Philadelphia-based band Remember Sports have announced a new album, The Refrigerator, which arrives February 13 via Get Better Records. Following the great recent single ‘Across the Line’ is the searing, dynamic new song ‘Bug’, which is also the second track on the LP. Check it out and find the album cover and tracklist below.
About the new track, singer and guitarist Carmen Perry shared the following statement: “Have you ever stepped on food on your bedroom floor that you haven’t eaten in many days? I wrote this song in the early part of the pandemic, when everyday felt like I was alive solely to make a mess and then clean it up. Or not. It’s hard to not think about the things you don’t wanna think about when you have nothing to do.”
Perry began writing the songs on The Refrigerator in the wake of 2021’s Like a Stone, an album the band couldn’t tour due to COVID. “It felt like everything I had worked for was falling apart,” she recalled. “For a while, I wasn’t sure what the world was going to look like post-COVID, let alone my life. I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to play music the way I had before.”
At 28, she started working at an elementary school, which ended up inspiring the record. “Kids are weird and wonderful and deeply intuitive,” she said. “Helping them through COVID made me think constantly about my own childhood, memories came flooding back, and so did this intense desire to protect and nurture the little kid I used to be. That completely changed how I approached my writing, and honestly, how I approached my life.”
The band notably tracked The Refrigerator at Chicago’s Electrical Audio just after the passing of Steve Albini. “It feels like a Saturn return record,” Perry concluded. “Messy, hard, crazy-making, but ultimately healing. A convergence of all my past selves into one sad adult who needed direction and reassurance and, most of all, safety.”
The Refrigerator Cover Artwork:
The Refrigerator Tracklist:
1. Across The Line
2. Bug
3. Thumb
4. Selfish
5. Ghost
6. Fridge
7. Roadkill
8. Cut Fruit
9. Yowie
10. Zucchini
11. Soothe/Seethe
12. Nevermind
Stella Donnelly had to resist the urge to turn ‘Year of Trouble’, the piano ballad that anchors her new album Love and Fortune, into a Robyn-esque moment of dancefloor melancholy. She almost took it off the record when her bandmate, Julia Wallace, encouraged her to play it the way she already had been: keep it small. Yet her emotional devastation, the fragile power of her voice, has rarely sounded bigger. “I’m undressed, paperless, filter gone,” she begins as she confronts the loneliness of a friendship falling apart. She does dress up other songs, like its brattier counterpart in ‘Feel It Change’, but that nakedness is what helps the record move from one chapter to the next, like taking heartbreak by its daily swings. Searing and unguarded, Love and Fortune is not just a record about bridges burned and straining for reconciliation, but a reclamation of the dozen selves pecking for attention in the midst of solitude. “Take back my little life, and push you away/ I set myself on fire, for someone else’s flame,” she sings on ‘W.A.L.K.’. More than careful not to reignite it, by the end of the ride, Donnelly sounds caring, kind, and turns out, more than a little fortunate.
We caught up with Stella Donnelly to talk about a charity shop piano, a friendship breakup, self-help books, and other inspirations behind her new album Love and Fortune.
Normality and repetition
I’d decided that I wasn’t going to tour for a year or two, just to figure out if I was going to make music again, so I got a job in a bakery. It was my first time knowing what was happening that week: I wake up, go do the job, come home. And I do think that repetition, riding my bike along the same road every day, finishing the food in my fridge, all of those sorts of things really fostered that. I was finding a lot of joy in the repetition, playing in a netball team, just having those weekly things that I really look forward to doing. I got bored, which I think is the perfect recipe for me to write songs.
When did you feel the boredom leading to inspiration?
It’s like with anything new you start, you’re like, “I work in a bakery, this is the best fun ever.” And then a month in, your legs are really sore, you’ve eaten way too many croissants, and you’re really sick of the customers. You’ve just washed your 70th pan covered in oil, and it’s that point where you have that perspective of, “Okay, playing music’s not so bad.” [laughs] Working in a bakery is not so bad either, I loved it, but working those hours in hospitality – the charm wears off quite quickly.
Were you writing songs while working at the bakery?
I worked all the way through the record, so yeah. I’m still working part-time now, not in the bakery, but in different jobs. Now it’s nice, because I’ve got the repetition, but I do have a little bit of excitement and joy and playing music again, so it’s a nice combination.
A new box to write in
I was living in a share house, which had a really big shed out the back. My housemate works in film, and he’s a builder, and he had a bunch of materials, so he built me a box – a room that you could fit maybe three people in, no windows, and the box went inside the shed. It honestly was life-changing, because it was also the middle of summer, so this box was the coolest room in the house. We didn’t have air conditioning or anything, so I would just go into my dark little box and spend hours in there. It’s just like that feeling when you rearrange your furniture or something – it’s that “I’m in a new house feeling,” you know? It was such a beautiful gift to me.
So when you say you wrote songs in the shed, you mean in the box in the shed?
Yeah. [laughs] It was also because I was out in the shed, but I knew that my housemates could hear me, so I was feeling insecure about annoying them and the neighbors. It was also just a soundproofing situation.
Do you think that contributed to the atmosphere of the record?
I think the loneliness of it. Being in such a quiet space maybe contributed to the record being very introspective, more so than my previous work. It definitely contributed to it being all about me.
A charity shop piano
The piano was a big part of Flood as well, but it becomes a different kind of emotional thread through the piano songs on Love and Fortune. What role did the piano have in shaping this record?
I didn’t lean on it as much in this record. I spent a bit more time with the guitar on this record, but the charity shop piano, it’s that feeling of: you sit down, and there’s an opportunity to write a song immediately. I guess you could pick up an acoustic guitar, but I never had my guitars lying around. You pick up the electric, you gotta plug it in, you gotta get the pedals on, there’s a process to that. Whereas you could just be, literally, from getting out of the shower, within 30 seconds writing a song on the piano. Having a piano around is just really good for me.
I think the songs that I wrote on piano are more vulnerable just in the sort of physiological experience of playing a piano. It’s very there, whereas playing guitar, I kind of have this little shield. I feel like there’s a bit more confidence, and I’m standing up, whereas I feel like you can’t really lie when you write a song on piano. I guess that’s where I turned to the piano, when it was time to go there in some of the painful moments of the record.
