Methodology
How the scores and records work
One formula scores every operator. Its weights are public and versioned, and nothing in it reads what an operator pays us.
Formula in force: v2 preliminary evidence gate (2026-08-28) Effective
Seven factors
Each factor gets a score from 0 to 100 from recorded evidence. The weights below are read from the formula version in force when this page was built.
| Factor | What it asks | Weight |
|---|---|---|
| Redemption reliability | Whether requested redemptions arrived, and how long they took. | 25% |
| KYC fairness | Whether identity checks ask for what the law needs, finish, and stay finished. | 15% |
| Terms honesty | Whether the written terms match how the offer is advertised. | 15% |
| Playthrough | How much play the terms require before Sweeps Coins can be redeemed. | 10% |
| Track record | Time in operation, state exits, and incidents on record. | 15% |
| Player reviews | Sentiment across review platforms, sustained over time. | 10% |
| Support | Whether support answers and resolves the problem it was sent. | 10% |
The weighted factors give a base score from 0 to 100. A total publishes only when the evidence is there for it: redemption reliability and terms honesty must both be verified, plus at least two of the other five factors. When an operator has fewer verified factors than that, the page says the total is withheld. It never fills the gap with a zero or an old number. Once the gate passes, the weights are spread across the verified factors only.
Two adjustments
Freshness decay. A score that nobody has re-verified for more than 180 days loses one point for every 30 days past that mark, up to ten points. Re-verifying the operator resets the decay to zero.
Complaint penalty. A documented legal event that names the operator and involves harm to players, such as unpaid or frozen redemptions or confiscated balances, costs points by severity: five for a filed lawsuit, ten for a regulator's action such as a cease-and-desist, fifteen for an exit-scam alert. Penalties add up to a cap of 25 and each one eases by a point every 90 days. A filing that only argues whether sweepstakes casinos are legal in a state does not count here; it belongs on the state briefs. An editor can also record a penalty for a corroborated cluster of complaints. That is the one value in the formula a person sets, it is stored as its own input with its reason, and it stays until a person clears it.
Both adjustments are recomputed on a weekly schedule, and the complaint penalty also runs whenever a new legal event is recorded.
Tiers
- Trusted
- 70 to 100
- Caution
- 50 to 69
- Avoid
- 0 to 49
The tier follows the published score with no manual override. An editor's judgment enters the formula only as a recorded input, never as an edit to the result.
What counts as a delivered payout
A redemption counts as delivered when we recorded the money arriving. A request that has not arrived is pending, and a pending payout is not a paid one. A redemption the operator cancelled or rejected is listed as not paid, whatever its dates say. A delivery we recorded without a received date still counts as delivered, but it never feeds a speed figure: payout times come only from records that carry both the request date and the received date. Amounts are summed only where a record carries one, so a dollar total is a floor and the page says so.
How a state brief is built
Each brief starts from primary sources: the statute, the bill history, the attorney general's opinion, the regulator's page. Every source is linked, and the brief shows the date the sources were read and the date the next review is due. The legal status at the top of a brief is the status on our records, presented by its effective date, so a prohibition that has been enacted but not yet taken effect is labeled that way until the date arrives. A brief describes what the sources say and what they leave open. It is information, not legal advice.
What money cannot change
The formula has no input for affiliate commissions, and an operator without an affiliate deal is scored by the same rules as one with a deal. Operators in the avoid tier, and any operator under an exit-scam flag, carry no Visit button. The affiliate disclosure covers how the commissions work.