What are Gems?

Gems are SlotsMate's play currency. You earn them for free, wager them on select slots, and your wins push you up the leaderboards.

That's the one-sentence version. Here's the longer one.

We built Gems to fix a specific problem with slot demos. Demo mode lets you try a game, but nothing's on the line, so nothing really happens. You spin, you "win" a fake jackpot, you close the tab. There's no progress, no consequence, no reason to come back.

Real money play has the opposite problem. The stakes are real, which means stress is real, which means many people who want to enjoy slots end up burning out or losing more than they intended.

A few quick clarifications about what Gems are not:

• They're not worth real money. There's no cash-out, no crypto swaps, and no redemption for prizes. They're a play currency, full stop.
• They're not for sale. You can't buy gems with cash. Earn-only. We did this on purpose, since the whole point is that everyone starts on a level playing field and earns their way up.
• They don't carry over anywhere else. Gems live inside SlotsMate. They don't migrate to a casino, they don't transfer between accounts, they don't show up in your real-money wallet if you ever decide to play for cash elsewhere.

So What Are Gems Actually For?

Two things:

• They let you play real slots with real stakes (mostly bragging rights at the moment) without using real money. 
• They're the input fuel for the leaderboard. Bigger wagers, luckier streaks, longer sessions all turn into rank.

Think of them like points in a video game. Or like chips at a friendly home poker night where nobody's actually paying for the chips. The points matter inside the game. They don't matter outside of it. That's the whole idea.

Related: How does the reward system work? · What are Play with Gems games?