The Facts About Online Casino Bonuses

One of the biggest differences between playing slot machines online compared to land-based casinos is the bonus offers. All good online casinos give new players some sort of bonus and all have ongoing bonuses or comp programs for regular players. The great thing about these bonuses is that you can try out several casinos with little risk to your bankroll.

One thing to not however is that the bonuses are never simply free money that you can withdraw straight away. All bonus offers have some terms and conditions attached to them. It is important that you read all bonus terms before depositing any money to make sure you will not get any surprises.

In the early days of online casinos the sign-up bonuses had no terms attached. This quickly led to many "players" simply depositing enough money to get the bonus, making a few bets on red and black at the roulette table and then cashing out the whole amount. The reason we call these people "players" is that they really had no intention of gambling.

Due to this the casinos adopted what is called wagering requirements. What this means is that you have to put your money and the bonus into play a certain amount of times before the cash can be withdrawn. Wagering requirements vary from casino to casino and from bonus to bonus.

A simple example of a wagering requirement is as follows. Lets say you have a "Buy $100 get $100 FREE" bonus offer. You deposit $100 and get your $100 bonus. On this bonus is a requirement to wager 10 times the deposit plus bonus. This means you must make at least $1,000 worth of bets before you can withdraw anything.

While some of the wagering requirement might seem really high in most cases they are achievable. Remember that every bet you make adds to the total. It does not matter if the bet wins, losses or draws. It is quite common to get several thousand dollars of action from a small deposit.

Another reason to check the casinos terms and conditions is that some games are excluded from the bonus wagering. As a slot player you do not have to worry about this as slots are always fine. If however you want to play a game such as roulette or baccarat then you should check before playing.

If the whole idea of wagering requirements is not your thing then you can do one more thing to avoid them. Simply email or call the casino when you join and requires that no bonuses that have wagering requirements be added to your account. All good casinos will do this without any trouble.

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