✍️ Author

Michael Hayes

Lead Casino Reviewer · SweepRadar

Michael has spent 7 years playing and evaluating online gaming platforms across the US, with a focus on sweepstakes casino testing — real accounts, real redemptions, real results.

Casino TestingPayout Speed AnalysisBonus EvaluationPlatform Comparisons

About Michael Hayes

Michael Hayes has worked in the US iGaming space for the better part of a decade, starting as a player who couldn't find reliable, honest information about sweepstakes casinos and eventually deciding to produce it himself. His methodology is simple: he creates real accounts, plays through actual sessions, submits real redemption requests, and documents what happens — not what the casino's marketing materials say happens.

His review process was shaped by years of frustration with review sites that clearly hadn't touched the products they were evaluating. The payout speeds they listed were advertising copy. The bonus values were theoretical, not practical. The "recommended" picks moved in lockstep with affiliate payout rates. SweepRadar exists, in part, as a reaction to that landscape.

Michael's specific area of focus is payout infrastructure — the mechanics of how sweepstakes platforms process redemptions, which payment methods are genuinely instant versus technically instant with asterisks, and how different platforms handle edge cases (account verification delays, redemption holds, customer support escalations). He's tested every major platform's redemption process personally and documents the results in real time.

He is also the primary author of SweepRadar's platform comparison content and the "how to win" educational guides — writing that aims to give players accurate probability information rather than optimistic estimates designed to drive conversions.

Outside of SweepRadar, Michael follows developments in sweepstakes law, US state gaming regulation, and the overlap between the two. He lives in the Pacific Northwest.