Before I tell you about the best online casinos in Arizona, I’ll need to start with a bit of a truth bombshell: online casinos aren’t actually legal in AZ. However, there’s still a way to play casino-style games.
Sweepstakes casinos are perfectly legal and allow you to play slots using virtual currencies instead of real money. As a result, these sites don’t offer any type of gambling and are therefore legal for players aged 18+ in the Grand Canyon State. You can discover the best sweepstakes casinos on this page and get more insight regarding how they work.
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The current legal gambling landscape in Arizona began to take shape back in 1988, when the US Congress passed the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA). This allowed Native American tribes to establish casinos and other gaming venues on their tribal lands in all 50 states.
However, Arizona lawmakers did not approve tribal gaming at the state level until 1992, and denied many tribes the right to build casinos in the intervening four years.
Here’s a short timeline of Arizona’s legal gambling history from 1988 to the present day:
As I said at the top of the article, online casinos are not currently legal in Arizona. Tribal land-based casino locations can offer most forms of gambling legally to AZ residents over 18, including casino gaming, retail sports betting, and poker.
However, only sports betting and daily fantasy sports (DFS) are currently legal in the online sphere. Therefore, the best available alternatives to no deposit online casinos for Arizonians are sweepstakes and social casinos.
These are websites and apps where you can play casino-style games for free using virtual currencies.
Here’s a table that summarizes the forms of gambling that are legal online and offline in AZ:
| Online | Offline | |
|---|---|---|
| Casino gaming: | No ❌ | Yes ✅ |
| Poker: | No ❌ | Yes ✅ |
| Sports betting: | Yes ✅ | Yes ✅ |
| Daily fantasy sports (DFS): | Yes ✅ | Yes ✅ |
| Race betting: | Yes ✅ | Yes ✅ |
| Sweepstakes/social casinos: | Yes ✅ | Yes ✅ |
Here’s a quick summary of the pros and cons of the AZ gambling landscape as it stands:
The best real money casinos might not yet be legal in Arizona, but there are plenty of sweepstakes casinos that are. As we’ve established, these are sites where you can play slots and other casino-style games using virtual currencies like Gold Coins (GC) and Sweeps Coins (SC) instead of real money.
Let’s take a more detailed look at sweepstakes and social casinos and assess why they’re legal.
These websites operate using a dual virtual currency system that allows you to play casino-style games for entertainment purposes and for the chance to potentially redeem eligible SC winnings for real money prizes. This is the closest and most popular alternative to new online casinos for AZ players.
Social casinos are almost exactly the same as sweepstakes casinos, only without the potential to redeem real prizes. As a result, social casino sites operate using a single virtual currency that has no real-world value and cannot be redeemed. The main purpose of a social casino is to facilitate entertainment-based gameplay for players.
Both sweepstakes and social casinos have an emphasis on the “social” element of gameplay. Usually, this is delivered through features such as on-site community chats, social media engagement, and tournaments that drive fun competition between players.
Most sweepstakes casinos operate using a dual virtual currency system, which provides you with two ways to play. While they can differ in name, this is generally how the two virtual currencies work on most AZ sweepstakes casino websites:
So, how come sweepstakes casinos are legal in AZ while the best free spins casinos and real money gaming sites remain prohibited? The simple answer is that sweepstakes casinos don’t offer any real money gambling, and therefore fall under the umbrella of an entirely different legal framework.
Instead of gambling laws, sweepstakes casinos need to comply with US Federal and Arizona state laws surrounding sweepstakes competitions and social gaming.
Here are a few key requirements that sweepstakes casinos must follow to operate legally in AZ:
The legal age limit to play on social gaming sites, including sweepstakes casinos, in Arizona is 18+. However, some sweepstakes casinos, such as Stake.us, have a 21+ age limit specified in their T&Cs. To get full access to your account, you will have to verify that you are an AZ resident who is above the legal age limit.
Here are the main ways that you can collect free SCs to play with for the chance to win real prizes at an AZ sweepstakes casino:
You get free GCs and SCs when you create your account (why sweepstakes casinos are viewed as a great alternative to no deposit bonus casinos)
You get free GCs and SCs every day for logging into your account at least once every 24 hours.
