One of the major reasons why online casinos are better than their land-based counterparts are the bonuses. There are many bonuses and promotions you can choose from, each one with different terms. In comparison, land-based venues don’t have anything similar. They do have comps in the forms of drinks or free accommodation, but these things don’t work better than some extra cash.
While they’re often advertised as free money, online casino bonuses are anything but. In fact, there are many rules attached to these offers that you must follow in order to choose the best casino bonus. If you find yourself bombarded by bonus offers, but you don’t know where to start, we’ll share a detailed guide on how to choose the best bonus offer.
Types of Online Casino Bonuses
There are many types of online casino bonuses you can claim. The most common type of casino bonus you come across is the welcome offer. It’s the bonus you claim on sign up, and it usually consists of a deposit bonus that may or may not be paired with free spins. It’s not the only deposit bonus you’ll get at a casino site. There are also no deposit bonuses, free spins, loyalty rewards, and plenty of other offers that aim to make your experience better.
Welcome bonus: the welcome bonus is the first type of casino bonus you’ll come across. It’s also called a sign up or registration offer, since it comes right after registration. Most casinos offer a deposit bonus with free spins to lure new players in. It’s often an appealing offer that casinos spend a lot of time promoting. This offer is often promoted on marketing sites, and on the actual casino with big banners you can click on to learn more. As for the offer itself, in most cases it’s a 100% first deposit match bonus up to a certain amount. The welcome offer can also be more sizeable and spread across several of your initial deposits, and may come with or without free spins.
Things to Know Before Choosing a Casino Bonus
Choosing the best casino bonus for your needs isn’t as easy as it sounds. You can’t just point and click on an offer and expect a top-notch experience. As mentioned earlier, each bonus has its own rules you must follow if you want to claim any winnings that result from its use. Among them are the wagering requirements, period to clear them, the maximum bet you can play with, and eligible games too.
Here’s what to look out for and choose the best casino bonus for your wants and needs.
Wagering Requirements
The first bonus condition you should see written on a banner are the wagering requirements. In short, they determined the number of times you need to play a bonus (or deposit + bonus) over before you’re allowed to withdraw. To put things into perspective, you might come across a bonus with 30x wagering.
This simply means that you need to spend your bonus or deposit amount 30 times before you can withdraw. If you got a 100% deposit bonus up to €200, wagering it 30 times brings us to €6,000. That’s the amount you have to spend in the casino in a limited period before you can withdraw what you’ve won.
Wagering requirements prevent bonus abuse. Since you must wager the bonus a certain number of times, you will essentially spend more than you might earn, so the casino can earn a bit of money in the process too.
Period of Completion
When wagering casino bonuses, you’ll have a limited time to do so. In most cases, you’ll have 30 days to complete the wagering. Miss the time, and you won’t be able to withdraw your winnings via digital wallets or cards. What’s more, you’ll lose the bonus money and your winnings.
Pay close attention to this part of the bonus terms and conditions before you claim an offer. In some cases, you won’t have 30 days, but much less to complete the wagering, and this can be a problem, especially if the bonus is sizeable.
Maximum Bet
To make sure things are fair, online casinos won’t let you make bets higher than the limit set under the bonus T&Cs. The maximum bet is usually around $5. It shows the maximum amount you can play per round when wagering the bonus. If you deposit over that amount, it won’t count toward the wagering requirements.
Just like there’s a maximum bet, there’s also a minimum bet limit. It determines the lowest amount you can play when wagering a bonus. It means that you’re not able to place an amount lower than that. Do so, and your bets won’t count toward the wagering.
Game Contribution
One of the most important things when claiming casino bonuses is the game contribution. In short, not all games in a casino contribute the same toward the wagering. In most cases, all bets on slots will count (100% contribution). But, other games might contribute less, like 10% or 20% for RNG table games. Live casino games rarely contribute to bonus wagering unless it’s a very specific bonus aimed at these games.
Take note of this term, as wagering your bonus funds on the wrong game means you’ll be left emptyhanded.
Eligible Payment Methods
Before you claim a bonus, you should check to see if it’s available via all payment methods. Certain e-wallets such as Neteller and Skrill are often excluded from the list. This means that you won’t be able to make a deposit using these options and claim a welcome—or any other—deposit bonus.
In this case, you should seek alternatives, and the good news is that most casino sites have loads of them. It’s easy to use another payment option to fund your account and claim the bonus that looks great to you. Pay n Play casinos are a good idea, especially if you’ve used Trustly to fund your gaming accounts before.
Check the Casino’s Security and Licensing Features
When searching through different bonuses to claim, you should make sure you’re getting them from a valid, reputable casino site. Make sure to check a casino’s license and that the number is valid. If it isn’t, you may be joining a scam site, and all that bonus cash won’t matter if your data or money is stolen.
Conclusion – Read the Fine Print
If you want to find the best casino bonus for your wants and needs, you need to read the fine print. We admit – it’s a bit boring to read all that legal lingo. But, it’s necessary if you want to pick the right casino bonus and optimize your winning chances with it.