Milky Way sign up bonus - Unclear and misleading
The Milky Way Casino no deposit bonus is extremely unclear, and I’m not exactly sure what you even get having tried to test the bonus myself. There are no exact figures stated, nor are there any bonus T&Cs.
There is, however, a mention of “real money”, which is very misleading as this is not something that sweepstakes casinos can legally offer in the US. Sign-up bonus? This should be called the Milky Way Scam up bonus if you ask me.
Instead, I recommend that you take look at one of these legitimate alternatives:
- Stake.us - Up to 55 SC + 260k GC + 5% rakeback with the promo code ‘BALLISLIFE’
- McLuck - Up to 57,500 GC + 27.5 free SC
- WOW Vegas - Up to 1.75 million WOW Coins + 35 free SC
Milky Way reviews - Usability, look and feel
As was the case with the Milky Way promo code that I described above, I don’t have many good things to say about the website either. The website looks thrown together and doesn’t have a clear color scheme or branding identity. They even chop and change between referring to the brand as “Milky Way” and “Milkyway” throughout the site.
At least six different fonts are used throughout the page and finding clear information that doesn’t contradict itself in the same sentence is almost impossible. Overall, the site is extremely confusing to navigate and even contains sections that don’t make sense.
I thought that the “Stores & Distributors” section might offer some verification of the brand’s legitimacy, but I was sorely mistaken. All I found here was more fluffy text riddles with spelling and grammatical errors.
If you instead want to try a legit web-browser-based sweepstakes casino, I recommend Stake.us or WOW Vegas. The difference really is night and day - avoid Milky Way sweeps at all costs.
Mobile - Avoid the Milky Way Casino app
Play at Milky Way casino today
Milky Way casino mobile
You will probably not be surprised to hear that there is an emerging pattern here. You will not find a legit Milky Way Casino app in the App Store or Google Play. In fact, the app isn’t even available through the main website.
Instead, you can find download buttons on a separate website that looks even dodgier than the one I described above. On this platform, there is the option to download the iOS, Android, or APK app.
However, even as a sweepstakes casino expert with high-grade anti-virus protection, I wasn’t brave enough to try out any of the download options. As I will explain later, the site is extremely insecure so you shouldn’t risk downloading any Milky Way software to your cell phone or tablet.
As an alternative, I would go for McLuck or High5Casino. Both of these brands have excellent sweepstakes casino apps that you can download from the App Store or Google Play. If phone memory space is a bit scarce for you right now, the Stake.us mobile website is an excellent no-download way to play.
Milky Way review for payments - Do NOT give them your money
Thankfully, it’s unclear how to buy and pay for the Gold Coins package on this website, because I wouldn’t want to give them a penny. The only slightly positive lean here is that they don’t appear to be phishing for your cash, still make sure that you don’t enter any of your personal information.
Legally, sweepstakes casinos online in the US have to offer you the chance to play and enter for free. Milky Way claims to offer “Free Play”, yet just two sentences later in the same section of the site states that “Free demo accounts are not available to the player. Thank you!”.
Once again, the site is full of senseless and confusing contradictions. This is a huge red flag as legit social casinos should clearly state that you can play for free.
How to buy coins at my top-rated alternatives
Most of the legit sweepstakes casinos that I recommend, including Stake.us, McLuck, and Wow Vegas allow you to buy additional GC with your credit/debit card. Additionally, some platforms accept Apple Pay and Google Pay, while others take bank transfers, Skrill, and other alternative payment options.
As legal and licensed US sweepstakes casinos, you can play for free on all of these sites.
Customer service - Slow and unhelpful
The Milky Way Sweeps customer service was slow, unresponsive, and unhelpful overall. I filled out the contact form, where you have to leave the following information:
- Full name
- Email
- Telephone number (or “TEL” as they call it)
- Message
It took me so long to get a reply that I actually forgot that I’d initially messaged them. The response was, much like the information on the website, extremely unclear and unhelpful.
The response was written in broken English with extremely poor grammar. In the end, I was unable to decipher if it was AI-generated or just lazily written at speed.
I'd love to say that Milky Way is reliable here, but that’s far from the truth.
