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Play Coin Desk / Questions
The FAQ

The questions, answered directly

Ten questions that cover the whole arrangement, each answered in the terms the rest of this desk uses: what is priced, what is granted, what the rules are, and what is absent.

Bought: priced, spendable, not redeemableGranted: unpriced, the only route outNo route: no sale price exists
Direct answerA play-money product sells a virtual currency that cannot be sold back, and may grant a second currency that can be redeemed under its own conditions. The first is a purchase, the second is a promotion, and only the second has a route to a bank. Where the granted currency arrives with a purchase, or is available without one, the arrangement can sit outside gambling law - which is the reason the two-currency structure exists.

The questions, in full

Are the coins worth anything?

Not in money. The terms describe the currency as virtual, give it no monetary value and prohibit transfer, and the product publishes a purchase price with no sale price, so a balance has value on the way in and none on the way out. It is worth spending inside the product, on the games and on items that exist only there, and that is the whole of what it is worth.

Can I withdraw coins I bought?

Not where the product is built as a single non-redeemable currency. Where a dual-currency product exists, the route out belongs to the granted currency, and it is a redemption under the promotion rules with an eligibility test, a minimum and a verification step rather than a withdrawal from a wallet. If a screen offers you a withdrawal of a purchased balance, read what currency it is actually quoting before believing it.

What are sweeps coins or the second currency?

A promotional award that carries the product only route to money. It is normally granted - attached to a purchase, or made available through a separate free entry route - rather than sold, because a currency that is granted rather than bought is what keeps the prize element out of the purchase and the arrangement outside gambling law in markets where that is the test.

Why is the product not licensed as gambling?

Because the gambling definitions that matter turn on three elements together - a prize, a chance and consideration - and the two-currency structure removes the third. The money buys a non-redeemable virtual good; the balance that can win is granted; and a free route to the granted currency usually exists. The games are still games of chance. What has been removed is the money-for-the-chance link.

Does that mean no rules protect me?

Different rules protect you, and they are slower. There is no licence to check, no operator duty to hold customer money apart, no statutory deposit or loss limits and no independent complaint body. There is a contract, which cannot be misleading, consumer remedies for a service not provided or a term that is unfair, the payment systems own rules, and platform rules where the product runs in an app store.

Is the large bundle better value?

The per-coin price is genuinely lower, so if you have already decided to buy coins, the larger bundle buys more of them for the same money - sixty per cent more between the illustrative smallest and largest rates on this desk. What does not change is the share of the bundle with a route out. A discount on a currency with no sale price makes the purchase cheaper, not recoverable.

What is the minimum for a redemption?

It is set by the promotion rather than by any payment provider, and it is commonly several granted coins to tens of them - which at an illustrative grant of one coin per five pounds of coins purchased can sit several purchases away from the first one. Only the granted currency counts towards the minimum, so a large purchased balance does not help reach it. Read the grant rate and the minimum together before deciding what the first purchase should be.

Can my balance expire?

Granted balances commonly expire on a clock, and bought balances can be affected by inactivity or dormancy rules. Whether it bites depends on the ratio between the clock and your pace of play: an illustrative 28,000-coin balance over ninety days is a third of one spin a day, while a 500,000-coin balance on the same clock allows about five and a half spins a day. A balance too large to spend in time is being held for the operator.

Do the games have the same numbers as real-money versions?

Often they are the same builds from the same studios, but the figures that matter to a player are different ones. What is published for a real-money game - the build, the configuration, the laboratory that approved it - is covered by the game supply chain desk in this network. What matters here is narrower: the outcome is denominated in a currency with no sale price, which is what makes a return figure on a play screen a statement about a game rather than about your money.

What happens if I move across to a real-money account?

The arrangement changes class at the first deposit: verification, customer-money rules, statutory limits, self-exclusion and an independent complaint route arrive with it, on the licensed side. Set the deposit and loss limits at the point of opening, before the play side habits travel with you - because the play side never offered those controls and the licensed side is obliged to.