An online casino bonus might not be all it is cracked up to be

It cannot fail to be noticed that every online casino you come across wants to give you a bonus for registering an account and making a deposit. This casino bonus technique is used by nearly all online casinos to attract new players but very few are willing to reward existing customers with the same deal. All Irish Casino is one of the exceptions as it often has the same deposit matching bonus on Wednesdays for all customers as well as the welcome bonus for new players. Wednesday is definitely casino bonus day for All Irish Casino as instead of the deposit matching bonus there are also sometimes free spins or even cash back. One of the questions, however, is what the value of this type of casino bonus is and whether it would be better to go for something else. There is no simple answer to this but it certainly helps to avoid disappointment if you understand what you are being offered. The headline is always correct in that the casino will award you a bonus that matches the size of your first deposit. This can also be extended to second and even third deposits at some online casinos but the percentage match is likely to be smaller than 100%. The problem arises when you want to get hold of the money that was issued as a bonus.

The casino bonus cash has more than likely been placed into some form of bonus account which is separate from your regular account. It is available to play any of the casino games with which is an obvious benefit but it cannot be withdrawn as cash until certain requirements have been met. These requirements are often called play through requirements which is another way of saying that the bonus money must be staked a number of times on certain types of casino game. A number of 40 times is not unusual which means that if you have received a casino bonus of €100 you will have to stake €4000 before any resulting winnings can be withdrawn. This is made worse by the fact that what are considered low risk casino games such as Roulette or Blackjack do not count towards that play through requirement. There are online casinos that will allow play on Blackjack and Roulette but they will probably only count something like 10% of the stake value. In other words, if you elected to play your €100 bonus at an online casino that allowed roulette at 10% you would actually have to stake €40000 before any winnings could be withdrawn. There is plenty of enjoyment to be had by playing with what is effectively free money but to actually turn that into hard cash can be quite tough.

There are, however, online casinos that take a slightly different approach to the question of the casino bonus which some Irish casino players might prefer. As an example, Freespins Casino offers free spins on a selection of casino slots with every deposit made instead of a one off casino bonus. There are in fact three types of free spins available which give you the choice of going for spins of a higher or lower value. A higher value means fewer free spins and a lower value means more free spins with the total value remaining the same. Regular online casino players will appreciate that it is practically impossible to lose when playing free spins so it is not surprising that Freespins casino insists that you stake any winnings from the free spins 50 times before it can be turned into cash. This is only applicable to the profits from the free spins so there is really nothing to lose and it might be more exciting plus the fact that the offer is available to every player on every deposit thus rewarding existing customers as well as new ones.

Another variation can be found at No Bonus Casino which has a name you will not forget. As the name suggests there is no bonus as such for anybody but what is on offer instead is cash back if you lose. This is basically a very simple promotion that says if you make a deposit into your online casino account today and somehow manages to lose all that money on the same day then 10% will be refunded as cash back the very next day. There are no restrictions on which casino games you can play and unusually there are no restrictions on what you can do with the cash back; it really is cash. You might expect the online casino to say something like you must play the cash back money on certain casino games a number of times but that is not the case. The cash back is placed directly into your casino playing account alongside your own money so it is yours to do with as you wish. There are restrictions on how much money you can have in your playing account at the time but apart from that this is a very simple promotion that should be attractive to all players and indeed it is available to all players on every deposit.

At least these two online casinos give players an alternative to consider. They are also in themselves very good online casinos with a huge range of casino games from a number of the top casino software suppliers. Both are correctly licensed by and operate under the control of the Malta Gaming Authority which is one of the top authorities for online gaming in Europe. UK players are also catered for with a license from the UK Gambling Commission. This is not particularly relevant for Irish casino players but it does give an extra layer of confidence when selecting an online casino for the first time. They are also included in the top ten in the opinion of casinos.ie with the casino bonus variation being part of that assessment. At all of these online casinos you always have the choice to opt out of the casino bonuses on offer.