Social media = Another slump in my Milky Way ratings
A good social media presence can be a sign of a legit company. However, Milky Way Casino’s social media presence does little to inspire player confidence I’m afraid.
Here are the two channels I found:
- Facebook - They have a Facebook account where they do appear to post fairly regularly. However, they have just 87 likes and 120 followers at the time of writing. Moreover, the Facebook page claims their location to be in Los Angeles, CA, meanwhile, the website states they are in New York. Yet more contradictions and confusion.
- YouTube - Nothing has been posted on their YouTube channel for well over a year as of July 2024. The content that is there is close to being alarming. It just contains videos of sub-par games with tag lines that promise “big wins” and other false claims that are borderline dangerous.
Licensing - Is Milky Way secure? Absolutely not…
This brand does not possess a single license that is required to operate a real money, sweepstakes, or social online casino. Moreover, the site has no sweepstakes rules documents that indicate any form of compliance with US sweepstakes laws.
In actual fact, there is no proper mention of a company name, nor are there any Terms & Conditions that I could find. The only thing that I could find was the Privacy policy, which didn’t contain a single mention of any privacy, data protection, or security requirements needed to legally operate in the US.
In terms of security. The site lacks even the most basic of features, such as HTTPS encryption or 16-bit SSL. Whatever you do, do not create a Milky Way login, you want your personal information to be nowhere near this site.
Additional rewards and loyalty - Non-existent
There is no mention of any VIP or loyalty program at this social casino, which actually came as something of a relief to me. At least there wasn’t yet more confusing, misleading, and self-contradicting information about some rewards that may or may not exist.
There is a brief mention of bonuses for existing players as well as community prizes. However, there is no context or further information about these offers provided anywhere on the site.
Alas, the lack of clarity and transparency here once again leads me to reiterate my point - avoid this site. Instead, check out the Carnival Citi no deposit bonus or the excellent Stake.us VIP program.
BALLISLIFE.COM 
I touched upon this briefly in the main section of my Milky Way review, but allow me to expand. As well as being of poor quality, and in some cases almost impossible to access, the games on this site do not meet the required industry standards.
There is nothing to certify that the games have been tested by a recognized independent testing agency. Moreover, none of the games transparently explain what technologies they use.
There’s no mention of RNG tech (random-number generator) nor is there any way to verify the fairness of the game. For all I know, you could plow coins into these games forever and a day and never see any returns.
The only thing I could find that tries to point to the “fairness” of the games is the YouTube videos. These are all about a minute long and show winning gameplay.
As I mentioned earlier, they all have sensationalist (and badly written) blockcap headlines promising jackpots and big wins, which is a huge red flag. Here’s an example I picked at random: “MASSIVE JACKPOT! ONE OF MY BIGGEST WINNING”.
Stake.us is a far safer alternative, as all of its games are tested and verified. Special mention has to go to the Stake Original games, which use provably fair technology so that you can verify the fairness of the game before each round of play.
I’m going to be honest, I’m still not sure how the virtual currency system works here, as the information on the site is minimal and unclear. On the signup page, it is mentioned that you have to buy “First Game Credit”, but no clear instructions on how to do that.
I didn’t get far enough to try, because of the reasons I’ve already explained. The site and app are both so insecure I wasn’t willing to disclose any of my personal information, let alone my bank details.
Another concern here is that, while “Free Play” is briefly mentioned once on the homepage, the signup page states that you have to buy credits. It is illegal under US sweepstakes and social gaming laws to make paid participation obligatory, so yet another reason to steer clear of this platform.
Overall, this social casino, and I use the term very loosely, has poor quality and unverified games, an unclear currency system, and fails to meet all basic licensing and security standards. What’s even more concerning is there is language used on the site that directly goes against US sweepstakes laws.
My recommendation is that you avoid this platform completely, to the extent that you don’t even want to load the website on your device. You most certainly do not want to download the app or any Milky Way software.
Instead, you can check out my reviews of the many legit and legal social casinos that are available for US players. As I have said throughout the article, Stake.us, WOW Vegas and McLuck are the three that stand out so far in 2024.