Fancy making your online casino experience more enjoyable and sociable? Want to inject some fun and excitement into your slot games? Look no further because we’ve got just the solution: social casinos. These entertaining casino sites are the place to be if you want the thrills and spills of playing casino slot games with the added bonus of playing with others and without the pressure of gambling with real money. In this post, we’ll run you through the basics of social casinos and playing free online slot machines at them. Let’s get started!
What Is Social Casino?
A new type of gaming that’s become popular in the last few years especially is social gaming. This is a particular type of gaming where games can be played for free with other people over the internet, and there’s no real money involved at all. A social casino is a mobile app or instant play site (usually hosted by a social media platform, such as Facebook) where you can play social games. 
Image promoting the MundiGames social casino app
A social casino is so-called because of the fact that you’re encouraged to play with friends and interact with others. For many games, you’ll unlock various benefits and can make faster progress by having social interactions. Sites and apps also encourage social gaming by holding competitions and tournaments, having public leaderboards for players to work their way up, and putting on special events. You can send messages to your friends and even receive virtual gifts that can include free coins or credits to spend on the games. There’s also the opportunity to post results and in-game progress to your profile and invite your friends to play.
How Are Social Casinos Monetised?
The term ‘social casino’ is slightly misleading because social casino apps and sites aren’t actually proper casinos. This is because there’s no real money gambling involved whatsoever. You can play all of the games for free and, no matter how well you do at the games and no matter how much you play, you can never win real money.
If there’s no actual money involved, how do the operators of social casinos make money? There are several ways they do this, including in-game transactions, advertising, and product placement. The main one is in-game transactions.
Most of the time, you receive a limited number of free coins or credits that you can use to play social games. Your account is regularly credited with new coins/credits (after a set amount of time or whenever you log in, for example), but there’s always a limited amount you can receive per day. If you want more than your allowance or you run out and don’t want to have to wait for your coins/credits to get replenished, there’s always the option to purchase extra ones. If you go ahead and make a purchase, the coins/credits will be added to your account immediately, and there’s usually no upper limit on how many you can buy.
Social casinos also use advertising as a way of generating revenue. You may find that some sites let you earn extra chances to play by having you watch adverts, for example. Then there’s product placement, where branded products are made visible to players as part of a deal between the product owners and the company that hosts the social casino games.
What Games Are Available at Social Casinos?
What makes social casinos appealing to many people is the wide range of games they offer. Lots of online casino enthusiasts enjoy playing at social casinos because they have free versions of casino games available to play, including roulette, blackjack, poker, baccarat, and more. Have a go at Bally slots online and try out slots by many other providers too.
As well as these, there are many other types of games commonly found at social casinos. Some of the most popular ones are listed below:
- FarmVille 2
- Mob Wars
- 1010!
- Crazy Kitchen
These are just a few examples of the many non-casino games that are classed as social games. While these games work in different ways, they have a few core features in common, namely that they’re free internet-based games that encourage you to play and interact with others and share your experience online.
What some social casinos do is that when you sign up, you only have access to a limited selection of games. You can unlock more games by playing and levelling up your account. The idea behind this is simply to encourage people to play, to make certain games more desirable by making them unavailable at first and to make players feel rewarded.
Are Social Casinos Legal?
In many countries and jurisdictions, online gambling is illegal. Therefore, accessing online casinos is prohibited, though many people manage to get around this and gamble online without facing prosecution or trouble from the local authorities.
Because social casinos don’t involve actual gambling at all, they’re legally permitted in most places where online casinos aren’t permitted. These sites and apps have a much bigger reach and are able to get very high numbers of players as a result. If you visit a social casino and play its games, you’re not breaking any laws, whereas if you gamble for real money at an online casino, you may be breaking laws depending on where you are.
Social Casinos VS Online Casinos
We’ve put together a table that highlights the main differences between social casinos and online casinos. Have a look to see how the two compare and whether one appeals to you more than the other.
| Social Casinos | Online Casinos | |
| Real money gambling | No real money gambling involved | You can gamble for real money |
| Legality | Legal in most places | Illegal in many places |
| Sociability | Playing with others encouraged | Mostly a solitary experience |
| Games | More types of games | Fewer types of games |
| Visibility | Talked about online and on social media a lot | Not talked about as much because of negative reputation |
| Free Play | All games are free to play | Games are played for real money; some can be played for free |
Are There Any Disadvantages to Social Casinos?
Even though social casinos can be entertaining and fun, they do have a few disadvantages that are worth pointing out. The games that you can play at these casinos can become addictive, just like other types of games. This isn’t helped by the fact that social gaming apps and sites do encourage you not only to sign up and play but to keep on playing again and again. It can be easy to give in to the temptation to constantly play your favourite games to unlock new games, beat your friend’s record or work your way up a leaderboard.
Then there’s the money aspect. Even though social casino play is completely free, you’re made aware of how you can improve your gaming experience by paying extra. Spend some money and you can play more games, play games without having to wait, and gain accessories and other virtual goods that can enhance your profile and help you get ahead.
You can enjoy a perfectly good social casino experience without spending a penny, though you will regularly be reminded of what benefits you can get by paying. Some people vow never to spend any real money at social casinos, though after a while they give in and make a purchase or two, which can then lead to more and more purchases. Even if you make small purchases once in a while, they can soon add up so it’s always a good idea to keep track of how much you’re spending.
Conclusion
First, there was the land-based casino, then along came the online casino, followed by the mobile casino. The latest type of casino to hit the market is the social casino, which removes the real money gambling element and focuses on making gaming a much more sociable and interactive experience. Social casinos offer all sorts of casino slot games, table and card games, and other games, as well as others that you won’t find at typical online casinos, such as multiplayer role-playing and simulation games where you grow and develop something.
Even though social casinos don’t involve online betting, there’s still some monetization and if you sign up to one, you’ll likely be encouraged to spend. They can be addictive just like real money casinos, though because they don’t involve gambling they’re legally permitted to be accessible in many more places.
Having said all that, social casinos are well worth checking out if you want a gaming experience that’s more fun and interactive. Take on your friends in competitions and enjoy earning rewards and unlocking new things as you play. There are loads of thrilling games waiting for you, so don’t delay and give social casino gaming a try today.