Were there more songs like ‘Year of Trouble’, ‘Friend’, and ‘Love and Fortune’ that didn’t make the cut?
There were more guitar songs that didn’t survive. Most of the piano songs survived, maybe a couple of the demos didn’t make it through. I feel like the piano songs were carried the theme of the record for me, They really created these sort of anchor points to stretch and branch out on the record.
Was there a song out of these that was the trickiest to sing over?
Well, ‘Year of Trouble’ was tricky. I initially wanted it to be a sad Robyn sort of dance floor song, but also ‘The Look’ by Metronomy – that was the energy. And then it just kept not working. We ended up going to do a show, and I was gonna cut the song from the setlist, and Julia [Wallace], who engineered the record, they were like, “Do not cut that song. Just play it on piano, it’ll be great.” And I’m really glad they stepped in there and encouraged that for me. That was a tricky one, it felt like a bit of a beast that we were wrangling. ‘Friends’ and ‘Love and Fortune’ came very quickly.
Limitations
Going through a friendship breakup, I was writing so much, but in every song, I was trying to make sense of the whole situation in one song. Because I was still so close to the pain, I guess I was trying to figure it out in the song, and it got to the point where I was like, “Okay, enough. I’m just gonna let myself feel the one feeling, and then I can make up for it in the next song.” For example, ‘Feel It Change’ is quite petty in my eyes. It feels self-righteous and bratty, so I made up for it with ‘Year of Trouble. There were a few moments in ‘Year of Trouble’, where I’m like, “This so soppy,” so then I make up for it in ‘Love and Fortune’, which has a bit more wit about it. Each song really goes further into the feeling of it, and I think that also allowed me to expand on the character in each song – to not lean on the full story and just start to write more of a story around each situation.
Friendship breakup
‘Feel It Change’ and ‘Year of Trouble’ also complement each other as singles: there’s irony in wishing to be told you’re the perfect friend and then declaring that it’s all your fault, in a way. Having some distance from the record, what do you feel like forgiveness looks like in the context of a friendship breakup, where there’s usually more room for reconciliation?
I don’t want to go into it too much out of out of respect and care for that other person who hasn’t had the opportunity to write an album about it. [laughs] So much of it is just inspired by that situation, and it’s not just the truth in every detail. But there’s just so much shame in a friendship breakup compared to a romantic breakup. I have no shame about writing a breakup song about any of my exes, but when it came to this… There’s a reason I stopped playing music for two years. I wasn’t sure I was willing to go there, because it’s just complicated, and a friendship breakup speaks so much to your personality and your humanity. It was a very confusing time. I think when it comes to forgiveness, again, it’s such a complicated situation that I can only forgive myself for certain for the parts I’ve played, forgive the other person for the parts they’ve played. And just move on – I think that putting this record out is that, like, “I can move on now.”
Does being in music, or any kind of spotlight, complicate how you deal with that breakup, especially when it’s a shared thing?
For me, the friendship was over by the time I’d written the record, and that was not necessarily my choice. I had to do the work on my own to figure it out and to reconcile with everything that way, so the music in itself kind of allowed me to do that. It’s why we write songs, I guess. So much of the record is a love song to that person, and I had to justf let go of how they might feel if they heard it, because I had to write the record, in a way.
There’s a lot of overlap between a friendship breakup and a romantic breakup, but they don’t always demarcate your life in the same way. I’m curious if it had that effect on you.
I think what it made me realize is that there’s a very thin line between platonic friendship and romantic friendship. It’s a very confusing line. In a way, my life was very split. It was a very disruptive, eruptive, harrowing experience. You start to evaluate all of your other friendships. It’s quite destabilizing, because you start worrying this might happen with other friends, and it was working through that and finding my grounding again.
What did it change about how you approached other friendships? What were you more aware of?
I honestly think the dynamic that two people create is their own, and I realize that sometimes it’s just not the vibe. For a while, I was a little shaky, but I think now I just really cherish the people in my life, the friends that I have have had for a very long time.
Share house
How did it affect your day-to-day life outside songwriting?
I love living in a share house. I find it so nourishing and nurturing. I was in a house with six other people, and then across the street was another house filled with our friends. I’ve since moved 100 meters down the road, so it still feels very much like we’re all part of the same community. None of my housemates were musicians, except my partner, Marcel. And I found that so exciting. I was living with a midwife who would come home at six in the morning, covered in blood, with stories of birth. People who work in film, or a school teacher, a landscaper. That was a very exciting space to be in, but also just the feeling of knowing my friends are around, having cups of tea. You can tap straight into community really quickly, but also tap out of it and know that that’s okay, and I think for me that feeling of writing music whilst there are people around is a really comforting thing. I hate being home alone. I feel like apartment living is the life. If I ever got to live in my own house somewhere, I’d want to live in an apartment so that I could hear people around.
Would they ask you about the music?
Yeah, I wouldn’t really talk about it. None of us really talk about our jobs. It’s a beautiful thing. We talk about food. We talk about planning our next camping trip, or we do the quiz, or we just laugh about random shit. It’s such a beauty, this feeling of: these people love me, and they may have not even listened to my albums. I think that’s having true chosen family. None of us really know what each other’s doing, but we all really love each other very much. One of my friends in that house, Grace, my best friend, she knew what I was going through. She’d been by my side through that time anyway, so I wasn’t gonna bore her with any more of my, like, whinging, or my songs. She hasn’t heard the record yet, she’s just hearing it as it’s coming out. I did send it to two of my best friends, we live in different parts of the world.
Could you talk about the ways in which friendship, and not the breakup, inspired the record?
The record was just me, Marcel, who plays drums, Jack [Gaby], who plays bass, and Julia, who plays keys and flugelhorn. It’s just the four of us, and I produced it. No one else knew what we were doing. It felt like we didn’t have an adult with us. I felt like we’d we’d snuck into a studio and we’re just doing what we could do with what we knew, which was very special and instrumentalin the sound of the record – it being, I guess, stripped-back. The two friends that I sent the demos gave me the confidence to put the album out. They were really supportive of me. I am a needy person, and I realize my well-being really relies on the people around me. Not even just in service to my music, but not being in my own world all the time. I’m really glad I got to step out of the box and share the songs with Jack, Julia, and Marcel.
