Your Life
A WINNING RETIREMENT
Older Americans are turning sweepstakes into their jobs, and they’re cleaning up
Steve d’Adolf
Steve d’Adolf
Every month, Judy Bailey, 72, meets with six friends at their local Chili’s. There, they settle into their favorite booth near the front, order lunch, share chips and salsa and enjoy a long afternoon discussing their favorite pastime: entering sweepstakes.
These are not casual players. They are “sweepers,” a term for hardcore hobbyists. Bailey enters up to 100 sweepstakes per day—through social media and subscription email newsletters such as SweepSheet, Sweeping America and iWINContests.
Over the years, Bailey has won an array of prizes—a Princess Cruises trip, thousands of dollars in gift cards, tickets to Miami Dolphins games and much more.
It might sound like a lot of work doing all that “sweeping,” but Bailey says she spends only an hour every morning on her desktop computer, along with a few moments throughout the day on her phone, “usually while watching TV.” Consistency is key. “You have to enter every day,” she says, “or you’ll never win.”
Judy Bailey and husband Forrest
Judy Bailey and husband Forrest
THE RISE OF SWEEPERS
Sweepstakes started to become widely popular in the 1950s, when marketers began using contests to raise brand awareness. The Publishers Clearing House sweepstakes, launched in 1967, made millions of Americans believe that they “may already be a winner!” But in recent decades, sweepstakes have spawned a subculture, especially among older people.
Steve d’Adolf, 82, a retiree in San Diego, spends an average of seven hours a day entering sweepstakes, online and by mail. Over the past 45 years, d’Adolf says, he has won a ride on the Goodyear Blimp; trips to four Super Bowls; meet and greets with celebrities like Britney Spears, Carrie Underwood, Mariah Carey, Gloria Estefan and Michael Bublé; and dozens of vacation trips.
“It still gives me an endorphin rush,” says d’Adolf. “I love going down in the morning to meet up with my 8 o’clock breakfast crew and be able to tell them, ‘Hey, look what I won.’ ”
A BRAIN BOOST
Bailey says she plays sweepstakes to keep her brain active since retiring in 2008: “I didn’t want my brain to check out on me.” Filling out entry forms helps, she adds.
It’s a sentiment shared by many: Sweeping is an excuse to get together with friends and keep neurons firing, maybe even to find a new sense of purpose. “My wife calls it my addiction,” d’Adolf says. “She’s probably right. But it could be worse. Other people are addicted to things that’ll probably end up killing them. I’m just addicted to sweepstakes.”
Eric Spitznagel is a features writer for AARP Members Edition.
A BEGINNER’S GUIDE TO SWEEPSTAKES
Tips from longtime sweepers
▶︎ Go online. Websites like Sweepstakes Advantage, Contestgirl, Online Sweepstakes and Sweepstakes Fanatics list hundreds of sweepstakes, as well as info on entry frequency and prize type.
▶︎ Be consistent. “Make it a regular part of your routine,” says Carolyn Fenzl, 51, a retiree in Boise, Idaho. “Doing it once isn’t enough. If you enter every day, you’re going to increase your odds.”
▶︎ Use a separate email address. “I never use my normal email for entering sweepstakes,” Bailey says. “If you do, your inbox is just going to be flooded with junk mail.” She suggests creating a new account devoted solely to your sweepstakes hobby.
▶︎ Stay local. D’Adolf tends to focus on sweepstakes that limit entries to regular customers, subscribers or people who live in certain areas. Those typically offer better odds of winning than national sweepstakes, which, he says, can have “odds that are worse than Powerball.”
▶︎ Avoid scams. Don’t pay for a prize: If collecting your winnings isn’t free, then pass. And never provide financial information to anyone who contacts you about a sweepstakes prize. That’s a red flag.
Deirdre van Dyk contributed to this report.