Online casinos have been a dominant sector of the gambling market for several years now. Over the last decade, their popularity has grown so much that they are now one of the leading forms of gambling worldwide and even the most traditional casino companies have started their own online casino platforms.
These days, the traditional online casino is starting to have a bit more competition from the sweepstakes casino. Sweepstakes casinos aren’t a new phenomenon, but their steadily increasing popularity means that more people than ever have started to discover them and choose them over traditional online casinos.
Sweepstakes casinos aren’t that different from traditional online casinos. Both offer slot machine games and tables, both give bonuses and both allow players to enjoy a casino experience from the comfort and convenience of their home computer or phone. The main difference is that deposits made in real money are converted into an in-game currency that is then used to play games or can be redeemed for prizes.
Playing casino games online is a fun way to pass the time and can be a great hobby. You can even take the skills you hone online into your real life with poker nights or trips to a traditional land-based casino. But where is the ideal place to play online? Both online casinos and sweepstakes casinos have their fans and discussions can be a bit biased. In this article, we’ll do our best to provide a balanced look so you can choose the gambling site that’s best for you.
Games
The most important part of an online casino or sweepstakes casino is of course the games. There’s no point in creating an account and spending time on the site if you can’t find any games that you enjoy playing! Both online casinos and sweepstakes offer slot machine games as their main game option. Their libraries can have anywhere from a few dozen to over a thousand different slot games. Table games, including poker, blackjack, and baccarat, are also incredibly popular and any good casino will have multiple options for each game.
Online casinos are more likely to have massive game libraries. Sweepstakes casinos are more likely to have custom games that you can’t play anywhere else. These are both pluses, but the weight that each one carries will depend on personal preference.
Availability
Online casinos aren’t available in every state yet, and in fact, the locations where you can legally play at a regular online casino are surprisingly limited. The laws regulating online gambling are also changing quickly, so it can be hard to keep track of where you can legally play.
Sweepstakes casinos have the benefit of being available in 49 states, with Washington being the only place where they are illegal. This level of accessibility is impossible to find in any other kind of online gambling.
Social
Sweepstakes casinos have a social element that online casinos lack. Many have a space for conversation either on their own platform or through a community page on social media sites such as Facebook. Many even offer competitions and tournaments where players can compete against one another. Regular online casinos do not offer many options for building community as the people you play against are your competition, not your community.
For those who just want to play their games and do their own thing, an online casino is perfect. For people who want to have a bit more social interaction and to be a part of a gambling community, a sweepstakes casino is definitely preferable.
Clarity
One of the only real issues with sweepstakes casinos is that they can be very confusing for new players. With an online casino, you make a deposit and then that money is wagered on games. It is a very straightforward process and mimics the system used at traditional land-based casinos.
At a sweepstakes casino, real money is translated into two different in-game currencies. These are usually called gold coins and sweep coins. Gold coins are used to play games and sweeps coins can be exchanged for prizes or used to enter prize drawings. Players often receive gold coins as a free bonus or for winning games, but they can also be purchased. Players receive sweep coins by winning games or as a bonus when they purchase gold coins.
If this explanation seems a bit confusing, you’re not alone. It takes many people a little while to fully understand how gold and sweep coins work. The best way to understand how they work is to play at a sweepstakes casino. There is no learning curve for how to spend money or claim a deposit from a traditional online casino.
Expense
One of the elements that sets a traditional sweepstakes apart from a raffle or a lottery is that no purchase is necessary to be entered to win. In order to legally be considered a sweepstakes, sweepstakes casinos have to operate in the same way. The easiest and most common way to get coins is to buy them, but sweepstakes casinos are also required to provide an alternative free method. In most cases, this means that if you send a letter through the mail to the sweepstakes casino offices, your account will be credited with coins.
Regular online casinos don’t have any alternative methods to get free money to play with. With the exception of any credit received as part of a welcome bonus or promotion, the money that you play with at an online casino is all money that you have deposited.
So, Which Is Better?
At the end of the day, both sweepstakes casinos and online casinos have a lot of positives. Which one is better depends a lot on personal preference and on what parts of the gambling experience matter most to you. Luckily, there are no rules about only being able to play at one or the other, so for most people, it would make sense to have accounts with an online casino and a sweepstakes casino!
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