Can you play games for money?

When I decided to go on an online money-making journey, I never expected to find myself playing mobile games for coins. I’ve never been a fan of mobile gaming, and have always thought the ads that claim you’ll earn money from gaming were a scam. 

My last money-making venture, Flip, is where I got the idea to look into gaming apps. Flip added a gaming feature that allowed the user to play games for money. I decided to check it out but found myself bored while completing gaming tasks for little payout. 

Each game was free to play but had elements like extra lives that cost real money. I selected the game with the highest payout, expecting to play for a few minutes, only to find that the big payouts were reserved for those who decided to put money into the games. I gained a few pennies for every hour of gameplay. It wasn’t worth it, but the payout goal kept me going. 

I was determined to play enough to gain a coupon, which I likely won’t use. I earned six dollars playing the games but wasted multiple hours of my life. Hours that I could have put into making content for Flip or writing. 

Although I didn’t gain anything from gaming on Flip, I had an idea for my next making venture. I wanted to look into these games and see whether I could make money from them. I went to the Beer Money subreddit and selected two: JustPlay and FreeCash.

Justplay promised a payout every two hours, and the games were all knockoffs of popular games, like Candy Crush. I thought that I would have fun playing games for money, but my experience with JustPlay is anything but. The games weren’t fun, and whenever I selected a game to play, I was bombarded with ads. These ads often interfered with gameplay, as I would be making a move and an ad would start playing. 

The ads were often a minute long and promoted other gaming-for-money sites or cash advance apps. It was clear that the target audience for these ads were desperate people merely looking for extra cash to pay a bill or even their rent. I clicked on a few of the ads, just to see what the apps were rated in the Play Store. 

Most of the apps were highly rated, with users happy to have gained some money from playing games. Some of them did mention that it was impossible to earn the amounts of money in the ads, and a few had technical issues, such as their payout for playing disappearing.

The ads weren’t exclusive to the apps, because my TikTok feed became flooded with the same ads. The ads claimed that I could watch videos, play games, or even charge my phone for cash. 

I decided to check out the beer money subreddit, a forum on Reddit devoted to finding extra money. After reading a few posts, I decided to try FreeCash. FreeCash was both a website and an app. The app was loaded with the same type of games found in the Flip game store, making them slightly better than the ones of JustPlay. 

After playing a few games, I realized that I was having the same issue with FreeCash as I did with the games on Flip. It took hours to earn mere pennies, and there was a minimum payout on FreeCash. I had to earn $25 before I could cash out, making that initial cash out nearly impossible. 

I decided to check out the surveys hosted on the site, soon finding that I wasn’t a match for most of them. I suspect that nearly everyone is disqualified from the surveys after answering most of the questions. The companies got the answers they wanted, while not paying a penny. I don’t have any proof of this, but I found it odd that I was disqualified from so many surveys after they asked me the ‘important questions’.

I also noticed something troubling about the gameplay sites that I did not mention before. Both of the gameplay apps had ads for casino games, and FreeCash featured several gambling games that boosted high payouts. I felt that if I was addicted to gambling, visiting these gaming apps would have made it difficult for me to see these ads without being tempted. People with gambling addictions should use caution when exploring these apps. 

Another thing I would like to note is that despite some of the games starting out fun, some features were locked behind a paywall. This became an issue because some of the payouts were timed and it was impossible to progress without paying to play. Some of the games wanted more money than you would earn from the payout. 

When I factor all this in, it wasn't worth it for me to play the games. The payouts were low, and I wasted hours of my time. Most of the games weren't fun, and the ones that were quickly ruined by ads. 

I earned 16.49 by playing games on Justplay, and 17.10 by playing games and answering surveys on Free Cash. I also wasted hours playing games that weren’t fun, and if I wanted to unwind I could have done that by watching TikTok videos. My experience was annoying, and I feel as though I gained nothing by playing these games, but I can see why so many people turn to them. The games offer a payout, and while it’s small, people are struggling more than they had years before. 

Playing games for cash might be ideal for someone who can play mobile games at their workplace or during a long car trip, but for me, it was a failure. The time I spent was too much compared to the reward, and I missed other money-making opportunities along the way.