Social casinos are the next big thing as players have discovered that there’s a way for them to play and win without having to invest money, deal with a drawn-out sign-up process, or pass due diligence checks. Sound too good to be true?
Well, let’s introduce you to social casinos and explain why you might want to start spending some time playing them.
What Are Social Gaming Sites?
While most players are familiar with the concept of a regular casino, a social casino could be something new . Social casinos are a type of site or app that allows you to play casino games for free. However, you do get some kind of stake in the games.
While they won’t ask you to invest money to play, you will have an opportunity to win cash prizes. For example, you might be able to play slots with play money and at the end of the week, the top 10 winners will be able to take home some cash or prizes.
Essentially, these are play-for-free sites where there’s no financial pressure on you to succeed. You spend a little time, gather points and try to redeem these points for cash prizes.
You’ll find that some of the biggest play-for-cash brands also have play-for-free apps. It’ll simply be on a different segment — also known as a vertical — of the site. It’s a great way for you to come in and try things out before you make a deposit and start playing for real money.
Keep in mind that some social gaming sites are completely play-for-free and some use coins that you’ll need to purchase. With the former, you simply fire it up and they’ll give you a big (play money) bankroll that you can play with.
For the latter, some sites will ask you to buy a bundle of coins, which you can then play with. For example, you might get 5,000 gold coins for $5, and can then play with those coins, try to win more and exchange them for cash prizes.
What Can You Play at a Social Casino?
Social casinos will typically have the exact same games as a regular casino. That means you’ll find all of the classics like online blackjack, roulette, slots, video poker and much more. When you first log in, you’ll notice that the casino site is broken down into different sections.
Usually, online slots are grouped together, as are table games. From there, you can  fire up whichever game excites you. Since there’s no cost to play, it gives you a great opportunity to enjoy whatever you like without suffering any financial losses.
What Are the Benefits of Playing on a Social Casino Site?
While there may be no severe consequences to playing at a social gaming site, we wanted to run you through the pros, and cons of playing them. Let’s start with the pros.
A Good Way to Learn the Games
One of the best ways to learn games in a casino is to play them. While you can read countless books on how games work and the strategies behind them, unless you’re actually spending time playing the game, you aren’t getting the experience you need. That’s the beauty with these free-to-play options.
If you want to learn the nuances of European roulette versus American, you can simply load up these games and start playing. Or if you want to test out your blackjack strategy, why not try it in play-for-free first before actually spending real money? That’s exactly what these social sites allow you to do. Play for free and it’s risk-free, so it’s a risk-free strategy for learning casino games.
A Method of Seeing If You Like Them
Now that you’ve learned the ins and outs of the game, the next thing you probably want to figure out is what games you actually like. If you’ve never played keno or video poker, this is the place to do it.. I
If you’re into playing slots, you can load up all sorts of differently themed games from a variety of different providers.
At the end of the day, you want to spend your money on the games that you find fun. Playing for free gives you the opportunity to hone in on those before actually laying down any hard-earned money.
The Opportunity to win Real Money
Although you don’t exactly win (or lose) real money with each spin or hand in social casinos, you ultimately still have the opportunity to win prizes.
Typically, these work a couple of different ways. The first is that you’ll see different tournaments or challenges. A tournament could be “finish within the Top 10 for points” playing a specific game. That way, for the Top 10 players who won the most play money in the social site will be rewarded with a real money prize.
The second way that you’ll see is cashing out your play money for real money prizes. In other words, if you play long enough and accumulate a considerable balance, you might be able to exchange it for cash or prizes, depending on the site’s T&Cs.
Think something along the lines of for every 10,000 coins you collect in free-to-play mode, you might get $10in real cash.
Disadvantages of Social Casinos
Now that we’ve covered the pros, let’s take a look at the other side of the coin and examine why you might not love playing at social casinos.
Inability to Cash Out
While you can pick up some winnings at a social casino, it’s not the same as a real casino. For starters, your wins won’t be nearly as big and you won’t be able to cash out as often.
Think about it: in a regular online casino, if you sit down and play a few hands of blackjack and win, those funds are yours to take home right away. And think about those epic slots like Wheel of Fortune: you could potentially hit a massive jackpot.
When you’re playing at a social site, your wins are going to be far more muted. Remember, if you’re playing for coins or play money, winning a few hands on blackjack may not give you the same adrenaline rush.
Social sites are a safe place to get started but if you’re a gaming veteran, you might find them a bit boring — especially since you can get great casino bonus‘ at a real money site like free spins, cash to play, and access to exclusive games.
Smaller Bonuses
Lower stakes mean less risk, but also smaller bonuses.
Many casinos will give you huge bonuses for simply signing up but let’s face it: social sites just don’t have the budget or legislation to support this. If a regular casino is going to give you a 100% bonus match up to $3,000, that’s pretty sweet but remember, they’re doing that because you’re depositing real funds. Social casinos can’t do that because you’re playing for free.
If you like the big deposit bonuses, reload bonuses and weekly game bonuses, you’ll have to play at a regular casino. Social casinos don’t offer the same size or style of incentives.
Limited Variety of Games
While it’s true that you can get a decent choice of games to test in a social casino, they usually won’t have the full game collection. The main reason is because it costs money to not only create (or purchase) a regular game, it’s also a separate fee and effort to make that game play-for-free. Local jurisdictions will also have their own legal parameters for players to enjoy free-to-play games.
Some casinos will see a value in releasing a game in the both cash and play-for-free version, but many will scale back the offering. For example, if a real money casino has thousands of different slots, a social casino might have under 100. Or if your regular online casino has 20+ different versions of blackjack – including European, single-deck and more – you’ll probably find that a social casino only really has one or two types.
You’ll still have a great time playing at a social casino but you’re not going to get the same, huge variety of games that you’ll see at a regular online casino. They typically bring out the big guns for when you decide to play for real money rather than play-for-free.
Ready to play? Read our online casino reviews and find the safest online gambling sites.
