The casino industry is the most popular it’s ever been in the US. Simply put, American adults love casino games, from the flashy slots to the red and black roulette wheels. This has led to a booming industry where there are now three main types of casinos:
Land-based casinos
Online casinos
Social casinos
Despite being around for decades, land-based casinos are still extremely popular in the US (just head to Las Vegas for the weekend if you want to find out). Similarly, online casinos are also thriving, with the likes of BetMGM and FanDuel attracting thousands of new players every single week. But outside of traditional and online casinos, you also have a new type of online casino, too: social casinos.
If you flashback to 2020, you’ll remember that almost the entire world was locked down due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Yep, it was a weird time for everyone, as most people were stuck at home desperately searching for some entertainment to pass the time. Interestingly, this led to millions of people — especially in the US – creating accounts with social casinos. This then kickstarted the social casino trend, which has kept on rising ever since. But why exactly are social casinos so popular?
The Rise of Social Casinos: Free-to-Play Entertainment with a Twist
According to Statista, the global social casino market is worth an estimated $6.2bn. When an industry skyrockets to a value this huge in such a short space of time, there are usually multiple exciting reasons behind it, which is certainly the case with the social casino market. When it comes to social casinos, which are also known as sweepstakes casinos, they bring a lot of benefits to the player, including:
Free-to-play casino games
A range of prizes
The opportunity to be part of a ‘social’ gaming community
In a nutshell, that’s how social casinos work. All of the games are free, players get to win prizes, and the experience is largely based around socializing with other players within the casino’s community. Essentially, the focus is on having fun — not gambling real money.
You might be wondering how social casinos work if they don’t allow players to bet real money. Don’t worry, it’s actually really simple. Instead of using real money, players are given virtual coins (Gold Coins, Sweeps Coins). If you want to play the casino games for free, you use the Gold Coins. Alternatively, if you want to compete for prizes, you use the Sweeps Coins.
The more Sweeps Coins you collect, the more prizes you can redeem. Normally, most social casinos offer a range of prizes — including cash transfers, cryptocurrencies, and gift cards — so there’s plenty up for grabs. So, if you’re focused on winning prizes above anything else, you’ll need to stock up on your Sweeps Coins after creating an account. To do this, purchase one of the coin packages from your chosen social casino and you’ll be good to go.
Chumba Casino, Stake.us, and WOW Vegas Are Some of the Leading Social Casinos — With More Set to Join the Market
When you look at the social casino world today, some of the market leading sites include:
⭐ Chumba Casino
⭐ Stake.us
⭐ WOW Vegas
⭐ McLuck
⭐ High 5
Outside of Chumba Casino, which first hit the internet back in 2017, all of the other big social casino names have launched in the past five years. For example, WOW Vegas only launched in 2021 yet has already attracted over 1 million worldwide players, making it one of the most popular social casinos available. And what’s great about all of these sites is that they each have something unique to offer, whether it’s a big sign-up bonus or site-exclusive games.
Because social casinos continue to rise in popularity, more of them are expected to join the market over the coming years. After all, there’s great incentive there for the operators. This is because social casinos are legally allowed to operate in 48 out of 50 US states, whereas traditional online casinos are only legal in 6 of them. What this means is that social casinos have a huge advantage in terms of audience reach, which is excellent news for the site owners, as they don’t have to panic about legal restrictions or staying within specific gambling laws.
The reason why social casinos aren’t subject to the same gambling laws as traditional online casinos is because they’re not classed as gambling sites. Yep, social casinos are not platforms for gambling, even though they’re still ‘casinos’. They use virtual coins instead of real money, so (in the eyes of most states) these types of casinos don’t fall under the gambling category.
Summary: Will the Rise of Social Casinos Continue?
Between now and 2030, the rise of social casinos is set to continue at a rapid rate, with the likes of Stake.us and WOW Vegas being the heartbeat of the movement. Compared to traditional online casinos, these sites are more fun, offer casino games for free, and even allow you to win prizes, so it’s a no-brainer from the player’s perspective. And because players are enjoying them so much, it’s even possible that social casinos will eventually surpass traditional online casinos in terms of user count and popularity, which would shake up the iGaming industry and gambling as we know it.
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