How the Five US Casinos Were Checked

Why the Check Starts With Documents

A ranking means little unless a reader can trace it. Every figure on the safe online casinos page comes out of one of the steps below, so a number that looks surprising, such as Acebet's 90-day expiry on unused Sweeps Coins, can be followed back to the document that states it.

US sweepstakes casinos serve US players only. SpinBlitz's FAQ requires US residence, Splash Coins' Terms of Use exclude every jurisdiction outside the United States, and Splash Coins requires Location Services on the device (section 8.5). Opening accounts from Sydney would need a VPN, which Coinz bans in section 3.11 of its Terms, so the hands-on test was run in the US by Alex Carter, from Denver, Colorado.

The documents are graded before anything is written.

Sources and How Each One Is Graded

Each fact on the ranking page carries one of four grades, and the grade decides how the sentence is worded. The table shows what counts at each level.

An A-grade rule still describes what the operator says, not proof that it always follows it. A payout time in the rules is a promise, and only a funded account can test it. Field test figures sit outside these grades and always name Alex.

What Gets Compared for Every Casino

Eight properties are recorded for each casino on the same date, so the five can be compared line by line:

1. Operator. The company named in the Terms, its registration details and any other company name the casino uses elsewhere.
2. Minimum age. The age in the Terms, checked against the App Store listing and the sign-up page where one is visible.
3. Excluded states. Every state the casino refuses, compared with the states that have passed a sweepstakes ban.
4. Cash-out minimum. The smallest redemption the operator's own documents allow, split by cash and gift card where they differ.
5. Cash-out time. The processing time the documents promise, and any longer limit hidden elsewhere in the rules.
6. Playthrough. How many times Sweeps Coins must be played before they count as redeemable, and any right to raise that number.
7. Coin expiry. When unused coins expire or an account turns dormant, and whether a warning is promised first.
8. ID checks and tools. The documents a casino can request, and the limits or exclusion pages it publishes.

Gaps are recorded as gaps. SpinBlitz, for example, publishes no cash-out minimum in any official document I read, even though its cashier showed one to Alex, and the ranking page says both.

How Conflicts Are Reported

When two documents from the same casino disagree, both versions go on the page and the stricter reading guides the advice. Three conflicts from the October 29, 2026 check show how that works:

• Acebet's state lists. Its Terms of Service restrict seven states, its sweepstakes rules exclude eight with Iowa, and its homepage FAQ lists eight with Tennessee instead.
• Crown Coins' age and California. The Terms say 18+ while the App Store text says 19+, and California appears in one list of excluded states but not in the other, so the page treats it as excluded.
• Splash Coins' expiry. Section 6.12 expires Virtual Coins after 60 straight days without gameplay, while a Splash Coins blog post, still online in October 2026, says Sweeps Coins do not expire.

A conflict counts against a casino in the second ranking step, as how we rate casinos explains.

How State Law Is Tracked

Excluded-state lists only mean something next to the law. Ten states ban sweepstakes casinos as of October 2026, from New Jersey's A5447 in August 2025 to Louisiana's HB 883 and HB 53 in August 2026, and Oklahoma's SB 1589 takes effect on November 1, 2026. Where a legislature publishes the bill text, such as New York's S5935, the page links it.

Real money casinos are checked against the regulator in each of the seven licensing states, from the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board to the Michigan Gaming Control Board. Maine legalized online casinos in January 2026, and the Maine Gambling Control Unit had licensed no site by October 29.

How the Field Test Was Run

Alex Carter ran the field test from Denver, Colorado, between October 7 and 29, 2026. He used a Windows 11 laptop with Chrome and an iPhone 15 Pro with Safari, on his home connection and a mobile network in the same state, with no VPN, proxy or location spoofing. Each casino got one account in his own name.

The routine was the same at all five casinos:

1. Sign-up. Record the free balance before any purchase, and every daily bonus claimed after it.
2. Purchase. Buy one or two coin packs and check that the Gold Coins and Sweeps Coins credited match the price shown.
3. Play. Log the Sweeps Coins staked and won in each slot session, kept apart from Gold Coin play.
4. Redeem. Request only the part the cashier marks as redeemable, and time the payout at four points: requested, approved, sent and received.
5. Verify. Time each ID check from upload to approval and note which documents were asked for.

One account per casino gives one data point, not an average. A single payout proves that a casino paid, not how fast it will pay you, so the order still comes from the documents, as how we rate casinos explains.

What the Field Test Did Not Cover

Some things one tester in one state cannot check. Alex played only from Colorado, so Trading Cards in Acebet's six special states and access from ban states went untested. He did not install an Android app, did not check any Acebet Originals round against its provably fair data and did not trigger a final self-exclusion anywhere, because that cannot be undone.

Support was timed once, at SpinBlitz, where a person joined the live chat 4 minutes after a bot. Written questions about Oklahoma went to SpinBlitz, Coinz, Splash Coins and Crown Coins on October 28, and their answers will be added when they arrive.

Recheck Schedule

Every claim is read again against its source before the page updates. The next full pass follows Oklahoma's ban on November 1, 2026, because only SpinBlitz had excluded Oklahoma when this page was written.

After that, full rechecks run every six months, with extra ones whenever a casino publishes a new Terms version or a state passes a new law. If something on the ranking page no longer matches what you see, send the details, because reader reports often catch a change first.