Self-help books
You weaponize them in a darkly funny way on the title track. I’m curious if that was just a lyric that stuck in the context of the song, or if reading self-help books had actually become a habit.
Yeah, it had become a habit. I was just trying to make sense of the world. I think it’s ironic, really – I was in a share house full of people that loved me, but I was in my room reading self-help books, thinking that that was going to be the answer to getting over a breakup. I made a list of self-help books that I was reading. The first one was Dopamine Nation by Anna Lembke. Then I read Unstuck by Dr. Emily Musgrove – that was really helpful. Then I got into The Creative Act by Rick Rubin, and then Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert, which was actually the best one.
Why was it the best?
I’ve never read Eat, Pray, Love, so I don’t really know anything about Elizabeth Gilbert, but she was talking about how she wrote all these books, and she thought Eat, Pray, Love was going to be the trashest of all books. She kind of hated it, and then it ended up doing really well. It was this idea of: just let it go, write whatever the fuck you want to write, and you don’t get to decide what happens after that. I think that gave me the confidence to write the album and almost approach it the way an author would approach a book, rather than a musician approaching a record, splitting each song into a chapter.
I started moving on to reading women’s stories, Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner, Motherhood by Sheila Heti, The Outline by Rachel Cusk, All Fours by Miranda July. I was reading all these women’s stories where they were kind of alone in the world, and picturing them sitting alone, writing those books, gave me great comfort while I was sitting in my box in a shed.
Was reading a daily habit when you were writing, or did you take breaks from it?
No, I was so into it. I had a library card – because I was home, I guess, it was my first library card since I was a child. I had this huge list in my notes from recommendations of what to read, and I would just stand in the library and try and find any of those recommendations. I was deeply absorbing as much work as I could at that time; avoiding the pain.
One moment that stuck out to me in terms of the language of self-help showing up on the record is in ‘Please Everyone’: “We hide ourselves in always pleasing everyone, and you can’t please everyone.” That feels like one of the lessons of the record.
Yeah, and to be brave. I’m really learning that a lot, actually, at the moment. ‘Being Nice’, for example – I think I need to actually take the lessons from the songs that I write. I think I do a lot of impression management; I really want to make a good impression on people that I meet, and I work so hard at doing thatthat sometimes I forget who the fuck I am and what I like. I hope that I can begin to get over that and just grow up.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity and length.
Anastasiya Dzhioeva didn’t arrive at POSITIONS Berlin Art Fair 2025 with a “digital corner.” Coming from CIFRA, a multipurpose digital art platform that combines streaming, a marketplace, and educational programming, she arrived with a proposition: that digital art can sit inside the logic of a major international fair without being reduced to spectacle, novelty, or a polite side-programme. POSITIONS Berlin Art Fair 2025 took place on 11–14 September 2025 at Tempelhof Airport (Hangar 7), and is an international contemporary and modern art fair within Berlin Art Week where galleries present curated booths and special presentations. She arrived with a proposition: that digital art can sit inside the logic of a major international fair without being reduced to spectacle, novelty, or a polite side-programme. The CIFRA × Upframe digital section was not simply present; it was legible — and in a fair environment, legibility is power. It is the difference between a visitor glancing and moving on, and a visitor stopping long enough to be changed by what they’re seeing.
It also mattered, structurally, that CIFRA was the only dedicated digital media section at POSITIONS that year. Being the only one is a kind of pressure you can’t fake. It forces the section to carry the medium’s reputation on its back: if the presentation is sloppy, digital art becomes “sloppy”; if it reads like entertainment, digital art becomes “entertainment.” Anastasiya’s work — both before the fair behind the screen and on-site during the fair — was precisely about refusing those defaults, and building a framework where emerging artists could be perceived through the fair’s most serious lens: as contemporary practice that can hold attention under pressure, take up space among objects, and claim its place in an ecosystem that still privileges the physical.
The thematic anchor, Future Recipes, was the right kind of idea for that task because it isn’t decorative. A recipe is a method: a set of ingredients, constraints, tools, and infrastructures that decide what becomes possible. In digital culture, “recipes” are everywhere — the algorithmic recipes that govern visibility, the technical recipes that dictate what formats can circulate, the social recipes that decide what becomes credible. By placing Future Recipes in the fair context, Anastasiya and the CIFRA team were effectively saying: the future of digital practice isn’t a single aesthetic; it’s the evolving relationship between artists and the systems that shape their work’s production and reception.
That is why the open call process is not just an administrative detail. It is part of the argument. Future Recipes attracted 166 submissions, each requiring full registration and upload — a procedural seriousness that signals to artists and audiences alike that this isn’t a pop-up gimmick. Anastasiya Dzhioeva’s coordination of that pipeline matters because digital art is often trapped between two extremes: the frictionless online feed, where work is endlessly accessible but rarely deeply engaged, and the specialist festival circuit, where the audience arrives pre-converted. A fair is neither. A fair is where work has to convince strangers, quickly, in public, in transit.
Within that structure, the selection’s breadth became a strength because it was choreographed rather than dumped. You could feel it in how the works sat together: not as a random stack of moving images, but as a conversation about bodies, systems, ritual, simulation, appetite, and belief. One minute you might find yourself pulled into Annan Shao’s Reptile Cafe, with its unsettling intimacy and world-building; the next you’re in the conceptual temperature shift of Alexandra Tchebotiko’s Tomorrow I won’t be here, which carries disappearance not as drama but as logic. Zack Nguyen’s The Space Between Becomes Us doesn’t merely “show” something — it asks what distance does to identity, how relational gaps become material. Then the room can tilt again: S()fia Braga’s Third Impact moves with a kind of charged, speculative intensity, while Eyez Li’s Wandering at the Exit of Deity / 徘徊于神明的出口 touches the spiritual and the infrastructural at once, holding the sacred and the system in the same frame.
If the theme is “recipes,” then these works read like different forms of cooking: slow fermentation versus flash heat, careful measurement versus intuitive improvisation. That metaphor becomes especially vivid when the fair context forces viewers to ask a question they don’t always ask online: not only “what do I feel,” but “what is this doing here, among objects, among markets, among institutions?” Anastasiya Dzhioeva’s curatorial translation was partly about letting that question remain open without letting it become dismissive.
