Let Us Take a Closer Look At 7 Common Online Casino Bonuses

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When you are thinking about joining an online casino, there is one thing that you need to look at first before you take the plunge and open an account with them, and that is the kind of bonuses that they offer their customers. A great bonus is one that will give you some type of advantage and not the casino. The following online casino bonus review will have a look at the variety of bonuses that you will encounter when gambling online. We have put plenty of time and effort into making this review, so we really do hope it will be very useful to you.

What Exactly Are Casino Bonuses?

Casino bonuses are sums of money that online casinos treat their players to. You will usually get a bonus, called a Welcome Bonus, when you open a new account with an online casino and once you have your account you can make use of other types of bonuses when you prove your loyalty to the online casino.

The world of online gambling is one of the most competitive out there, so online casinos have a lot of respect for those players who sign up with them and stick around. Online casinos hand out bonuses to improve their players' gameplay – after all, what is there not to enjoy about being able to play table games such as poker, roulette, and blackjack or your favourite slot games without the need to spend your own money.

What is the Purpose of Casino Bonuses?

As we spoke about earlier, the gambling world is up there as one of the most competitive industries, so if an online casino wants to survive and be successful, they need to offer new players enticing welcome bonuses so that they open an account with them. If online casinos offer a Welcome Bonus that players deem inadequate, then their adventure in the gambling world is not going to be a long one.

When a casino has enticed a new customer to sign up with them, the next thing they need to do is make sure that they stick around. So, how is it that they achieve this? Well, you will probably not be surprised to hear that they offer more bonuses. When a play gets free money, they will like they are wanted and will be more than happy to stick around.

The Advantages and Disadvantages of Casino Bonuses

Like with all things in this life of ours, casino bonuses come with their advantages and disadvantages. We are going to take a look at some of these right now, starting off with the advantages of casino bonuses.

  • You have the chance to win some money without putting your own cash on the line
  • You can play games that you are not familiar with and will not lose any of your own hard-earned money if things go wrong
  • You can see if you like an online casino without having to use your own money to do so

So, those are three advantages of online casino bonuses, now let us have a look at some of the disadvantages that come with them.

  • Bonuses will always have wagering requirements that apply to them, and this is how much you have to wager before you will be able to make a withdrawal
  • You will often have a set time frame to complete your wagering requirements
  • You have to deposit a minimum amount if you want to claim a Welcome Bonus
  • Not all casino games contribute an equal amount to completing the wagering requirements

N.B. When it comes down to casino bonuses, we really recommend that you take the time to read each T&C carefully so that you get an understanding as to what the casino is expecting from you. If you do not bother to read the terms and conditions, then you could end up losing your bonus, which you obviously do not want to do.

Different Kinds of Casino Bonuses

There are different kinds of bonuses that you can encounter when you play at online casinos. If you are new to the gambling scene, then you will obviously not know about them. However, you do not need to worry about this as we are here to help guide you. Below we are going to take a look at the different types of bonuses you can find - it is important that you know about the different types of bonuses as this means that you will learn about what to keep an eye out for, ensuring that you can always find the best bonuses for you.

Deposit Bonus

Online casinos love showing appreciation to their old and new players by offering a deposit bonus. With this type of deposit, you will be informed that if you make a deposit of a minimum amount or more, then you will receive some free cash on top of your deposit - it will usually be somewhere between the 10-20% range. For example, if you make a £50 deposit and the casino offers 20% extra free, you will get an extra £10 in your account.

You might also come across a deposit bonus where the online casino is happy to match your initial deposit up until a certain percentage. For instance, it is common for a casino to offer a 100% match, meaning that if you deposit £100, you will get £100 as free cash. When it comes down to a match bonus, the minimum value that you will be required to deposit usually stands at £10.

There are three main kinds of deposit bonuses and we have discussed these below for your convenience.

Cashable

With cashable deposit bonuses, once you have managed to meet the wagering requirements that apply as well as all of the other terms and conditions, you will be free to withdraw the bonus and any winnings that you made as you please. If you decide to use an e-Wallet to withdraw your winnings then you will usually receive it within a day. However, if you opt to use a debit or credit card as your payment option, then the minimum time frame you will have to wait is one day and the maximum is five days.

Sticky

This is pretty similar to the cashable bonus, but there is one main difference and that is that you are not allowed to withdraw the bonus money. When all the terms and conditions have been met, you will be allowed to withdraw your winnings, but the bonus amount has to stay.

Post-Wager

This kind of deposit bonus is different from the two above because those are only withdrawable when a player has wagered their deposit value a specific number of times. A Post-Wager bonus, on the other hand, is one that is put into your account once you have completed the wagering requirements. For example, if an online casino has a £100 Post-Wager Bonus, then you need to deposit some money, complete the rollover requirements, and then you will be given the £100 bonus. As soon as it is given to you, you can withdraw it right away.

