I doubt freebitcoin got enough advertisement out of this. I mean they were already one of the most known casinos in the whole crypto world and certainly the biggest faucet out there by a large margin, how much new user could they actually get from something like this.
I think it will definitely pay out. Freebitco.in and its contest is literally covered in every larger crypto-blog or news site. I read even an article in a well known newspaper about the giveaway (can't find the link unfortunately). The amount someone needs to deposit isn't that much, so it's very appealing for users to deposit BTC to get golden tickets, additionally, they even earn interest for depositing funds.
The need to deposit funds is the most inhibiting threshold for new customers in my opinion. Once they have the funds at the site, it's very likely that they wager at least a small amount at games or bets.