This is also why the UK presence inside the selection carried a specific kind of resonance. A fair is a career-making context precisely because it is a place where an artist’s work is not simply “watched” but positioned. When mmii’s Co:beliefs sits in a fair environment, it isn’t just a piece of digital media — it becomes a statement about how contemporary belief systems are engineered, shared, and performed. When James Bloom’s Half Cheetah appears nearby, it’s not simply a striking work title; it becomes a hinge between the language of technology and the language of body, speed, and evolution — the kind of tension fairs understand well because they’re built on the friction between old forms and new propositions.
Then you have the UK-connected practices that complicate the idea of national scenes entirely: Ruini Shi (China/UK), with FuneralPlay, brings ritual into the digital with a sharpness that resists both sentimentality and irony; Maricel Reinhard (US/UK), with A Meal For The Rest of Your Life, turns appetite into a system of meaning — not “food” as lifestyle, but consumption as a structural condition. In a fair context, these works don’t just “represent” UK-linked practice; they demonstrate that emerging digital artists can be read seriously by the same audiences who typically reserve that seriousness for painting, sculpture, and object-based installation.
The curatorial picks layered the argument further, refusing to let “emerging” become an aesthetic category. Under Alessandro Ludovico’s selection, SENAIDA’s Thread 342: East of Empire (3-Channel) introduces multi-channel complexity — not as tech flex, but as a way of thinking about history, empire, and split perception. Frederik De Wilde’s ADAL brings a different pressure: a sense of systems and signal that feels clean until you notice how much it’s doing. Katia Sophia Ditzler’s WE ARE DESCENDED FROM THE SAME EUKARYOTE pushes the theme toward the biological and the philosophical, reminding the fair audience that “future” is not only computational; it’s cellular, shared, and unsettlingly continuous.
And Anika Meier’s picks sharpened the emotional register without abandoning rigor. Ivona Tau’s Summer Diary holds intimacy in a way that feels fragile in a fair’s bright, transactional atmosphere — which is precisely why it matters to place it there. Marine Bléhaut’s Clara navigates presence and character with a clarity that doesn’t need volume to hold you. These choices complicated the section’s rhythm: they made room for quiet works to survive the fair.
None of this cohesion happens by accident, and this is the part that people often miss when they talk about “visibility.” Anastasiya Dzhioeva’s labour was both long-term and immediate. Before the fair, her work happened “behind the screen”: shaping the open call, coordinating jury workflow, managing communication with artists, ensuring registrations and uploads were complete, and translating a curatorial idea into a selection that could be installed and understood. That behind-the-scenes work is the invisible ingredient in the recipe — the thing that makes the fair moment possible.
Then, during the fair, Anastasiya was physically present on site — and that matters just as much. A digital section becomes a true public-facing space only when someone holds it: answering questions, contextualising without flattening, supporting artists, speaking to collectors and institutional representatives who want to understand how digital work sits inside acquisition logic, and ensuring the zone doesn’t slip into the “cool screens” trap. In the highest-traffic parts of a fair, attention is a constant negotiation. Anastasiya’s on-site presence helped turn passing curiosity into engaged looking.
The metrics tell part of the story: the section was positioned in one of the most frequented areas of the pavilion, reaching an estimated 400 visitors in the pop-up zone within a total attendance often cited around 30,000. The project generated 14 documented media and institutional mentions, plus organic social engagement that extended beyond the fair itself. But the deeper point is conceptual: CIFRA’s presence as the only digital art section didn’t just serve CIFRA — it served the artists by placing their work in a context where it could be taken seriously, evaluated, remembered, and advocated for.
A fair perspective is harsh — but it is also clarifying. It forces digital art to be framed as art, not content. It forces audiences to slow down long enough to understand method, not merely effect. It forces institutions and collectors to confront the reality that digital practices are not an emerging side-genre; they are contemporary practice, fully. At POSITIONS 2025, Anastasiya Dzhioeva helped make that confrontation possible — with a theme that operated as a method, with a selection that held together without flattening difference, and with the kind of on-site stewardship that turns an idea into a space people actually enter.
Romy is back with a new single, ‘Love Who You Love’, which comes paired with a music video. The moody yet prideful dance track is billed as a “symbolic closing chapter” to her debut solo album, Mid Air, which arrived back in 2023. Romy produced it with BloodPop and her bandmate Jamie xx. Check it out below.
“My new song ‘Love Who You Love’ is a proudly queer love song,” Romy said in a press release. “It was also really important to me to acknowledge that the world is STILL such a challenging place for so many of us to show our love openly in the LGBTQ+ community. In reaction to that I wanted to write a song that not only celebrates and uplifts love as well as calls for change. The history of resilience and togetherness in the face of unbelievable challenges within the community is so powerful. Personally, finding friends, family and people I look up to and learn from — through queer clubbing has made me feel so much less alone and braver in so many aspects of life. These experiences and the people I’ve met, continue to be so inspiring to the music I’m making and this song intends to be a love letter of visibility and pride. No one can take the love you feel away from you — it’s yours.”
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Conclusion
In 2025, low wagering casinos are changing how players enjoy online gaming. They make things simpler with fair bonuses, quick cashouts, and real rewards you can actually keep.
With them, players get to enjoy real-value rewards without chasing endless rollovers or risking more than they intend to.
By choosing a low wager casinos you can play smarter, safer, and with greater control over your winnings.
If you like gaming that feels transparent and easy to trust, try Milky Way Casino or Juwa.
These casinos are truly worth your time!
FAQs
What are low wagering casinos? Low wagering casinos offer bonuses that need little or no playthrough before withdrawal, making them similar to a no wagering casino experience.
Are low wagering casinos safe to play at? Yes, if they’re licensed, transparent, and verified. Platforms like Milky Way and Juwa maintain fair play and secure payouts.
What counts as a low wagering requirement? Anything below 20x is considered low. The best low-wagering casino bonuses may even have 1x or no wagering requirements at all.