No Deposit Bonus

A lot of the time you will want to test out an online casino before you go ahead and deposit your hard-earned money with them. The best way to do this is with no deposit bonuses. As is implied by the name, no deposit bonuses are ones that you can make use of without having to deposit any money first. This is one of the most popular bonus types around as it means if there is something about the online casino that you do not like, you can simply leave without having to request a withdrawal for the money that you initially deposited.

One thing that you really must know about a no deposit bonus is that it will usually come with pretty high wagering requirements and that the max value you can get will usually be a lot less than that which is on offer with a deposit Welcome Bonus. For instance, with the latter, you can sometimes find offers going up to £1,000 or beyond, while with the former the most you will offered often stands somewhere around the £50 mark.

Free Spins

This type of bonus is extremely unique as it, as you might have guessed from the name, can only be used on slots. When you claim this type of bonus, you will usually be given between 10-100 free spins for slot game, but you can be offered even more at times.

More often than not, you will be told what slot games you can use your free spins on, and it will often be a slot that the online casino is trying to promote - it might be a new one or one that is not doing as well as they had hoped it would. However, with this being said, there are still some online casinos that will allow their customers to use free spins on whatever slots they like. Just like with most other bonuses, there will be wagering requirements that you will have to complete before you can withdraw any winnings that you might make.

Cashback Bonus

This type of bonus is loved by casino players as the online casino that you have an account with will have a look at the amount of money that you have lost over a specific period and will give a percentage of it back to you to try your luck again - more often than not it will be about 10% of your losses.

So, if you have lost £100 over the course of seven days, your online casino might give you back £10 of it so that you can see if your luck has changed. Whenever you are treated to this type of bonus, we suggest that you take a little bit of extra risk because the money you are using is money that you should already have come to terms with losing anyway.

High-Roller Bonus

Online casinos are always after new players and have to keep coming up with innovative ways to make sure that their existing ones stick around. One type of player that will always be welcomed at casinos, whether land-based or online, are those who like to spend big.

Therefore, there are a number of online casinos that offer bonuses that are just for the high rollers. The concept behind this is pretty simple to understand - those who make big deposits regularly will be given big bonuses. Additionally, since the online casino will know that you like to bet big, you will often get extra bonuses such as extra loyalty points, bigger cashback bonuses, lower wagering requirements, and cool gifts.

Low Roller Bonus

This type of bonus is for those who do not want (or cannot afford) to make large bets. Obviously, casinos prefer high rollers, but with the industry being so competitive they cannot turn the low rollers away. With bonuses that are for low rollers, you might be offered, for example, a match deposit of 200%, even if you deposit just £10. With a low roller bonus, you will be able to receive a decent amount of extra cash without needing to spend lots of your own.

Device Specific Bonuses

Mobile gambling is something that has become very popular. In fact, nowadays, there are more people using their mobile devices to play their favourite casino games than those using desktop devices. Thus, it will not be a huge surprise for you to find out that online casinos now offer bonuses that are only available to those who use a mobile device to gamble.

In addition to this, nowadays, many online casinos have their own app, so they will obviously want more people to download and make use of it considering how much time and money they put into them. Therefore, in order to increase the number of people downloading it, they offer some special bonuses that are only available to mobile users. If you use you mobile to gamble and the casino you have an account with has their own app, we recommend that you download the app as they are much quicker and use up less data.

Always Read Every T&C That Applies

We know we have already touched on the importance of reading the terms and conditions that apply to a bonus you are going to be using, but we cannot stress just how important it is that you do this. Before you go and deposit any funds or start playing a game with the bonus, you need to take a close look at each T&C. By taking the time to do this, you will find out important information such as the wagering requirements, how long you have to complete said wagering requirements, and how the different casino games contribute to clearing the wagering requirements.

You will also know what you are prohibited from doing, so you will not have the scenario where you lose a bonus because you did something the casino prohibited. It is down to you to gamble responsibly and it is up to you check all the T&Cs before you make use of a bonus.

All the best casinos will be transparent with their T&Cs. Therefore, if you come across some T&Cs and see that the information that the casino gives is really vague, then this should get those warning bells ringing and you should think about taking your cash elsewhere.

How to Activate a Casino Bonus

With regards to Welcome Bonuses, you want the activation process to be as simple as possible and this will be the case at most online casinos that you will encounter. So, how is it that you go about activating a Welcome Bonus? Well, there are two common ways, and you can find out more about these below.

  • Fill out the registration form and submit your application for the online casino you want to play at. When you have your new account, go to the cashier page and deposit funds in your account. Your bonus will then be given to you according to the T&Cs - remember to read these carefully
  • Sometimes you will be required to add a code in order to claim a bonus, so when you are depositing money in the account you just have to enter the code in the correct box, which will usually be next to words such as "Bonus Code". Once your deposit has been cleared, the bonus money will appear in your account