There is nothing quite as enticing to online casino lovers as the promotions that online gambling houses hand out! If you are looking to learn more about what these kinds of promotions are, then you are in the right place.
However, before we can do that, we would like to shed some light on how bonuses work. To that end, we will examine the most common conditions they have, like their wagering requirements, cash out limits and more.
The ABCs of casino bonuses
Before you learn more about bonuses, you need to know their basic building blocks! Some promotions will only have a couple of the following features, but most have them all. So, here are the said features every bonus has associated with it, across any casino:
Minimum deposit sizes
The first common feature of any online promotion which requires a deposit is the amount of money you need to cash in in order to claim the bonus. This is a relatively simple and straightforward aspect of the promotions, but it is almost impossible to put a specific size on what minimum deposit sizes should be.
That is because said sizes vary drastically across the different countries online casinos operate within, the specific casinos themselves and even the specific promotions themselves! However, it's worth noting that if you wish to claim an online bonus with a deposit, you should always comply with its minimum deposit size!
Max bet limits
The second important condition that you need to keep in mind comes into play once you claim a bonus. Pretty much every promotion which adds bonus funds or Free Spins to your account has a certain max bet limit to it. Simply put, this is a cap on how much you can wager at a time.
The maximum bet limit is in place because casinos don't want their players using their bonuses to place risky bets, and leveraging them to get a bigger payout. To that end, casinos place these caps on how much you can bet, usually around €5-€10. Once again, this amount depends on the bonus type and the casino itself.
It's worth noting, that, since the payout from each bet depends on how much you've wagered, these maximum bet limits can also be seen as a limit on payouts. And, naturally, they are incompatible with certain high-roller strategies, too! To that end, we advise you to learn what the maximum bet limits are before accepting any bonus, and seeing if they are a good fit for how you want to gamble!
Wagering requirements
Thirdly, we have the wagering requirement. This is another very straightforward condition, which was also implemented in the interests of players not abusing bonuses. In order to withdraw any promotion from your casino of choice, you need to wager it a specific amount of times.
Now, the particular wagering requirement is pretty varied from bonus type to bonus type and from casino to casino. Also, there are different wagering requirements for sports bonuses too, which need you not only wager the bonus a certain amount of times, but also do so on events with a particular set of odds.
We will be touching on these different requirements later on, and we will highlight the usual amounts they are set to for any of the promotions we will go over. For now, it is most important to mention that some casinos out there have you wager not only the bonus itself, but also the deposit you have placed, in order to cash out.
If you see a wagering requirement which is half of what it's supposed to be, please keep in mind that might be the case. In practice, these deposit + bonus wagering requirements might take longer to clear, which is not immediately obvious, so you need to avoid them!
Cash out limits
A cash out limit is just what it says on the tin: a specific maximum amount of money that you can withdraw from the bonus. These limits are the third condition most online casinos set for their bonuses with the intention of restricting players from bonus abuse. And, just as with the wagering requirement, these tend to vary pretty vastly between online casinos.
However, we should mention that most bonuses have one of two types of cash out limits, a flat amount, or one which is based on the size of the received bonus. Flat cash out limits can be any amount, between €100 and several thousand euro. They are pretty good if you have a smaller-sized bonus, but are usually pretty bad for high-rollers.
On the other hand, cash out limits which scale with the size of the bonus are usually around 5x-10x that size. We prefer the latter, because they are fairer to every player and take their specific bonus amounts into account.
Either way, the cash out limit for bonuses is also something you need to keep in mind before you claim any promotion nowadays!
Do bonuses have expiration rates?
Yes, bonuses from online casinos do expire! Every promotion you can claim these days is only going to be active for a specific duration after you get it. After that time is up, it will be removed from your account, with the winnings from the bonus also taken away. Only promotions and winnings which have had their wagering requirements cleared will be spared.
As you can imagine, the expiration rates are one of the most contentious aspects of casino bonuses. Sometimes, we've seen online houses issue bonuses with very competitive conditions overall, but set a three day expiration rate for them. This makes it practically impossible to meet their wagering requirement!
We would say that getting a week at least to play with the bonus in question is the least you should expect from online casinos nowadays, with some of the best houses out there having expiration rates of up to and over a month!
What types of casino bonuses are there?
Now, with all of that information what the different aspects of the bonuses of online casinos are, we can examine the exciting promotions themselves! Before we do so, we should mention that the sizes of the bonuses will mostly be determined by the casino issuing them, so we will only touch on their wagering requirements, usual minimum deposit sizes and so on:
No Deposit Bonuses
These promotions represent attractive freebies, which online casinos hand out to their players when they sign-up. Usually, they are a bundle of Free Spins or a small amount of bonus cash. The purpose of these promotions is to let you test out the Slots, Table games and so on of the casino without risking your own deposits.
