The number of online sweepstakes casinos is on the rise, partly fueled by the fact that running an online sweepstakes casino is a way to skirt anti-gambling legislation in many countries. Although the vast majority of online sweepstakes casinos you’ll encounter will be safe, there is the odd one where not everything will be quite as it seems. On this page, our job is to provide you with all the advice you need to stay safe when gambling at online sweepstakes casinos. This simple advice could save you a lot of cash and aggravation.
No license required
If you are gambling at a normal online casino, then a proper gambling license is required. In most countries, there is a legal system in place to ensure that any person or organization that offers gambling services needs to be vetted. In the vast majority of countries, these rules do not apply to sweepstakes casinos. This is because technically, you are not gambling with cash. Well, you are, but the platforms have been set up to separate the idea of cash and gambling. You’re gambling with credits that you’ve purchased, rather than actual money. Yes, it is an odd loophole, but the law can be strange sometimes.
This means that, unfortunately, you can’t rely on looking at the site license to determine whether a sweepstakes casino is legit, since most of them won’t have one. It is a bit annoying since this is the main way to check the legitimacy of a casino. Still, there are other techniques you can utilize.
Check website reviews
Reading reviews from reputable platforms can save you from wasting time and money on untrustworthy casinos. These reviews break down important details like licensing, payout speeds, and customer experiences, making it easier to spot red flags before you sign up. By doing your research, you reduce the risk of falling for a scam and increase your chances of having a safe and enjoyable gaming experience.
The best method to determine whether an online sweepstakes casino is legit and ensure your safety is to read trusted website reviews on platforms like WSN who go to huge lengths to review the top sweepstakes casinos so players can get all the information they need, such as displaying the best online sweepstakes that offer no deposit bonuses. By reading professional reviews from well-established sites like WSN, your chances of falling victim to a scam casino are drastically reduced.
While user-written reviews can also offer some insight, we tend to rely more on expert reviews. Unfortunately, scam sweepstakes casinos sometimes publish fake positive reviews to lure players in, while others might be overly critical of legitimate sites. This makes it hard to get an unbiased view of a platform unless you sift through numerous opinions, and even then, it’s a challenge to identify red flags. Relying on trusted review sites like WSN is the safest way to avoid these issues and find secure, reputable casinos to enjoy. Still, these reviews work well alongside the professional reviews, just to give you a bit more knowledge about a platform.
Check site security
Site security is always a must when finding an online casino (or any site where you share your personal information, for that matter). While there are a few things you can do on your end to protect your security online, that’s a story for another day. For now, you need to make sure that the website you’re using is taking measures to protect your data. This means ensuring that your connection to the website is encrypted.
Luckily, this is pretty easy to do and you don’t need to have any sort of special computer knowledge to do it. Just look at the address bar on your web browser. Look for a padlock or similar icon, or https:// before the URL (the site address). The “s” part is key. If you see that, then your connection is secure. There are other ways people can snoop on your private information (eg if you use public Wi-Fi), but that’ll be on your end, not on the website.
Use legit payment methods
Only use payment methods that you can trust, and once again, make sure that you are behind a secure server when you make your payment (see the previous section). Don’t use some random payment method you don’t understand. Stick with credit/debit cards, PayPal or similar and you’ll be fine.
Check the website
Honestly, most of the time you can check whether a website is secure just by looking at it. A lot of scam sweepstakes websites are blindingly obvious. If something seems off about a website, then chances are that there is something wrong with it. Go somewhere else. There are plenty of other sites that you can use.
Customer support
Finally, check the customer support for a platform. If no customer support exists, or it is woefully difficult to get in touch with them, then look elsewhere. While you may never need to use customer support on a decent website, it is still nice that somebody has your back on the off-chance that you do.
Final thoughts
That’s about it. Using this advice, it should be easy to stay safe at an online sweepstakes casino. Don’t forget to pay attention to how much you are spending, though. While online sweepstakes casinos make it appear as if you’re not gambling with real money, you are. Take every precaution to make sure that you are not spending what you can’t afford to lose.