Can I win real money at low wagering casinos? Yes, winnings from low wagering or no wagering casino bonuses can often be cashed out quickly with minimal rollover.
How to find the lowest wagering bonuses in 2025?
Choose reputable sites offering the best low-wagering casino bonuses, clear redemption rules, and third-party fairness checks.
As real-money gambling laws tighten across the U.S., legal online sweepstakes casino platforms are becoming the preferred way to play safely and legally. They let users enjoy casino-style games and redeem real prizes without risking actual money.
These platforms follow federal sweepstakes laws, meaning all purchases are optional and players’ gameplay remains transparent.
However, with over a hundred active operators, choosing the best online sweepstakes casino can be tricky, so we’ve rounded up the safest, most rewarding, and fully legal options for American players this year.
Let’s explore how these platforms work and what makes them the top picks for 2025.
What Are Legal Sweepstakes Casinos and How Do They Work?
Sweepstakes casinos online are legal gaming platforms that look like regular casinos but operate under sweepstakes laws rather than gambling laws.
Instead of betting real money, players use two virtual currencies: Gold Coins (GCs) for free play and Sweeps Coins (SCs) that can be redeemed for real cash prizes. You can get SCs for free through daily bonuses, social giveaways, or when purchasing GCs.
To participate, players simply register, play games, collect winnings, and redeem prizes through the platform’s verified withdrawal system.
This makes legal online sweepstakes casino platforms a safe, compliant, and fun alternative to traditional gambling.
How to Identify a Legal Online Sweepstakes Casino Platform
Knowing how to spot a legal online sweepstakes casino helps you play safely and avoid scams. Here’s what to check:
Licensing & Transparency
Legit online sweepstakes platforms clearly display their licensing details, privacy policies, and Terms & Conditions. They must comply with U.S. sweepstakes laws.
Trusted sites use strong SSL encryption to protect user data and undergo independent third-party audits to ensure fair and random gameplay.
It is advised to always look for verified payout information and open compliance reports before choosing any sweeps platform.
Security & Responsible Play
Trusted casinos prioritize player safety through secure logins and identity verification to prevent fraud.
They also promote responsible gaming with built-in deposit limits, cooling-off periods, and session reminders to prevent excessive play.
Every reputable site follows U.S. sweepstakes laws, including the Alternative Means of Entry (AMOE) rule, ensuring fair participation with or without purchases.
Redemption & Fair Payouts
Redemption speed is a strong sign of trust. At a legal sweepstakes casino platform, players can convert Sweeps Coins (SCs) into USD cash prizes once their identity is verified.
Legit platforms support fast and secure redemptions via bank transfer, e-wallets, or prepaid cards. For instance, top sites process payouts within 24 hours to 10 days, depending on the payout method.
Features That Define the Best Sweepstakes Platforms in 2025
The best online sweepstakes stand out for their game variety, software quality, user experience, and reward systems. Here’s what separates the top performers from the rest:
Game Variety and Software Quality
Leading online sweepstakes casinos now feature vast game libraries, often 1,000+ titles, covering slots, table games, bingo, and even themed options like fish shooting or story-based slots.
But it’s not just about numbers; quality matters just as much. That’s why it’s important to look for platforms powered by trusted developers such as NetEnt, Hacksaw Gaming, BetSoft, and Nolimit City.
These sites regularly update their collections to ensure fair play, smooth performance, and consistently engaging gameplay.
Bonuses, Promotions, and Free Credits
A big part of what makes the best platforms stand out is their sweepstakes casino bonuses. The top sites welcome new players with generous bundles of free Gold Coins and Sweeps Coins, often through no-deposit offers or easy sign-up rewards.
The key is transparency, so always look for casinos with simple terms and no wagering conditions to get the most value from every bonus.
Real-Money Play and Mobile Access
Top legal online sweepstakes casino platforms offer a smooth, cross-device experience, whether you’re playing on desktop, tablet, or mobile.
Most feature instant play through your browser, with some also offering lightweight apps for faster access.
Top 3 Sweepstakes Platforms to Watch in 2025
Bit Of Gold: A Premium Sweepstakes Hub
Bit Of Gold stands out as a legal sweepstakes platform that delivers a smooth, multi-platform experience across desktop and mobile.
Players can explore over 1,000 titles, from classic slots and fish shooter games to progressive jackpots, all powered by RNG-certified software for fair results and transparent play.
Players can enjoy top-rated titles, including the fan-favorite Vegas7 Games, directly on Bit Of Gold’s platform, which is known for its vibrant gameplay, smooth performance, and generous bonus rewards.
With daily login bonuses, free credits, and a user-friendly mobile app, BitOfGold offers a seamless gaming experience.
Bit Spin Win: Fast-Paced Sweepstakes Casino
BitSpinWin is a high-performance legal online sweepstakes platform known for its quick load times, real-time tournaments, and smooth cross-device gameplay.
With over 4,000 games, including slots, table games, and live casino titles, it delivers both variety and speed.
Whether you prefer progressive jackpots or community slots, you can start playing on Bit Spin Win’s official sweepstakes website to experience fast and fair gaming.
The platform uses provably fair technology, integrates games from multiple top providers, and offers 24/7 customer support for a reliable experience.
Players can also benefit from crypto-based bonuses, high RTP rates, and fast, flexible redemption options for smoother payouts.
Popular titles like Tai Chi Master 777 make Bit Spin Win a top pick for sweepstakes fans seeking security, rewards, and modern gameplay.
LuckyLand Slots: Trusted U.S. Sweepstakes Platform
LuckyLand Slots is a U.S.-licensed sweepstakes platform, legal in 40+ states, and widely loved for its easy-to-use coin system and smooth redemption process.
Players can enjoy exciting slots and jackpots without any deposit requirement, making it perfect for casual players and social sweepstakes fans.
The platform offers Gold Coins for free play and Sweeps Coins for real prizes, all through a secure and verified system.
With its mobile app, daily login rewards, and constantly updated slot mechanics, LuckyLand delivers a safe, fun, and rewarding gaming experience for every player.
How to Get Started on a Legal Sweepstakes Casino in 2025
Learning to play at real-money online sweepstakes casinos is simple and beginner-friendly.
Register an account: Sign up using a valid email; no deposit is required to begin.