However, we should mention that you typically need to wager these promotions a very high amount of times, sometimes up to and over 80x. Then, there are usually strict cash out limits on the promotions too. They could also have a short expiration rate, as well.
Overall, No deposit bonuses are usually meant to be used for promotional purposes, which is why you should not expect to be able to make much with them, and approach them as a fun little way to get a taste for what a particular casino offers!
Welcome bonuses
Usually, the Welcome bonus of an online casino is the first promotion you can claim for it, because No Deposit Bonuses are pretty rare. However, we can count on one hand the number of casinos without Welcome bonuses we have seen in the years we've been covering online gambling houses!
That is because Welcome bonuses are seen as the best way for an online casino out there to stand out from its peers and attract players. They are often the biggest promotions, offering thousands of euro to players in bonus cash, or hundreds of Free Spins. The amount of extra cash you get is calculated as a percentage of your deposit. A 100% Welcome bonus will add everything you cash in as bonus funds, for instance.
We should also mention that some casinos even have a couple of alternate Welcome bonuses that you can pick between. For instance, they can have a Table Game bonus which is made entirely of bonus cash, or a Slot bonus which offers only Free Spins. There can even be welcome cashbacks, which we will touch on a bit later.
Regardless of the type of the Welcome bonus, you should know that the promotions have their wagering requirements. Those are around 30x-40x for casino Welcome bonuses, and up to 10x for Sports ones. We would like to remind you that most casinos demand you bet on events with certain odd sizes for that to count towards the bonus. Also keep in mind that these bonuses tend to apply a maximum bet size of €5-10 to your account, and have cash out limits.
To make use of the promotions fully, you need to get familiar with their Terms and Conditions before claiming them!
Reload Bonuses
Next, Reload bonuses make the bulk of the promotions you will receive from the individual online casino. That is because Welcome bonuses are one-time promotions, but Reload bonuses are available on a daily, weekly or monthly basis.
These bonuses need a certain minimum deposit to be placed to obtain them. Once again, they can be made up of bonus cash or Free Spins, and the amount of cash you get is a percentage of what you have deposited.
The promotions can usually be cashed out, provided you clear the same wagering requirement as with the Welcome bonuses. As a reminder, these are up to 10x for sports bonuses and 30x-40x for casino promotions.
The maximum bet size for them is usually the same as the previous bonus, but they tend to have lower cash out limits than it.
Cashback promotions
Cashback promotions allow players to recover some of the losses on their accounts, from over a certain period of time. For example, a 10% Weekly cashback for Slots will let you get back a tenth of what you've lost on this type of game over the course of seven days.
Such promotions are pretty generous, and their wagering requirements are way smaller, too. Casino cashbacks can have wagering requirements between 1x and 5x, and the same is true for Sports cashbacks. We've even seen houses which credit your cashback right to your deposited funds balance, without needing to clear any wagering requirements.
Cashback funds are also usually not subject to cash out limits, though a maximum bet size limit can apply to them. Also, as we said, some online casinos offer Welcome Cashbacks, which you can claim with the first deposit you place, if you would like to play it safe!
VIP account perks
The most loyal players with online casinos are the ones which the best bonuses of the house are usually reserved for! VIP bonuses can be cashback and reload promotions, or even No Deposit bonuses. In that case, the promotions have the same types of conditions we discussed, like wagering requirements or cash out limits. However, we should mention they tend to be more beneficial to the player!
However, there can also be more unique features, like higher withdrawal limits and faster cash out processing times, or even real-world perks like all exclusive trips around the world and more.
These VIP account perks are truly where online casinos' creativity shines, and they are usually the most diverse and exciting category of bonus that you can claim. Just beware that getting the best bonuses will require you to put in a lot of work, and deposit a high amount of money overall!
The bottom line on casino bonuses
We hope that this glimpse into the exciting and glamorous world of the bonuses online casinos offer has been interesting. To conclude, we should mention that you need to look a bit past the promotions of a casino when determining whether to get a specific bonus. Always make sure you are also playing with a licensed and trustworthy online casino, because that is the only way to guarantee the integrity of the house, and of its promotions! And also remember to gamble responsibly, with money you can afford to lose!
Disclaimer: The above is a contributor post, the views expressed are those of the contributor and do not represent the stand and views of Outlook Editorial.
