Guest Author - Jennifer L. Thompson

Online instant win games are a fun form of sweepstakes that has some type of game or other action to be performed by the entrant in order to win a prize. A prize can be then be won instantly upon the completion of the task. Generally, these games will have an overall drawing from all qualified entries for one Grand Prize, with smaller prizes as instant wins. As a rule of thumb, these are just as generally daily plays, and offer more prizes per game than the average sweeps.

When the Grand Prize winner is chosen in a drawing from all qualified entries at the end of the sweeps, obviously, the more games you play, the better your odds for winning the Grand Prize drawing. By playing each game daily when you are able to, you will increase your odds for winning both instant win and Grand Prizes.

For many of the instant win prizes, random computer-generated times are chosen throughout the life of the sweepstakes as "win-times", and anyone who properly plays the game at that time, or closest to that time, wins the designated prize for that time-frame.

Depending upon the number of entrants, and the number of people playing daily, some of these "win-times" may pass without anyone receiving the prize before the next "win-time" arrives, which can end up leaving extra prizes remaining at the end of the drawing. Playing during times of less web traffic can help increase your odds of winning the daily instant win prizes by picking up some of these empty windows.

Upon completion of the final drawing, the Grand Prize winner may not be reachable for various reasons, thus leaving the Grand Prize as unawarded. When these things happen, the majority of sweepstakes will hold a second chance drawing for any unawarded prizes. For online instant win games, the second chance drawing is many times done by drawing from all qualified entries that did not win a prize in the primary phase of the game. In this case, each qualified play increases your odds once again.

Some sweepstakes will also hold second chance drawings by postal mail. This will be clearly stated in the official rules, along with an address as to where to send your entry. Many of these will allow more entries of one style than another, so if you really have your sites set on something, be sure to read through the rules to find out how to maximize your odds of winning.

Good Luck!