Social casino gaming is gambling-style games but for pure entertainment. Players use free or purchased gold coins to play slot style games, or spend them on levelling up the experience with VIP reward ladders, cosmetics and exclusive games. Social casinos are incredibly popular, to the tune of several billion dollars a year in revenue across the market. The sector is dominated by mobile slots play, although social versions of card games like blackjack and casino poker are also common.
So why do people play gambling-style games, without the gambling? There are many reasons for this, which this article will explore. The complex reality of regional gambling laws in the US, psychological concepts of familiarity and engagement and social and community play elements all play a role in making social casinos popular.
The Social Casino Model and The Law
Top social casino games providers will have hundreds if not thousands of free slot games to choose from as well as promo codes for new players to get started with an extra big stack of coins.
The crucial point here is, they are just entertainment. Although they play like casino slots, there is no gambling involved at all. The entertainment comes from the engagement with social media platforms, and the slots gameplay – which is well known to be a popular format.
The sector is different from, although often confused with, sweepstakes casinos. Sweeps casinos allow players to play for free with virtual coins, but also offer them Sweeps coins or Sweeps cash that can be exchanged for real dollars. This ensures the model is legal and not real money gambling, while still offering real money prizes.
Distinguishing between an online social casino and a sweepstakes can be difficult at first glance, and you can usually play for no monetary value virtual coins at a sweepstakes site. But for the purposes of this piece a true social casino is the important one.
Social casinos are legal in most American states except the following, which have specifically enacted rules against them:
- Nevada
- Connecticut
- Mississippi
- New Jersey
- Utah
- Idaho
- Michigan
- Delaware
- Montana
- Washington
- Pennsylvania
- West Virginia
- Louisiana
You might not understand why mobile games that are slots but don’t have any gambling have been controversial. That’s because, although an online social casino is pure entertainment, they have often been caught up in regulatory moves against sweepstakes casinos. Other social casino sites simply decide to avoid the trouble and restrict players from those states voluntarily.
How Big is the Market Really?
Social casinos make billions of dollars a year globally, and the US accounts for some 40% of the market. There are literally millions of players active every day. Yet, relatively few players ever put any real money in.
So how is this a viable and sustainable business model? Well, an online social casino works on the same freemium economic model as many live service games. It only takes a small number of people to really enjoy the service and spend significantly, to cover the costs of offering it for free to everyone else. So even if only a a small percentage of players decide to spend big on virtual coins, that can be enough to make a profit.
As no real-money transactions are involved during the gameplay, social casino set up costs are far lower than for normal online casino. Social casinos don’t need to spend on licensing or extra gambling taxes, and don’t need to follow so many strict compliance regulations.
Social casinos can also make money by bridging the gap to real money or sweepstakes gambling, through advertising and promo deals. Although these often prove even more controversial with regulators.
Why Players Choose Social Casinos
Americans love slot games. Many of them have visited Las Vegas, or other states that have casinos, and then return home to find no regulated options. Choosing a social casino means longer gameplay for fewer dollars, as a form of entertainment.
Slots are familiar to a lot of people, and the social elements like leaderboards and tournaments add further appeal. They’re often also featured prominently in app stores or integrated into social media apps, meaning people share wins and near-misses with friends.
Mechanically, slot games are well known to be more popular than other casino games despite often having worse odds per bet than something like blackjack. Flashing lights and animations, bonus rounds, the near win effect. These all have an influence on making slots interesting just for casual fun, without including gambling. Players choose social casinos as a comfortable, fun bit of downtime in the same vein as mobile gaming.
They may also remind players of gambling who also enjoy a real bet now and then, but don’t feel like risking actual money.
The reality is social casinos have been and continue to be a massively growing market in the US, with almost as many players as real money online gambling. Will they continue to grow at this pace? It’s hard to tell with potential regulatory changes on the horizon, but players have certainly proved the demand is there.
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