Receive free SCs as a bonus when you buy promotional bundles of GCs.
You can enter these free competitions on the sweepstakes casino’s social media channels for the chance to win free SCs.
Get free SCs when you refer a friend to the site and they register using your promo code or unique referral link.
You can win free GCs and SCs on some sites by entering tournaments and finishing in one of the top places on the leaderboard.
If you’re looking to get started, you can find the current top-rated online sweepstakes casinos right here at SportsGambler. The banners on this page show an up-to-date list of the best sweepstakes casinos in the Grand Canyon State, as rated by our experts.
You can use our reviews to find the most suitable site for you and to compare the best sign-up offers. Remember that you can also bookmark this page to get information about new sites as and when they go live on the AZ market.
Not all social casinos accept players from AZ (though most of them do). Our banners use geolocation technology, so you can be 100% sure that we’re only presenting sites that are accessible to Arizona players.
There are several things that we consider as experts when rating and reviewing an Arizona sweepstakes casino. With that in mind, here are five of the main things that you should also keep in mind when selecting the right site for you:
First and foremost, you should check that the site is definitely available to players in AZ. Additionally, check to see if the site age limit is 18+ or 21+, as this varies between brands.
Take a look at the casino-style games lobby and make sure there is enough variety that includes the types of games you like to play. Ideally, you want to see a decent mix of slots, table games, live dealers, casual games, and more.
Start by looking at the free sign-up offer to see if it offers enough value. After that, take a look at the purchase promotions, daily reloads, and other free SC offers for existing players.
Take some time to test the website and see if it offers a user-friendly experience. If you prefer playing on mobile, download the app (if available) and test the mobile-optimized website.
Check to see if you can redeem SC for real prizes and what the requirements are for redemptions. Usually, you will find there is a 1x playthrough condition and a minimum balance threshold of between 50 SC and 100 SC. Almost always, the redemption ratio (once the conditions have been met and the request is approved) is 1 SC = 1 USD.
The process of registering and getting started differs slightly at each sweepstakes casino in AZ. Broadly speaking, though, you can follow these steps to get the ball rolling:
To get full access to your online sweepstakes casino account in Arizona, you will need to verify that you are over 18 (or 21) and a resident of Arizona. To do this, you’ll first need to enter the following information:
After that, you must upload the following documentation:
For your photo ID and proof of address, most AZ social casinos will accept the following forms of documentation:
| Verification type: | Photo ID | Proof of address |
|---|---|---|
| Accepted documents: |
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Now that we’ve covered everything in detail, here are some of the main benefits of playing at a sweepstakes casino in Arizona:
Although the pros by far outweigh the cons, it would be remiss of me not to address some of the potential downsides:
At the moment, any talks about the legalization of real money online casinos among those in power in Arizona are in their very early stages. While many lawmakers and residents would like to see legal online casinos join mobile sports betting, as it would increase tax revenue, there is also a lot of opposition.
As is the case with the best online casinos in Washington, we can’t see full online legalization happening anytime soon. As a result, sweepstakes casinos will remain your best legal alternative for some time yet.
In summary, real money online casinos are not currently legal in Arizona, nor are there any legal house Bills in the works. While land-based tribal casinos are legal, your closest online alternatives are sweepstakes and social casinos.
You can find the best available sweepstakes casinos in AZ right now via the banners on this page. When looking for a site, pay particular attention to the welcome offers, game variety, and prize redemptions.
If and when the law changes regarding real money online casinos, I’ll be the first to let you know. So remember to bookmark this page and revisit us here at SportsGambler.
No, traditional online casinos are not legal in AZ. Your closest legal alternatives are sweepstakes and social casinos, where you can play using virtual currency instead of real money.
Real money online casinos aren’t legal in AZ, but there are many top legal sweepstakes casinos, including Stake.us. You can also check out the best online casinos in California here at SportsGambler.
There aren’t any legal online casinos in Arizona, so by default, none of them pay the best. That being said, there are many sweepstakes casinos where you can potentially win real prizes, subject to the playthrough and minimum balance requirements.
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