Verify your identity: Confirm your details and accept the site’s sweepstakes terms.
Collect your currencies: Receive Gold Coins for free play and Sweeps Coins for real prize redemption.
Play eligible games: Use SCs to participate in slots, table games, or tournaments.
Redeem winnings: Cash out through secure payout methods like e-wallets or bank transfers.
Pro tip: Always choose verified platforms, confirm legal compliance, and play on sites with transparent redemption policies.
Conclusion
Legal online sweepstakes casino platforms offer a safe, fair, and accessible way to enjoy casino-style gaming across most U.S. states.
They stand out for their transparent redemption systems, diverse game selections, and strict compliance with federal sweepstakes laws.
These community-driven platforms combine fun with fairness, allowing players to win prizes without risking real money.
Whether you’re in it for entertainment or rewards, always play responsibly and verify each platform’s legitimacy before you start.
FAQs
What makes a sweepstakes casino legal in the U.S.?
Sweepstakes casinos are legal because they operate under a promotional sweepstakes model, not under gambling laws. Players can join for free, and all purchases are optional under federal sweepstakes regulations.
Can you win real money at a sweepstakes casino? Yes. Players can redeem Sweeps Coins for real cash prizes once their accounts are verified. Redemption typically occurs through secure methods such as bank transfers or e-wallets.
Are sweepstakes casinos safe to play on? Yes, as long as the platform is verified, SSL-protected, and licensed under U.S. sweepstakes law. Always check for fair-play certifications and transparent terms.
Do sweepstakes casinos require deposits? No. Players can play using free or promotional coins such as Gold Coins and Sweeps Coins, making it risk-free and accessible to everyone.
Which sweepstakes platforms are trending in 2025? Top names include BitOfGold, BitSpinWin, and LuckyLand Slots.. They are gaining traction for their fast, fair, and engaging gameplay.
Helldivers 2 has just received a new small update for November 2025. This latest patch mainly affects the Into The Unjust content of the third-person shooter title. It also comes at a crucial time. The game has been facing many problems since its big update last September. For version 4.1.1, the developers focused on balance improvements and stability.
Addressing Crashes in Helldivers 2
According to Arrowhead Game Studios, one of the main focuses of the update is stopping crashes. Particularly, it resolved issues that happen during hot joins and weapon customization. In the same way, this was applied to when existing players use stratagems. A rare crash when enemies fall through the ground has also been fixed. Mission stability has improved as well. Specifically, this patch gets rid of problems players experience when triggering encounters in missions. Also, this will no longer be an issue with mission load.
Miscellaneous Improvements in Helldivers 2
Based on the official Steam announcement, version 4.1.1 brings many quality-of-life tweaks. In detail, players will find the extraction shuttle now working properly. It does not force players into the landing stage when they bump into tall structures around landing pads. At the same time, gamepad users benefit from restored haptic feedback when controllers disconnect or reconnect. Players also no longer have to deal with ragdolls falling through the ground during tutorials. Plus, there are light fixes on texture management. The game now stops accidentally loading unused textures into memory on specific planet types.
Optimizations in Helldivers 2
The developers also said they settled the low-resolution texture issue for PC players. In the same way, the game now has an improved FOV, delivering better visibility during combat. It is due to the lowered muzzle smoke flashlight reaction on every weapon. The patch also has more consistent frame rates during the drop-in sequence. On top of that, the destruction of tree assets has been refined.
Availability
Version 4.1.1 of Helldivers 2 is now available to all players on supported platforms. For the complete patch notes, check out its official Steam page.
Looking Ahead
Before this update, players had been sharing all of their concerns about technical issues. This situation forced Arrowhead Game Studios to first deal with recent problems. However, this pushed new content updates to later dates. The good news is that the developer is still improving the game. In fact, they want to know how players feel. So, fans can expect things to run smoothly moving forward.
Watch any table of new poker players, and you will hear it: call. One player, then the next, just passively calls the big blind. It feels safe. It feels cheap. It is a way to see a flop without “risking” too much. This move, known as “open-limping,” is also the single most reliable sign of a beginner.
It is the biggest and most costly “leak” in a new player’s game.
We have all done it. But the hard truth is this: limping is not a strategy; it is a surrender. It is playing “not to lose” rather than “to win.” If you are serious about improving, the very first habit you must build is to replace your passive limps with aggressive raises. This is the first, and most important, pro-level habit to build.
The Strategic Sickness: What Is Limping and Why Is It So Bad?
First, let’s be clear on the terminology. An “open-limp” is when you are the first player to enter the pot, and you do so by just calling the big blind. (Calling after someone else has already limped is “over-limping”—also bad, but a different problem).
It seems harmless. For the price of one big blind, you get to see three cards. What could be wrong with that? The answer is: everything.
Why Limping Is a Beginner’s Trap
This passive, “hope-based” strategy is a leak that bleeds chips over the long term. You are hoping to hit a miracle two-pair or a flush draw on the cheap. But poker is a game of skill, not just hope. Serious players do not rely on luck; they make decisions that have a positive expected value. When you are playing, whether at a home game or on a competitive platform like https://fortunica-online.com/en-gb, the goal is to put yourself in profitable situations. The online environment is tough, and passive, predictable players are the first to get exploited by aggressive opponents. Limping is a blinking neon sign that tells the table, “I am a new player, and you can take my chips.”
The strategic damage it does to your game is immense, and it happens in four distinct ways.
The Four Ways Limping Destroys Your Win Rate
Let’s break down the specific damage that limping causes.
You surrender the initiative: The single most important advantage in poker is “the initiative.” This means you are the player driving the action, forcing others to react to you. When you limp, you hand the initiative to anyone behind you who decides to raise. You are instantly on the defensive.
You invite too many players: Limping gives the rest of the table fantastic pot odds to call. Soon, you have four or five other players in the hand. Your “strong” hand, like A-K, loses a massive amount of its value when played against five random hands. It is incredibly difficult to win multi-way pots.
You cannot win the pot pre-flop: When you limp, you have exactly zero per cent chance of winning the pot right there. A raise, however, gives you a second way to win: everyone else folds. This is called “taking down the blinds,” and it is a core part of any winning player’s strategy.
