Original Release: B2Services OÜ, 2023, Web browser
A slots-only “sweepstakes casino” with web browser and app options that features games by NetEnt and other major online casino publishers
McLuck Casino (Web browser, B2Services OÜ, 2023)
Where to Buy: Free to play online
Review by: C. M0use
McLuck Casino is part of a new subset of social casinos that can be called “sweepstakes casinos”; long story short, they’re basically exploiting a (perceived) loophole in federal law to offer real money online gaming in the United States. I’ve only just started to explore these things (they don’t seem to have started popping up until around early-mid 2023), but the model that McLuck uses is to basically sell you bundles of Gold Coins (GCs) that are purely “fun money,” but also slide you sweepstakes entries with purchases called Sweepstakes Coins (SCs) that can then be played and cashed out like real money.
So this differs from the usual social casino model, which plies you with free fun money but allows you to eventually convert that to some sort of real-world prizes of actual value via casino-style loyalty points (a la MyVegas and MyKonami). That isn’t really the model here, since the focus is more on a technical workaround allowing you to actually gamble with real money in the US.
Still, there are some similarities in that you regularly get both free GC and SC to play with. A daily login provides you with several thousand GC and 0.25 SC, at least to start. That’s plenty of GC to spin at low roller levels for quite a while, but basically just one free spin of real money play. You don’t earn SC via your GC play, or seemingly anything else.
Other than buying coin packages, there are some other “free” ways to obtain SC. There are regular “social competition” giveaways on Facebook/Insta/TwitterX, and there’s a referral program via which you can earn by referring paying customers, but that’s about it. The main idea is to pay real money to buy coin packages, which include SC, which can then be played and have winnings cashed out back to either gift cards or just straight-up money.
The SC value system is about as straightforward as it gets, one SC = $1 USD. It does get a little more complicated from there, though. There are cashout minimums at $10 for a gift card, or $75 if you want straight cash homie. You just need a valid email address to sign up and play, but if you want to cash out for actual cash, you’ll have to go through some photo ID verification thing first.
But the real kicker, and likely the biggest turn-off, is that you must play through every SC you hold at least once before it can be cashed out. Online casinos in Europe and other parts of the world often put this requirement on bonuses and free play funds that they give you, but I’ve never seen it on real money that you actually deposit. I take it it’s part of the whole legal workaround framework, but in the end you’ll have to plan for each wager you make potentially costing you double what you’re actually betting … talk about a house edge! Woof. If you want to buy coin packages to get SCs, there’s an initial offer of $10 for 25 SC, but afterwards it’s a roughly 1-for-1 cost … so at least you’re not paying extra on that end too, but the casino essentially doubles its advantage on every bet you make with these terms.
So you essentially get peanuts in terms of free daily SC, playing with real money puts you behind about the worst casino advantage I’ve ever seen … what do the other options for funding your account look like? Well, I took a peek on Twitter and it seems every day or two a simple question is posted and 20 people in the comments answering it correctly are picked out at random for a prize of 20 SC and a pile of GC … at the moment the account only has about 5,000 followers and gets 80-100 replies to these so you actually stand a fair shot of winning something I suppose, at least for now. The referral program requires you the person you refer to spend at least $100 before you get anything at all, and you won’t max earnings on them unless they spend at least $1,400 … this site does affiliate advertising but I’m not even bothering putting my referral link anywhere in this review as I can’t see anyone spending even $100 on this.
In terms of gaming options, it’s a pretty robust selection of slots with a lot of games from the likes of Netent and Pragmatic Play that you see in actual online casinos in Europe (though seemingly a lot of older games from the previous decade). The whole thing really resembles the sort of barebones online casino that UK and the EU are choc-a-bloc with, aside from a weird-looking leprechaun popping up here and there there’s almost no theming and an omnipresent black background. Nothing but slots as of yet though (some other sweepstakes casinos have a wider range of game types).
There is a bit of a twist to the slot play as there are various promotions running at any given time you can “opt in” to, at the cost of a little extra GC and SC per wager (only when playing with SC of course). The main one is the McJackpots set of site-wide progressives that seems to be always available and costs an extra 0.1 SC and 0.5% of your GC stash per spin to qualify for on any game. As I write this there was a similar contest for a trip for two to Hawaii, but these require you to play particular games.
Even if you’re OK with the unprecedentedly MASSIVE house edge when playing for real money here, I don’t think this whole “sweepstakes casino” concept has been tested in court yet and I’m almost certain there will be regulatory and/or law enforcement involvement here at some point. The publisher is based in Estonia, so you could well wake up one day to find all your SCs on deposit went “poof” with no hope of recovery. Six states already have laws worded such that McLuck can’t seem to wiggle around them, and thus bars players from them: Alabama, Georgia, Idaho, Kentucky, Nevada, and Washington. Estonia does have a gaming control board apparently, but as to their level of involvement in this and what rights you might have on the US side given the whole “grey area” of this are very much in question.
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