The Games People Play

Have you been entering the Coke Six Flags Instant Win that I told you about last time? It's true that it's a lot of work, and if it weren't such a great prize, I wouldn't be entering. The good thing about "pain-in-the-neck" sweepstakes is that it discourages all but the diehard sweepers, so the odds of winning go way up. Since I have never won one of these from Coke, I'm not really sure how they work. I have heard that the prize just shows up in your mail very soon after you have won. I have won MANY instant wins from other sponsors, though, and can give you some good tips on those. Typically, there will be several instant prizes which could range from some really great ones like trips and computers and cash to smaller ones like coupons or t-shirts or cosmetics (truly ANYTHING!) and you would be notified by email immediately after you have played the game. The prizes often will not be sent out for several weeks--after you've forgotten to keep looking for them!--but I save my winning emails to try to keep track of when I might receive it. Check the rules because some sweepstakes allow you to continue playing through the end of the contest for additional prizes.

You know how you get scratch-off tickets in the mail from time to time, perhaps to win a car at the local dealership. We never seem to win whatever the good prizes are, so sometimes we'll scratch off all the spaces and notice that no matter what we scratched, we weren't holding a winning ticket to begin with. That's the way most instant win sweepstakes work. As soon as you log in, you are issued a "game card" that is already either a winner or a loser. My kids like to play the sweepstakes games for me and I can't convince them that it doesn't matter how they time it or how well they play, my game has already been determined. That's why the rules will often state that even if you get a winning screen, it doesn't mean that you have won. I have received winning emails before when I hadn't gotten the winning screen. This makes me feel better on those occasions when my computer freezes up in the middle of my entry. I've gone back to where I was and have been told that I already played today. It means my "game card" was issued and it wasn't a winner. So now I have a really great tip of the day for you! When you are doing an instant win sweepstakes that involves playing some kind of game, look for teeny, tiny, unobtrusive print either at the top of your game or below the game that says something like, "If you can't see the game, click here." If you click there, you will be able to bypass the game and find out immediately whether you had a winning entry. I have won many times doing just that. Want to try it out? I won the nail polish on this one the very first time I played it. This was found in the coupon section of the Sunday paper, so check those inserts for sweepstakes opportunities. Happy Sweeping!