Online Casino Bonuses | Complete Guide to Casino Bonuses 2024

Casino bonuses give succour to a gambler while playing online casino games, but to maximize the use of these bonuses, you need to understand how online casino bonuses work.

First, what is a casino bonus? Casino bonuses represents a form of a reward you get for opening an account in a casino, deposting money or real money betting. The most common form of a bonus is the welcome bonus given by online casinos to their first-time members which you can play with and after fulfilling certain conditions, will be credited to your account.

Casino bonuses are not just free gifts as there a few requirements put in place by online casinos before you can withdraw them into your account, there are three important elements you need to understand while dealing with casino bonuses. These are: Wagering requirements, the game contributing percentage and the house edge.

In order to 'unlock' the bonus amount, you'll have to wager i.e. risk some of your own - often many times more than the bonus is worth. It's all stated quite clearly in the bonus terms and conditions. A wagering requirement is basically the number of times the deposit plus bonus amount must be wagered before the bonus is released. (this will be further explained below)

The contributing percentage is the amount that each casino game counts towards the overall wagering requirement. Think of it like a multiplier: if the wagering on a game only counts as 50%, in effect you have to wager twice as much. The contributing percentage varies by game, casino and bonus however games like Baccarat, Blackjack and Roulette have low contributing percentage.

The house edge is the percentage of total bets taken that the casino expects to keep in the long term. So, in a game with a house edge of 10%, the casino will expect to make an overall profit of 10%. All games have a house edge and each game's house edge will affect the amount of game time, and bonus's wagering requirements you will need to meet before you can make real money.

There are several casino bonuses offered by diverse online casinos but naturally, not of all them are up to par and claiming some casino bonuses are just a waste of your precious time. However, there are some defining features that defines the best casino bonuses, these features are important and a top casino bonus should check all listed points.

Security

Nothing comes to close to your security when playing your favourite casino games online, always make sure that the online casino that is offering a particular bonus is safe, and your personal data and funds are protected through high end security technologies.

Licensing and Fair Play

You also need to verify if the said casino is licensed under reputable authorities and operates under fair policies that makes online casino bonuses enjoyable. You can try to find the information about the reputation of a casino by searching for its reviews or customers opinion online. If you find multiple justified complaints, do not open an account with this casino, no matter how attractive the bonuses they offer are.

Nice Wagering Requirements

The best casino bonuses should have tolerable wagering requirements, so check out the wagering requirements of any bonus and how much your favorite games contribute towards it. You will agree with us, that there is really no reason to chase a bonus that you'll never clear or one that requires you to play games that you don't even like.

Realistic Expiration Date

The expiration date of any top casino bonus should be realistic based on your games of choice, preferred stakes, and the wagering requirement that you're up against. It is a bad feeling when you are working towards a casino bonus and then losing everything by simply running out of time.

Casino Bonuses are important perks of the gaming world, with nearly every online casino on the internet offering them in one form or another. This section explains the most common types of bonuses offered by online casino. Casino bonuses can be categorized as Deposit and No Deposit Bonuses.

Welcome Bonus

A welcome bonus is one of the most common new player bonuses you will be offered as a new player. This bonus will require you to make a deposit into your account. You will need to meet wagering requirements before you will be allowed to cashout. These bonuses can vary in size by a lot with some of them being worth $ 100 and some going into the thousands.

Reload Bonus

Reload bonuses are very much like welcome bonuses, but they are regular obonuses offered to loyal or frequent players in an online casino. The online casinos use them to persuade players to continue depositing and playing games. These bonuses are for specific amounts and will require you to clear them before withdrawing. They can also range in size depending on where you play. Each casino will offer these bonuses differently with some of them offering them on a constant basis and some offering them at certain times or for specific re-deposits. However, reloads tend to be less generous than first deposit or welcome bonuses.

No Deposit Bonus

A no deposit bonus is a bonus offered to new players before they make a deposit. Sometimes you won’t have to make a deposit in order to get a bonus. Some online casinos allow you to receive free spins or even cash just for creating an account, with no deposit required. Often, these come in conjunction with a first deposit bonus. However certain conditions are put in place before players can withdraw this bonus as real money. 

No Deposit bonus often comes in forms of cash bonus and free play bonus or free spins. Cash bonuses generally range in size going from $ 5 to around $ 100, but the amount varies from casino to casino.

Freeplay bonus are generally much larger than the other type of no deposit bonus. It is quite common to see them as large as $ 1,000. When you register for your new player account you are given a certain amount of freeplay credits to play with and an hour to play as much as you can.  Once your time is up you get to keep the money you won up to a certain amount. Once again, there will be wagering requirements you will need to meet before you will be able to cashout.

Free Spins

Free Spins are usually added to a slot game. You can play a given amount of Free Spins. Free spins bonuses are usually associated with a specific game and allow you to be introduced to an online or mobile slot machine risk free. Winnings that you get from free spins bonuses however may tend to have wagering requirements, which means the money has to be played a certain amount of times before you can claim it. Online casinos sometimes offer this bonus when they have a new game and wants player to have a trial before wagering.

Live Casino Bonus

These are exclusive bonuses designed for live casino. They are usually claimed in popular casino games like Roulette and Blackjack but can also appear on sportsbook and live sports betting, the live casino bonuses are meant for players to make the most out of their time playing at a real online casino.

