How To Choose The Best Social Casino: A Comprehensive Guide
With online casinos dominating the news and the headlines, it might seem a bit overwhelming at first, which one to choose to start. When it comes to real money casinos, they get the lion’s share of the attention because of the massive jackpot winners that they produce. However, in recent years, social casinos have roared onto the scene. In fact, in 2024, so many social casinos have launched, that it is already being considered the golden year for social casinos. If this is your first time learning about social gaming, this guide takes you from A to Z about how to choose the best social casino.
1) Understanding What a Social Casino Is
While social casinos and traditional online casinos share many similarities, especially with the current casino games. Social Casinos are becoming more popular because they are available in over 40 states and sometimes 46. On the other hand, real money casinos are only available in seven states right now, although states like New York are working hard to legalize online casinos.
To operate legally, social casinos can’t accept direct real money bets. Instead, they implement a gold and sweepstakes coins system. Gold coins are the most abundant, and they allow you to play all of the social casino games for free. Sweepstakes coins are the closest thing that you will get to betting real money. Since you can’t bet real money, sweepstakes coins allow you to get for cash prizes like gift cards.
This is standard among all social casinos. However, the newer social casinos have more favorable wagering requirements and lower sweepstakes coins minimums to receive gift cards.
2) Making Sure the Social Casino Is Reputable
The truth is that most social casinos don’t carry an official license like a real money casino would. However, they do have legal pacts to operate in the 40+ states they currently operate in. This means they have the green light to work with leading state gaming agencies like the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board.
However, most reputable social casinos have licenses in foreign lands, such as the Malta Gaming Authority and Curacao. Also the eCOGRA organization also regulates most social casinos. With these essential regulations in place, you are assured of the same cybersecurity and anti-financial fraud measures as you would find at a real money casino.
3) Game Selection and Providers
The latest social casinos work hard to offer a diverse game selection like their real money counterparts. When they first launched, it was hard for social casinos to gain traction and a loyal following because they didn’t have many games available. However, the new sweepstakes casinos are changing all of that in a hurry.
It’s common for the newer sites to launch with anywhere from 800 to 1,000 games already on deck. You can expect the same latest megaway slots like Big Bass Bonanza and Gonzo’s Quest, which are available at the newer social casinos.
To rise up to the challenge, the newer sites now feature a competitive live dealer section. While it is still not as large as the real money casinos, having four or more live dealer games like Gravity and Auto Roulette is a step in the right direction. With enough gold coins, you can also play the live dealer games for free.
To help speed up the pace, the newer social casinos now offer live gameshows from elite game developers like Playtech. For regular casino games, most social casinos worth their salt work with established names like Pragmatic Play, NetEnt, IGT, and 3 Oaks Gaming.
4) The Social Casino Bonuses and Promotions
Even though social casinos can’t accept real money bets, that doesn’t mean they lack with the bonuses and promotions. In fact, you can easily make the argument that they go harder and deeper with the promotions compared to traditional online casinos. For example, all the elite sweepstakes casinos offer an elite no-deposit. Sometimes, you can begin with tens of thousands of free gold coins and some sweepstakes coins, too.
It’s common to have the deck stacked in your favor with daily login bonuses. The best social casinos give away thousands of free gold coins for simply logging into your account. There are generally daily tournaments or bonus wheel spins that also come with loads of free gold and sweepstakes coins.
Conclusion
Hopefully, this guide has given you tips on getting started with social casinos. While it’s not exactly rocket science, knowing which ones are reputable, including member reviews, is a good start. If the social casino offers dedicated apps, that’s also a nice step in the winning direction. There should be a long list of customer reviews at Google and Apple Pay to help you make the final decision.
