A casino bonus comes in different forms at different online casinos

One of the questions frequently asked by Irish casino players is whether an advertised casino bonus is worth having or whether it is better just to opt out but of course the answer is not a simple yes or no as it depends a lot on what you are expecting or looking for. The first task is to understand exactly what the casino bonus in question is offering. The most common form of casino bonus is for new players only and comes in the form of what is called a deposit matching bonus. Under this system the online casino will match your very first deposit usually 100% so if you make your very first deposit after opening your account of €100 then the casino will give you another €100. This sort of offer can also apply to your second or third deposits but that is likely to be at a lower percentage such as 50% or even 25%. In every case however the bonus money is not placed into your playing account which is where your own money is but rather into a separate account often called a bonus account or something similar. Money in both accounts can be used to play any of the casino games but money in your bonus account cannot be withdrawn until certain conditions have been met. Obviously online casinos need to put certain conditions on the money to prevent people from registering and account making a €100 deposit and then running off with €200 however the conditions can be quite challenging which means that the chances of actually getting hold of any money from the bonus account are slim.

The conditions are generally that you must wager the bonus money a number of times which is often as high as 40 times before any cash can be withdrawn. There will also almost certainly be restrictions on which casino games are eligible for wagering so for example what are considered low risk casino games such as Roulette or Blackjack will either not be included at all or included for a much lower percentage whereas casino slots always count 100% towards the wagering requirement. Watch out for online casinos that quote a headline figure of 20 times for a wagering requirement as this will apply to both your bonus money and the deposit. It doesn’t take much of a mathematician to work out that 40 times your bonus money and 20 times your bonus money plus your deposit are exactly the same thing when the bonus is 100% of your deposit. Whether this sort of casino bonus is worth it or not is down to you. It certainly helps you to play for longer than would otherwise be the case but if you think it is a quick way to make money you may be disappointed. The other drawback to this particular bonus is of course that it is only available to new players so once you have registered an account and had the bonus then that’s it. Once again there are exceptions such as at All Irish Casino where there are regular casino bonus offers, usually midweek, which are available to all players.

If that sort of casino bonus does not appeal there are alternatives such as at Nobonuscasino.com which as you can guess from the name does not a bonus to anyone. This might seem rather uncompetitive in the market but this online casino has a trick up its sleeve in the form of cash back if you lose. You can read the terms and conditions yourself at the No Bonus Casino site but in simple terms if you make a deposit into your online casino account today and manage to lose the whole lot by playing any of the casino games then 10% will be refunded the very next working day. There are two very important features of this offer which differentiate it from the regular deposit matching bonus and they are firstly that the money which is returned is placed into your playing account rather than any form of separate account making it your cash to do with as you please and secondly that the offer is applicable to every deposit that every player makes not their account. This means that you can continue playing with the money or if you wish you can simply withdraw it and go away. No Bonus Casino is the only online casino that offers this sort of casino bonus as far as casinos.ie knows so you know where to be if this appeals plus it is one of the recommended online casinos so it is correctly licensed and operated.

There is yet another option for a casino bonus and that is at Freespinscasino.com. Once again this online casino does not offer a deposit matching bonus but instead offers free spins on a selection of casino slots. If you are a casino slots player anyway this is quite a good solution for you as the free spins are available with every deposit that you make so in the same way as No Bonus Casino offers the cash back to every player on every deposit so does Free Spins Casino offer free spins on every deposit for every player. The exact number of free spins depends on both the size of your deposit and on the casino slot that you choose to play them but can be several hundred. As you will realise, when playing free spins at a casino slot it is almost inevitable that at the end of them you will be in profit so the online casino does have play through requirements before you can withdraw that cash but these apply only to the profit that you make from the free spins and not to your own deposit so it is not possible to lose any of your own money until you start playing with it.

A you can see there are various forms of casino bonus and whether they are suitable for you or not is very much a personal issue but the important thing is understand what is on offer and the terms and conditions which apply.