ll win when playing a game. Play a slot with low volatility to get smaller payouts more often, or play one with high volatility to potentially win larger payouts – if you’re lucky enough to win.

If you play jackpot slots, you have the potential to win big payouts that can result in huge cash prizes.

Keno

If you’re the type of person who has to stop and get a lottery ticket on your way home from work every day, you’ll love playing Keno from home.

Similar to the lottery, you’ll choose up to 10 numbers on a card in hopes that some (or all!) of your numbers match the winning numbers.

Funzpoints, Pulsz, Fortune Coins, and ZitoBox all offer Keno games. Some even offer different variations on the classic game.

Table Games

Play classic table games, including casino favorites like blackjack, roulette, Hold’em, three-card poker, craps, and more.

At sweepstakes casinos, you’ll play these games against a computer. Many casinos have partnerships with iGaming developers, like Pragmatic Play that create an immersive experience with crisp graphics and sound effects.

Just a few sites that offer table games include Stake.us, ZitoBox, Sweepslots, and Luckybird.io.

Stake.us offers games by Pragmatic Play and also has a selection of exclusive table games.

Sweepslots offers blackjack, baccarat, Teen Patti, American Roulette 3D, Texas Hold’em, and more.

ZitoBox has a library of 15 table games, including war, roulette, Sic Bo, blackjack, and three-card poker.

Live Dealer

Live dealer games are becoming more and more available at sweepstakes, which is mostly thanks to the huge popularity of these games. These games are more immersive than regular table games because they’re filmed in sound studios, designed to look like real casinos.

Enjoy the excitement of a land-based casino from your home – or wherever you go, if you play on a sweepstakes casino app, such as the High 5 Casino mobile app.

Available live dealer games include some of your favorite table games, such as blackjack, roulette, craps, and baccarat.

There are also live game shows you can play, which evoke the fun of your favorite TV game shows. The best part? You’re not just a viewer. You can participate in the games and potentially win real cash prizes. And it’s all for free.

Playing Sweepstakes From Home vs. Internet Cafes

Recently, internet cafes, selling sweepstakes entries, have popped up around the U.S. – especially in states where online casino gambling is not yet legal.

These cafes are similar to “blind tiger” bars that popped up across the country in times of prohibition, where patrons could purchase a ticket to see an exotic animal – but were actually shepherded into a back room where they would be able to drink liquor.

In these cafes, players can purchase “internet time”, which is really just a front. Instead, they are brought to a computer where they can play sweepstakes games. The results are determined by random number generators.

Yet, these cafes are not licensed or subject to background checks. There’s also no regulation over the fairness of the games. In short, they’re similar to offshore casinos that are under no federal or state jurisdiction.

Even if you win, there are no repercussions if your winnings aren’t paid out. There is no information provided regarding safe gameplay. Obviously, these establishments do not pay taxes on their profits, so the community does not benefit from them, either.

Unlike internet cafes, it’s totally legal to play sweepstakes online for money at sweepstakes casinos. Best of all, you can play without spending any money, thanks to free sweeps cash casinos no deposit bonuses.

Since sweepstakes casinos only operate in states where they may legally do so, provide terms and conditions of gameplay, post-game return-to-player percentages, and provide information about safe gaming practices, they’re also much safer.

Is Lottery a Play From Home Sweepstakes?

The state lottery is similar to play-from-home sweepstakes, but there are a few differences between these two types of gambling games, including:

• Method of Entry: To participate in the lottery, you must purchase a lottery ticket; to play at a sweepstakes casino, you don’t need to make a purchase. Players can take advantage of no-purchase bonuses, login promotions, and ongoing deals for existing players.

• Online Availability: Only in some states, can you play the lottery online; yet, most U.S. states allow players 18 years or older to play at sweepstakes casinos.

• Prizes and Odds: To win the lottery, you must match at least two of the winning numbers to win a nominal prize, and you must match six numbers to win the jackpot. The odds of winning a jackpot are 1 in 7,059,052.

At sweepstakes casinos, you can play hundreds of games, all with varying RTPs. If you play games with high RTPs and medium volatility, you have a better chance of winning.

Obviously, there is a much higher prize ceiling with legal online lotteries, but the likelihood of winning anything is incredibly remote. Sweepstakes casinos not only provide far better odds, but the games provide far more entertainment.