Live casino bonuses usually come in two forms. One is a free bet or bonus funds that can be used to be wagered as free bets. The other usually comes in the form of live casino tournaments, where players can compete for the highest rankings on the leaderboard in order to receive their reward.

VIP or High Roller Bonus

These are bonuses specifically designed for VIP players or high rollers which allows you to get extra money when you make your deposit and since you will be making a larger deposit the bonus will accommodate you. These high roller bonuses have a wide range of diversity from a matched percentage of your deposit to exclusive free gifts, cash back etc and can be worth a good amount of money, high roller bonuses are known to have little wagering requirements.

Mobile Bonus

Mobile bonuses and promotions are usually offered by online casinos to players who sign-up through mobile because it’s much easier for players to access casino games via their mobile device. However, to qualify for the mobile bonus, online casinos will ask you to verify your account through mobile, which means that upon signing up, they will send an SMS for verification. All you’ll need to do is insert the code sent and your mobile bonus will be activated.

A wagering requirement as we have rightly said above is a multiplier that represents the number of times you have to play though a bonus before you are able to withdraw any winnings.

For example:  If you are given a $30 Casino bonus with a 10x wagering requirement. This means that you need to spend $200 on eligible games, before you can withdraw any pending winnings gained.

Another example is if you claim a deposit bonus of $100, and the wagering requirements are 30x the total bonus, you need to wager $100 a total of 30 times before any withdrawals can be processed.

Any winnings made whilst working towards your wagering requirements will be stored in a pending balance until you meet the wagering requirement. You cannot withdraw cash from your pending balance. You will be able to spend those pending funds to work down the wager requirement, meaning to release any pending funds into your Main Wallet, you need to complete the wagering requirement for the applicable bonus. Once you have done that, all funds stored in the pending balance for that bonus will be released to your Main Wallet.

Most casinos simply require that you wager the bonus and deposit amount a specific number of times to nullify wagering requirements. It is common for casinos to have wagering requirements of 20x to 40x in total, however some do extend beyond those figures.

In order to get your wagering requirements down, you need to wager on specific games at the casino. Slots usually count best towards those requirements, although it is possible that Table Games, Video Poker and the like may count less. Some games such as progressive Jackpot Slots, or in some cases, Live Dealer Games don’t count at all towards wagering requirements.

Online Casinos use bonuses to get people to their sites, one of such bonuses is a sign-up bonus ping to entice players into wagering on their real money games. As interesting as it sounds, these bonuses are not free, and if you want to take advantage of any casino bonuses, then make sure that you know exactly what you are getting yourself into by carefully reading the casinos rules on the particular bonus you are playing, each bonus may have different stipulations attached to them, so make sure that you read the details of the specific bonus you claim, rather than their general terms and conditions. When choosing your bonuses, watch out for the small prints (the small print in this instance are conditions, requirements attached to the bonus that might not be in plain sight), the wagering requirements and withdrawal limits.

The terms and conditions pertaining to a particular bonus may change from time to time, so for each bonus that you accept from your online casino of choice, make sure that you have checked their rules and that they are still the same, or become familiar with the new rules if they have changed.

An online casino is expected to uphold and apply fair-gaming rules to bonuses too, however that   is not necessarily the case. Of course, the reputable casinos will adhere to a code of ethics; there are some ‘rogue’ casinos that will not. Gambling is always about taking risks and bonuses have their own fair share of associated risks too.

There are several benefits attached with playing casino bonuses, first, casino bonuses give you the chance to hedge your bets because some online slots can be quite volatile. In fact, some slots coupled with certain bonuses may mean that you can play slots and be profitable! For example, an online slot that has a Return to Player percentage of 95% (i.e. returns $ 9.50 for every $ 10 wagered) coupled with a bonus that clears at 10% will give you a Return to Player of 105% - in other words, you're beating the house!

Online casino bonuses are also a good opportunity through which gamers can make quick cash. Casino bonuses also double your deposit which could make a significant difference to the amount of games that you can buy with your money.

You also get to play free games on online casinos as part of incentives that these casinos offer their players, an example is the one-hour free play, a feature of free spins which allows players play any slot game free for one hour. The gamers are provided certain number of totally free rotates and also, they can take out the cash if they are able to gain in the game.

Online casinos offer reload and regular bonuses to their members meaning that players will be able to take advantages of bonuses more often than once, increasing your chances of winning a prize, and gives you more fun playing more without you having to spend more money.

This question is most times in the mind of players whenever they claim bonuses offered by an online casino. Why do online casinos give bonuses indeed, and how do they hope to gain from it? The most popular reason is that online casinos gives these bonuses so that members could play more games and stay longer on the site. Another aim of these bonuses is to turn members into loyal players who would keep coming back to gamble in the online casino.

There is a fierce competition between online casinos and giving free spins is a proven and relatively cost-effective way to acquire new players and keep the existing ones active. Typically, the amount of free spins offered are low and there are wagering requirements which means that not too many people are lucky enough to withdraw their winnings from the free spins.

Offering a welcome bonus is a way of reassuring new members that the casino is mindful of the fact that you may be having doubts about making your first deposit and that the casino is also taking a risk. So, the casinos are willing to give you a little extra money to begin with that you do not ever have to pay them back.

Online casinos also attach bonuses to new games such as free plays or free spins, so that gamblers would be eager to try them for free and if they love the gaming experience, they are sure to wager real money.