You play “Face Up”: Limping makes your hand range obvious. When you limp and then suddenly bet big on an Ace-high flop, everyone knows you have an Ace. If you limp and then fold to a raise, you have just given away your blind. You become predictable and easy to play against.
The Power of the Raise: Seizing Control
Now, let’s look at the powerful alternative: the “open-raise.” This is when you are the first person to enter the pot, and you do it by raising (typically 3x or 4x the big blind).
This simple switch, from a passive call to an aggressive raise, fundamentally changes the dynamic of the hand in your favour.
The Three Reasons Raising Is a Pro-Level Habit
This habit is not about being a “maniac”; it is about being a focused, aggressive, and smart player.
Here are the key benefits:
It seizes the initiative: You are now the “aggressor.” You are the one asking the questions. Your opponents must react to you. This allows you to make a “continuation bet” on the flop, even if you do not hit it, and often win the pot simply because you have shown the most strength.
It defines your opponent’s hand: When you raise, and someone calls, their range of possible hands is much narrower than if they just limped. You have gained valuable information. If they re-raise (3-bet) you, you gain even more.
It isolates opponents: A raise often forces out the weaker, speculative hands that would have limped. This is a good thing. You want to play against one, maybe two, opponents, not five. Your strong hands have a much higher chance of winning.
How to Stop Limping and Start Raising (A Practical Guide)
Knowing why you should raise is the easy part. Breaking the limping habit is harder because raising feels riskier. You must be prepared to fold or bet more chips.
Here is how you can build the habit and start to think like a professional.
Defining Your “Open-Raising” Range
This does not mean you should raise every hand. That is a quick way to lose your stack. This is about replacing your limping range with a raising range and a folding range.
The key rule is: If a hand is not strong enough to open-raise with, it is not strong enough to limp with. It is a fold.
A simple (but effective) way to start:
From early position (first to act): Only raise your premium hands (e.g., AA, KK, QQ, AK, AQs, JJ, TT). Fold everything else.
From mid-position: You can add some more strong hands (e.g., 99, 88, KQs, JTs).
From late position (the “Button”): This is where you make your money. You can “open up” your raising range significantly (e.g., A5s, KJo, QTs, 77, 66, T9s).
This is a simplified guide, but it is a strong foundation. The goal is to enter the pot with a strong, aggressive action that puts pressure on your opponents.
A Clear Comparison
This table summarises the strategic difference between the two actions.
Strategic Factor
Limping (Passive)
Raising (Aggressive)
Control of Hand
Surrendered to others
Seized immediately
Ways to Win
One (must have best hand at showdown)
Two (opponent folds OR best hand)
Information Gained
Almost none. Pot gets bloated.
Defines opponent’s hand range.
Hand Image
Weak, passive, exploitable.
Strong, aggressive, respected.
Typical Outcome
Plays a small, multi-way pot with a weak range.
Plays a larger, heads-up pot with a strong range.
This table clearly shows why one path is for beginners and the other is for players who want to win.
From Passive Player to Pot Contender
Breaking the limping habit is the single fastest way to graduate from a beginner to an intermediate player. It is the very first strategic hurdle you must overcome.
Limping feels safe, but it is a strategic surrender. It bleeds chips, gives away free information, and forfeits all control of the hand. Raising, on the other hand, is an act of aggression. It seizes control, gathers information, narrows the field, and gives you two ways to win the pot.
Your task is simple: for your next five poker sessions, make a firm rule. You are not allowed to open-Limp. Not once. If you are the first player to enter a pot, you have only two options: fold or raise. This one change will be uncomfortable, but it will force you to think critically about your hand strength, your position, and your opponents. It is the first and most important step to thinking, and playing, like a pro.
Avery, a grad school writer who doesn’t write, is addicted to prescriptions while toiling in the shadow of her best friend, Frances, whose film on small-town psychoamericana is much more revealing than her status reports Avery writes for a right-wing dating app. When Frances sends her the final cut of her movie, Flat Earth, Avery freaks out. “My only accomplishments were a maxed-out credit card I used to cut up stimulants and the initials of a man I hated carved into my chest,” she thinks.
Sound familiar? There are two genres of literary fiction that irk me: the MFA novel, a usually tender work of family and placid conversations that feel reworked to catch Oprah or Reese Witherspoon’s eye for a movie adaptation, and the New York novel, a disaffected, bare thing of skeletal prose about a narrator’s dissatisfaction with life. Anika Jade Levy’s debut falls into this camp, with Avery tottering around art shows, following Frances around, going on dates with older men and feeling bad about it. “I started taking pseudoephedrine and trying to write a few hundred words every day,” one paragraph starts. “I wanted new clothes, but my credit cards were maxed out. I missed Frances, but I only called her to complain. I tried to skim the newspaper, to concern myself with world events, but I had forgotten how to read without stimulants.” After a while, this can get sort of numbing.
Levy’s style is punchy but bare — “When I did manage to write, there was no plot, just prose,” Avery writes. “I told myself this was because I was a socialist or something, uninterested in the commercial potential of books.” Later she mentions not being one of those writers who insists on “colonizing the empty page.” The prose resembles the druggy stream-of-consciousness Ottessa Moshfegh used for her sad-girl blueprint My Year of Rest and Relaxation mixed with quip-laden books by Jenny Offill and Patricia Lockwood, two writers who (with mixed results) try to capture the cheeky ego-melting process of living your life through your phone. But sometimes Avery confuses tweetability with astuteness, and it results in some dull lines: “I imagined all the skyscrapers penetrating me,” she thinks, or “I felt confused because I didn’t really know the difference between love and money,” which feels like a parody of a Lana Del Rey song. When she’s at a party and suggests she “should have double-majored in sucking cock and carrying Narcan,” her conversational partner pivots.
That being said, Levy does keenly hit on some small doses of contemporary American life — whether in the literary world or not — that feels indicative of the sort of world she’s trying to conjure, one of near-future obliteration via short form video-propagated conspiracy theories and general insanity. The United States is now the land of teaching mothers how to buy Instagram followers, confederate flag bikinis, 3D-printed assault rifles, women who use in-flight entertainment to watch planes blowing up, or a “culturally sensitive globe” on a law professor’s desk that “paid special attention to historically disputed territories.” “I heard that book has a good rape in it,” someone named Forrest says. These images are striking, poky, and often very funny.
