March 19, 2024

Online casino bonuses are a staple of the iGaming industry and have become almost mandatory. Every casino that wants to attract new customers, which are all of them, will give as many bonuses as it can to do so. There are many kinds of bonuses out there and we will try to explain how they work and how you can get them.

Why Online Casinos Give Bonuses

The world of online casinos is a brutal one and staying ahead of the competition is a daily struggle for many of them. The fight for every new user is the utmost paramount of survival in this market. That is why casinos developed many strategies to attract new customers. Bonuses are just one facet of their approach. Traditional casinos usually don’t have to bother with this, especially those in Las Vegas, Atlantic City, or other places famous for their casinos. You could hardly expect to enter a casino on the Strip and be given a handful of chips. Their online brethren, on the other hand, have no choice.

How Do Bonuses Work

The most effective strategy when it comes to attracting new users is the simplest one. People love free money and bonuses are essentially that. Every time you create a new account in any online casino, you will get a bonus. Exactly what type and how much of it depends on the casino in question, but they try to stay competitive while not give away too much at the same time. This means that they are usually similar across the industry. You will get bonuses like some free spins on video slots as soon as you activate your account, but that is not the only free stuff you can expect. Casinos also offer deposit bonuses, which are available when you make your first deposit on your account.

Types of Bonuses

Bonuses usually come in two flavors, no-deposit bonuses and deposit bonuses. You can get no-deposit bonuses for creating an account, but also for regularly playing at a casino. If you are a frequent visitor, you will pretty much get them automatically. Casinos usually dole them out on a regular basis, because they are basically free for them and cost them nothing. Deposit bonuses, on the other hand, can be quite handsome. You can get them for your first deposit and then they are usually fixed. Some casinos give them on each deposit you make. Often, these are a percentage of your deposit, but some give fixed ones as well, especially for smaller amounts. Some even go as far as to offer match deposit bonuses. That means you will get as much money from the house as you deposited. They usually limit them to $300 or $500.

Can I Immediately Withdraw the Money?

So, what’s stopping you from depositing $500, getting another $500 from the casino, and immediately withdrawing the whole sum and repeating the process tomorrow? A little thing called the wagering requirement. It basically states how many times you have to wager your deposit before making a withdrawal. It can have different names, depending on the casino. Some call them play through requirement, others rollover requirement, but it boils down to the same thing. If a wagering requirement is 20, that means you need to gamble 20 times the amount of bonus you have received. For a bonus of $100, you will have to make wagers in the total amount of $2,000 before you can withdraw your money. How you do it is entirely up to you. You can do it in 10 high stakes poker hands or play 2,000 spins on a $1 slot.

Bonuses are the second most important factor people take into account when selecting their new online casino. The first is, of course, safety and credibility. As with everything else, casinos play probability game with bonuses, betting that a large number of players will lose both the deposit and bonus before meeting the withdrawal criteria. That is why they offer bonuses that are sometimes outrageous, like a 200% depots match. Essentially, they are offering double your deposit, gambling that you will lose it all before you reach a stage where you can collect your money. That is why some people outright reject deposits, so they don’t have to bother with the whole wagering requirement thing.