On a whole, sweepstake casinos are an interesting prospect and a great option for players who are not in regions that offer legal gambling. With sweepstake casinos everyone can get a taste of the action in a different but equally exhilarating way.

History of Sweepstake Casinos

If you’ve got this far into reading this page (first of all, bless you, you cultured chief, you bastion of education) I’m sure at this point you have a lot of questions about how this even happened. Questions like, where did this crazy idea come from? Who cooked up this whacky little plan? And, when did the sweepstake revolution start? Well, this is where I’ll field all those questions and satisfy your curiosities. If you don’t care, you can easily skip to the next part by clicking here. 

It all started long ago in a galaxy far far away. It was 2012 in Perth, Australia. Laurence Escalante was working at Virtual Gaming World (VGW) when he had an idea that would forever change the gambling industry. As a teenager Escalante was your average joe who “worked at Hungry Jack’s and spent hours playing arcade games” and now the tech savy Australian born is worth 2.5 billion dollars and it’s all down to that one idea he had in 2012 Laurence Escalante: From Hungry Jack’s burger-flipper to tech billionaire. That idea (unsurprisingly) was to found the first ever sweepstake casino ‘Chumba Casino’. By using virtual online currency Escalante was able to avoid the legal restrictions of online gambling and create a platform that didn’t require any of the established licenses. As Ben Reichel, former COO of VGW puts it: 

“Laurence came up with the idea to use sweepstakes laws in the US to replicate online casinos and slot machines, as at the time [he] couldn’t get a license for online gambling […] it was a brilliant idea” Virtual Gaming Worlds’ Laurence Escalante is living large off controversial gambling billions

The vision to not only discover but exploit this legal loophole proved to be fruitful as VGW tasted immediate success. Once this move had been made, the gambling world was never the same. Soon, sweepstake casinos began spawning in masses with High5Casino (2012), Stake (2017) and LuckyLand Slots (2018) emerging in a matter of years as Chumba Casino’s main competitors. 

However, it wasn’t till the pandemic struck and forced millions of people into their homes that sweepstake casinos truly broke out as the next fad in online gambling. With people confined to the inside of their house, the cancellation of mainstream sporting events and sheer boredom, the perfect storm was created for sweepstake casinos to thrive. People turned to casual gambling as a form of entertainment and escape from the bleak reality of the pandemic. Sites began attracting larger and large crowds, with streamers and influencers playing a key role in driving the sweeps casino hype-train. Since then dozens of companies have launched their own sweepstake casinos and the market has become saturated with different platforms and offerings. As a result, the industry has experienced a meteoric increase in market size and has the potential to become something truly industry-breaking. 

Market Size and Growth

In the last couple of years sweepstake casinos have been in the ascendency with a rapid increase in total platforms and player count. From 2019 to 2022 alone sweepstake casinos saw an unprecedented growth in market revenue of 89% each year, netting over 3.1 billion in 2022. This amount was equivalent to around half of the market revenue for the sports betting market that year. These staggering numbers reveal the growing allure of sweepstake casinos as a bridge between casual gaming and real-money gambling.

In total, there are over 176 million active online gamblers with this figure potentially ballooning to a mind-boggling 243 million by 2028. Online Gambling - Worldwide | Statista Market Forecast In this ever-growing market sweepstake casinos will have ample opportunity for radical expansion. To this day, online casinos are still considered illegal in 47 U.S states Online Gambling in the USA: Where It’s Legal and How to Enter the Market in 2024. This untapped market is exactly where sweepstake casinos are likely to operate and find success in. For those who want to dip their toe in the inviting waters of the sweepstake casino world here’s all you need to know about where these platforms are legally available:

Controversy and Future

Sweepstakes are often the object of fiery debate and controversy with the main argument being that they shouldn’t be legal because of how closely they mimic actual gambling. On the other side, big players in the sweepstake industry maintain that they haven’t done anything illegal and are observing the letter of the law. Discussions between these two groups have intensified over the last couple of years. 

The latest example of this unrest comes in the form of a letter by the American Gambling Association which has been labelled a potential “game changer” by Daniel Wallach Canary in the coal mine: Daniel Wallach on sweepstakes’ uncertain future, a respected gaming attorney and prominent voice in the legal world of gambling. In this two page memo the AGA (a trade group representing U.S gambling) detailed their issues with the sweepstake model pushing regulatory agencies to “investigate companies or platforms that offer casino games or a form of sports betting under the ‘sweepstakes’ model to determine whether or not these operators are in compliance with their respective laws and regulations.” Sweepstakes Casinos Face Long Legal Odds To Survive ‘Substance-Over-Form’ Court Scrutiny. They continued by urging law makers to review the legality of sweepstakes and clear things up “where the laws and regulations are not clear” in order to “prevent unlicensed operators from exploiting loopholes in sweepstakes regulations to offer online real money gambling.” Ultimately, I believe this letter should be taken with a grain of salt. We shouldn’t forget that it’s the AGA’s job to protect the interests of the dominant gambling companies with this letter being a partial reflection of that underlying bias. 

Another area where the sweeps industry is under fire is in the courtroom. Many class action lawsuits have been filed against the biggest sweepstake operators with some settlements reaching the multi-million dollar range. Of these companies none has felt more legal heat than VGW (sweepstake casino market leader). In 2024 the number of U.S civil lawsuits brought to VGW surged to new heights. Unsatisfied customers and players who lost money on the site were among those that brought these lawsuits to VGW’s doorstep. Lawsuits which as Daniel Wallach explains rarely progress meaningfully:

“It could take several years for a private civil plaintiff to successfully advance a lawsuit against VGW to a final judgment — and that is, only if he or she is able to survive the gauntlet of time-consuming and case-delaying pretrial motions that VGW’s attorneys throw in their path.”

That being said, VGW and other sweepstake operators could face other potentially more destructive pressures. According to Daniel Wallach, sweepstake casinos could still be met with anything from “from state enforcement actions to potential criminal prosecution.” 

In the end, I anticipate the temperature of the debate surrounding sweepstake casinos to rise. Why? Because of the money. Sweeps are so popular and so successful that they’re making a notable dent in the bottom line of those top dogs that have run the show for years and they don’t like it. So, while the future of sweepstake casinos remains shrouded in mystery I would probably agree with the sentiment of reputed NEXT.io gaming writer Zak Thomas who ominously predicts an “industry civil war is coming.”

Top 5 Sweepstakes Casinos recommended by GameChampions

We constantly strive to update the rankings of our top 5 sweeps casinos based on player feedback and what our experiences are playing on these gaming sites. Here is our current list of the best sweepstakes casinos in December 2024:

Sweeps Casino	Best for	Our Rating	User Reviews(Trustpilot)
	Has the fastest redemption time	⭐4.6/5	4.2/5 trust score
	Best original games and most rewarding VIP program	⭐4.5/5	4.5/5 trust score
	Best overall design and best daily redemption offers	⭐4.5/5	3.5/5 trust score
	Recently launched and growing fast	⭐4.1/5	3.4/5 trust score
	Has the best welcome offer	⭐4.5/5	4.2/5 trust score

This list is frequently updated as we are constantly evaluating each sweeps brand based on sources across the web and our own internal testing. Be sure to check back frequently for updates to the sweeps casino rankings on Game champions.