The best moments come when Avery is at her lowest; on her knees, figuratively or literally. She awkwardly tries to demonstrate her Roberto Bolaño tattoo to a man who named the author as one of his influences in an Artforum interview (she herself had never read him). And during one writing class, she turns in a story about a long-lasting magic lipstick that still holds after fifty blowjobs. “Can I give you a piece of advice?” the teacher tells her. “I don’t think you should write about your own life.”
At the beginning of the novel, when Avery is touring around middle America with Frances to gather footage for her documentary, the vignettes are free-flowing, capturing something vague and essential. “I feel like I’m really learning something about America,” Alexandra Tanner writes in Jewish Currents for her Covid-induced mommy-blogger internet spiral, a line I use frequently and one I thought about while Levy depicts people on the edge whose lives have been rattled by politics and/or the internet. Avery and Frances wander around “postindustrial towns ravaged by QAnon and synthetic opioids and dead factories,” speaking with eugenicists or radicals, learning each others’ rhythms, like which books they keep on their hotel nightstands and don’t read, and “trying to make something really American,” which sort of mirrors Tanner’s line. It works — these scenes are vivid and lush, even if they are describing relative depravity. But back in the city, the worldview seems to fizzle. If this is a strategy — mirroring Avery’s own resentment with her own life — it is not a particularly exciting one to read, even if it is clever. The high dissipates in New York, and you’re left wishing you could come back.
Maybe we are just inundated with novels about New York City life that a new one doesn’t, on first arrival, seem to present anything new to say about the area or culture. There are pretentious sculptors and bad friends and awkward sex, this we know. Flat Earth, Frances’ documentary, is something special; we sense Avery’s jealousy as she goes from event to event, trying to re-create the magic of discovering something new. “I wanted something to happen to me,” Levy writes at one point. “The essential thing was to get out of New York.” Seems like a good place to start.
When organizing music and film festivals, the magic isn’t just on stage or screen. It’s behind the scenes where technology makes every moment unforgettable.
From handling intricate audio setups to ensuring seamless visuals for large audiences, proper AV strategies make all the difference.
Whether you’re managing artist comfort or audience satisfaction, knowing what tools and practices work best ensures everything runs smoothly. Each detail impacts experience—often in ways most people never notice unless something goes wrong.
Here are eight essential AV considerations to keep things perfect.
1. RF Coordination
Wireless microphones, in-ear monitors (IEMs), and communication devices are vital at festivals. However, with so many frequencies at play, interference can derail performances or disrupt communication between crews.
Proper RF coordination prevents this chaos by ensuring every device has a clear frequency to operate on without overlap. Skilled technicians, like a Las Vegas audio visual crew for events, use spectrum analyzers and planning software to manage the crowded airwaves, especially in dense urban settings.
2. Redundant Power
While RF coordination ensures smooth wireless communication, power failures can bring everything to a standstill. Festivals rely on redundant power systems to avoid interruptions during performances or screenings.
Backup generators, UPS (uninterruptible power supply) units, and distribution monitoring ensure equipment stays powered even if the main source fails. Technicians strategically place these systems to cover critical components, such as LED walls, audio consoles, and cameras.
3. Broadcast Mixes for Streams
With live streaming becoming a staple of festivals, creating a broadcast mix tailored for online viewers is essential. The audio needs to translate perfectly across headphones, home speakers, and mobile devices.
Broadcast engineers balance audience noise with on-stage sound, ensuring an immersive experience that matches the in-person experience. They use isolated mixes separate from venue outputs to avoid over-amplified crowd noise or unbalanced instrument levels.
4. Audio-Over-IP
Modern festivals demand complex audio setups, often across large venues or multiple stages. Audio-over-IP (AoIP) technology simplifies this by transmitting high-quality sound over standard network cables.
This approach replaces bulky analog wiring with lightweight Ethernet connections, enabling faster setup and greater adaptability. AoIP systems also enable centralized control of audio routing, allowing engineers to make real-time changes without physical rewiring.
5. LED Wall Specs
LED walls are central to delivering stunning visuals, especially at outdoor concerts and festivals. However, not all LED panels are created equal. Pixel pitch, brightness levels, and refresh rates directly impact how well audiences can see the display.
For large-scale events, lower pixel pitches ensure sharp images even at close range. High brightness is crucial to combat sunlight in open-air settings. Meanwhile, higher refresh rates prevent flickering during video playback or live streaming.
6. Show Calling and Comms
Festivals rely on precise timing and coordination to keep schedules on track, especially during tightly packed lineups. Show calling, supported by robust communication systems, ensures every cue occurs exactly when it should, without disruption or delay.
Show callers use detailed run sheets to guide lighting changes, video playback, and stage transitions down to the second. Clear comms systems with wireless headsets allow technical crews spread across large venues or multiple stages to receive real-time updates effortlessly.
7. Timecode Sync
For music and film festivals featuring intricate visuals, lighting effects, or pyrotechnics, timecode synchronization is a must. This technology ensures every element aligns perfectly with the performance.
Timecode acts like a universal clock, keeping video playback, lighting cues, and special effects in sync with live audio or pre-recorded tracks. Technicians program each cue to trigger at precise moments down to milliseconds.
8. Sustainability-Friendly Gear
Finally, the industry’s push toward sustainability makes eco-friendly AV gear essential in 2025. Festivals are adopting energy-efficient equipment and renewable power solutions to reduce their environmental impact.
LED lighting with lower power consumption, battery-operated wireless systems, and recyclable staging materials contribute to greener operations. Some crews even use solar-powered generators for certain operations or partner with green-certified suppliers to further enhance sustainability while efficiently meeting modern production demands.
Conclusion
As music and film festivals evolve, so do the tools and strategies that make them successful. Behind every stunning performance or cinematic moment lies a world of technical precision, shaping the experience for audiences and artists alike.
Whether it’s ensuring seamless sound, perfect visuals, or eco-conscious production methods, these AV essentials define how events thrive in 2025. The details may be invisible to most, but their impact is undeniable.
