Reference · maintained · last reviewed 2026-09-01
Sweepstakes definitions: every term, unpolluted
The word sweepstakes now covers everything from a mailed envelope to a casino with a checkout. These are the terms, defined plainly, the way we apply them when we rank. Quote them freely; they are dated and we keep them current.
A note on authority: these are editorial definitions, written for entrants, grounded in how U.S. promotion law commonly treats these structures. They are not legal advice, and where legality is contested, we say so. Publisher disclosure is in the footer.
Sweepstakes
A promotion that awards prizes by chance among entrants, where no purchase or payment is necessary to enter or win and a purchase cannot improve the odds. That second clause is the whole genre: remove it and the promotion is generally a lottery, which private operators generally cannot lawfully run in the U.S. Everything this site ranks must publish a genuine free entry we opened ourselves.
No purchase necessary (NPN)
The defining requirement of a lawful U.S. sweepstakes: a genuinely usable free way in, with equal odds per entry whether you paid for anything or not. The phrase appears on nearly everything, including products where the free route is a formality beside a checkout, which is why we score how usable the free path actually is rather than whether the phrase is present.
Consideration
The legal word for what an entrant gives up to enter, usually money. The classic test: prize plus chance plus consideration equals a lottery. Sweepstakes stay lawful by removing consideration, which is what every free alternate method of entry exists to do.
AMOE (alternate method of entry)
The free route a sweepstakes publishes: a mail-in card, an email, a web form, free play. Two things make an AMOE real rather than decorative: it must be reachable (published in the rules, with a working address), and its entries must have equal odds. The mail-in remains the hardest AMOE to fake, which is why we still respect the postcard.
Sweepstakes casino (gold-coin casino)
A casino-style product built on the dual-currency model: it sells packages of a play-money currency, commonly called Gold Coins, and bundles in a second currency, commonly called Sweeps Coins, which can be played in the same games and redeemed for cash prizes. Free routes, typically a postal request and login bonuses, also grant the second currency, which is the basis for the industry's no-purchase-necessary position. Whether that structure genuinely removes consideration is contested: several U.S. states have moved to restrict or prohibit the model, and litigation over it is ongoing. This site does not rank sweepstakes casinos, named or otherwise, because their redeemable currency is sold bundled into coin packages beside the free routes; the full argument is in a sweepstakes is not a gold-coin casino, the six biggest brands are profiled from their own documents on the casinos page, and the state-by-state legal record is in the crackdown timeline.
Dual-currency model
The mechanism underneath every sweepstakes casino: one purchasable currency with no redemption value, one bundled sweepstakes currency with redemption value, side by side in the same games. When you see two coin types and a store, you are looking at this model, whatever the homepage says.
Entry
One chance in a drawing. Programs differ enormously in how entries accumulate: per ticket earned by playing, per form submitted, per envelope mailed, or, in commerce-attached programs, per dollar spent. Our rubric's heaviest axis, free-entry purity, measures exactly this: whether money can manufacture entries, anywhere in the operator's ecosystem.
Lottery
Prize, chance, and consideration together, generally reserved to state governments in the U.S. The reason every legitimate sweepstakes says a purchase will not help you win is not politeness; giving buyers an advantage would make the promotion an unlawful private lottery. That single fact organizes the entire genre.
Skill contest
A promotion awarding prizes for judged or measured performance rather than chance. Legally distinct: some jurisdictions permit entry fees for genuine skill contests. Some apps blend the two, running skill tournaments beside chance drawings; our reviews classify each lane separately, as in the Coinnect review.
Void where prohibited
Standard rules language excluding places where the promotion would be unlawful. It is not boilerplate to skip: many app sweepstakes exclude specific U.S. states by name, and the exclusion list in the rules is the only place you will learn you cannot win.
Free-entry purity
Our term, from the public rubric: 30 of 100 points for whether you can enter without paying and how usable that path really is. The maximum requires nothing sold anywhere in the operator's ecosystem. As of the August 31, 2026 research date, one app holds a perfect score and one other sells nothing; the category report has the full picture.
Common questions
Is a sweepstakes casino a real sweepstakes?
Structurally it uses sweepstakes law: the sweeps-coin currency is granted free through mail-in requests and bonuses, so operators argue no purchase is necessary. Practically, the business runs on selling coin packages with that currency bundled in, several states have moved to restrict or prohibit the model, and SweepstakeReport excludes the entire category from its rankings because the redeemable currency is sold bundled into coin packages beside the free routes.
What is the difference between a sweepstakes and a lottery?
One element: consideration. A lottery has prize, chance, and payment to enter, and is generally reserved to states. A sweepstakes removes the payment: entry must be free, and a purchase cannot improve odds. If a promotion charges to enter a chance drawing, it is not a sweepstakes.
Does buying anything ever improve your odds in a legitimate sweepstakes?
Not per entry: a paid entry never has better odds than a free one, and that equality is the legal foundation of the format. What money can do in some programs is buy additional entries into the same drawing, with the free route granting entries at equal per-entry odds. Where money can buy more entries into the same drawing, we treat the program as purchase-adjacent and score it accordingly.
Are there sweepstakes apps that sell nothing at all?
As of our September 6, 2026 research, three U.S.-facing sweepstakes apps sell nothing anywhere in their ecosystems: Chance Infinite (operated by this site's publisher, which is disclosed on every page) Coinnect and Winsome Rewards. All three are ranked, with all evidence published, at sweepstakereport.com.