Online casino bonuses can give you a lot of extra value, but they can also be a bit confusing because of all of the different terms and conditions. There are hundreds of different online casino sites available out there, and one of the biggest ways that they compete with each other is through promotions and bonus offers. In order to continue to offer these deals, however, they have to prevent people from abusing them who don’t actually plan on enjoying the games in the first place. To do that, they need certain terms and conditions in place. Navigating those policies surrounding bonuses and other types of special offers can be a bit confusing, and we want to walk you through the main things you should look for to simplify the process as much as possible.
Recommended casino bonuses:
| Rank | Casino | Rating | Bonus | Review | |
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Casino Jefe | €100 | Review | ||
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All British Casino | £100 | Review | ||
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Lucky Dino | €200 | Review | ||
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DrueckGlueck | €100 | Review | ||
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32 Red | £160 | Review | ||
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Ikibu | €100 | Review | ||
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iGame | €50 | Review | ||
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Betat | €500 | Review | ||
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Betser | €25 | Review | ||
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Spartan Slots | Review | |||
The Basic Setup of a Casino Bonus
The vast majority of bonuses that you can get from an online casino are based around a percentage-based deal. The idea is that they will match your real money deposit at a certain rate to determine the size of your bonus. For example, a 150 percent match bonus on a deposit of $50 would be worth $75. That means you would have $125 total in value with a $50 deposit, which is a pretty good deal depending on what the other terms and conditions are.
There’s also usually a maximum on the amount of value that you can get from a single deposit with these offers. For example, you might see a 200 percent match bonus worth up to $500. A deposit of $100 with this deal would earn a bonus of $200, since that’s 200 percent of $100. However, a deposit of $300 would only get a bonus of $500 since 200 percent of $300 would be $600, which is above the maximum stated for the bonus itself.
Wagering and Play-Through Requirements
You’ll see wagering requirements and play-through requirements used interchangeably because they mean the exact same thing. This is a minimum amount that you would have to wager before you will be allowed to cash out after claiming a bonus offer, and it’s usually based on a multiple of the size of your deposit, your bonus or both.
So here’s a quick example. Suppose you have a $100 deposit on a 150 percent match bonus that gives you a $150 bonus, and suppose the wagering requirements are 20 times the sum of the bonus and the deposit amounts. The sum of the bonus and the deposit is $250, and 20 times that is $5,000. This means that you would need to wager a total of $5,000 before you would be able to cash out after claiming this bonus offer. That’s a very straightforward way of looking at it, and if you always make sure that you calculate the exact amount that you’ll have to wager before you can cash out with different bonuses, it’ll make it easier to compare them to each other.
Other Terms and Conditions
There are other terms and conditions that can come along with the standard wagering requirements. One of those is the idea of game restrictions, and there are two ways that can work. The first way is that certain games are simply not allowed for play with a certain bonus until you clear the play-through requirements, and if you do play those games, you can have your bonus amount and winnings made completely void. Alternatively, you can have limited game restrictions that will change the play-through requirements for certain games, so the wagering requirement might be higher for blackjack than for online slots, for example.
Aside from that, you can also have cashable or non-cashable bonus offers. Cashable bonuses can be cashed out just like money you’ve deposited once you clear the play-through. Non-cashable deals, however, can only be used for wagering, and once you make a withdrawal, they are removed from your account. Obviously the cashable bonuses are more favorable.
In Summary
When comparing different casino bonus offers, you want to look at how the terms and conditions stack up to each other, especially the wagering requirements. Just remember that the size of the bonus isn’t the only thing that matters, and a huge bonus isn’t really worth much if it has an extremely high play-through requirement, can’t be cashed out or can’t be used with the games you want to play.