Alternative method of entry
The free entry route is what separates a promotion from gambling. What it has to provide, what makes one fail, and what an operator has to run.
Sources read .
What an AMOE is for
The free route is what keeps consideration out of a sweepstakes — that argument is made on the currencies page and this cluster starts after it. The alternative method of entry is the mechanism that actually delivers it: the specific, operable path by which somebody obtains the redeemable currency without paying.
Its importance is out of all proportion to how much attention it gets. Everything else about a sweepstakes product can be excellent and the model still fails if this one mechanism is decorative.
The standard it has to meet
The free route must offer a genuinely equivalent opportunity, not a technically available one. Courts reach that through consideration: if paying players are favoured, the free route is illusory and the scheme is a lottery. Regulators reach it through disclosure: a free method nobody can find is not being offered.
Almost every published account of this calls it the “equal dignity” standard. That phrase appears in no statute and no decision — what the law actually requires sets out what does.
What an operator actually has to run
A free route that is genuinely equivalent
Same entries, same odds, same pool, same timing, and no heavier demand for information than the paid path makes. What the law requires.
A postal path that works at volume
Receiving, validating, deduplicating and crediting entries that arrive in batches on someone else’s schedule. Postal entry in practice.
Published rules, kept current
The document that governs entry, and the discipline of versioning it rather than silently editing it. Official rules.
Records that show it all operated as described
The evidence that the route worked the way the rules said it did, for the period somebody might ask about.
Where operators get this wrong
- Treating the free route as a formality. Built to be pointed at rather than used. It is the first thing examined and the hardest thing to defend afterwards.
- Building one that cannot keep up. A path that exists but cannot deliver entries at the rate the paid path does is not an equivalent opportunity, whatever the rules say.
- Letting the rules drift from the product. The document describes a promotion that has since changed. Nobody notices until the document is the thing being read against the product.
How much of this you are exposed to depends on which jurisdictions you are open in — the compliance hub is the way into that.
What the platform does
It depends entirely on which of the two routes you are on, and the answer at one end is “nothing”.
| API integration — you run the platform | Managed platform — we run the platform | |
|---|---|---|
| Receiving and validating postal entries | You | casinoapi.techOn the managed platform we receive the mail and validate each entry against the published rules. On the API integration we never see it — the whole postal route is yours to build and staff. |
| A web-form free entry path | You | casinoapi.techThe no-purchase route that does not involve the post. Handled on the managed platform; entirely yours on the API integration. |
| Promotional grants of the redeemable currency | You | casinoapi.techAwards that are not attached to a purchase. The mechanism is ours on the managed platform; what is granted, to whom and when is your decision on both routes. |
| Crediting a validated free entry to the balance | You | casinoapi.techThe point at which a free entry becomes indistinguishable from a granted one in the ledger — which is what equal opportunity requires. |
| The record that each free entry was handled as described | You | casinoapi.techWhat arrived, when, what was decided, and what was credited. We hold it on the managed platform. No retention period is published for it, because none has been confirmed — the 60-day redemption figure and the 10-day session-log figure are different records and neither transfers here. |
On the API integration we supply games and virtual-currency support and nothing else — the entire free-entry mechanism is yours to build, staff and evidence. On the managed platform we run it. Either way the rules document and your advertising are yours, and those are the two things the free route is usually judged on.
If you are a player
This is a supplier’s site. We build software that sweepstakes brands run on. We hold no player accounts, we cannot see your entries or your balance, and we cannot help with an individual account. We cannot send you coins or process an entry.
Take it up with the brand you play with — they hold the account and they are the ones who can act on it. If gambling has stopped being fun, our responsible gaming page lists free confidential help in the US.
Informational only. Nothing on this site is legal advice — confirm your position with qualified US gaming counsel before launching in any state.
Think a citation here is wrong, or read one of these sources differently? Tell us — we would rather be corrected than cited badly.