Over the last decade, online casinos have been attracting an ever-increasing number of players. In the last five years in particular, that popularity has exploded all over the world. Online gambling is now a major sector of the gambling industry and contributes a healthy percentage of the sector’s revenue.
Unfortunately for many would-be players in the United States, online casinos are still wrapped up in a legal limbo. While some states have been proactive and legislated to legalize online casinos, others have either banned them or simply refuse to debate the issue.
Luckily for New Jersey residents, both in-person and online casinos are legal. This makes sense, since New Jersey is one of the country’s premier
entertainment destinations. Players in other states thankfully do have another option for legal online casino gaming – social casinos.
Social casinos, also known as sweepstakes casinos, are a legal alternative for players. If you’ve been paying any attention to the market, you’ve definitely heard of
Chumba Casino. In this article, we’ll explain what social casinos are and then we’ll review Chumba online casino, one of the most popular options for new players.
What is a social casino?
Social casinos are alternatives to online casinos that are legal because players aren’t playing to win real money. Instead, social casinos use two special currencies. The first is Gold Coins (GC). Gold Coins are used to play the games and have no value outside of the site. The other is called Sweeps Coins (SC). Sweeps Coins can be won or awarded to players and can be exchanged for prizes. They can also be used to enter sweepstakes on the site.
Social casinos don’t require players to make a deposit to start playing. There is the option to buy coin packages to increase the GC bank the player has. In order to be considered a sweepstakes, there also have to be ways for players to get free SC. Most social casinos, including Chumba, let players mail in requests for SC.
Apart from using Gold Coins and Sweeps Coins, everything else about social casinos works the same as regular online casinos. Many social casinos only have slot machine games, though the number of table games available is growing.
Now, let’s see how Chumba stacks up against the rest:
Games
Chumba has a library of 140 slot machine games, which is considerably fewer than other social casinos. However, Chumba only has games from the leading software providers. They also have several table game options for blackjack and roulette. This is a step up from many social casinos that don’t have any table games.
Bonuses
Chumba helps players start off on the best possible footing by giving them 2,000,000 Gold Coins and two Sweeps Coins just for signing up. There is also a daily login bonus to encourage players to keep coming back. They also have a number of social media promotions and events, as well as email bonus codes.
These are great options, however, there is one disappointing aspect: Chumba does not have a VIP program. A VIP program is the best way to reward player loyalty.
Security
Being licensed is important for an online casino, whether regular or social. Licenses protect both the player and the casino. Chumba Casino is licensed by the Malta Gaming Authority, which is one of the most respected licensing bodies in the world. For player safety and comfort, they also work with the Responsible Gambling Foundation and provide tools for self-exclusion.
In terms of security, Chumba employs 256-bit SSL encryption. This kind of security software encrypts the information on the site, and the data that is sent to and from the site. Players can feel comfortable entering their personal data and payment information on this site.
Payment methods
Digital payment methods make life much easier and Chumba understand that people all have their favorite payment methods to use online. Chumba offers more types of payment methods than almost any other social casino. Coupled with a deposit minimum of only $1.00, they make it incredibly easy to purchase additional Gold Coins.
Payments on Chumba can be made through credit or debit cards (Mastercard, American Express, Visa and Discover Card), bank transfer, Trustly, Skrill and paysafecard. Trustly is the most commonly used method and all payments are typically processed immediately. PayPal is the only notable payment method missing.
Prizes can be redeemed either as cash or gift cards. The minimum to redeem SC as a gift card is 10 SC. This is much lower than most other social casinos. The minimum to redeem a cash prize is 100 SC. This is the same as most social casinos, though some have lower minimums.
The speed at which prize redemptions are processed is incredibly variable. Processing can take anywhere from instantly to five days, depending on the redemption method. This can be very frustrating for players who would like to have access to their funds at all times. Prizes can be redeemed via gift cards, Skrill and bank transfers.
By Chris Bates
