Be aware of restrictions surrounding a casino bonus offer

Online casinos are always trying to attract new players as there is always a steady flow of people leaving and it is in their interest to increase the number of people playing as this in theory increases profits. For this reason nearly all online casinos offer a bonus to new players in order to attract them to the online casino site in question but it is advisable to understand exactly what is being offered. The headline numbers look good and can be advertised as being several hundred Euro but in truth the bonus is generally only as big as the amount you are willing to deposit and sometimes less so if you are only going to deposit €50 then that is the maximum you will receive as a casino bonus. This is known as a 100% match of your first deposit into your online casino account. At some online casinos they will also offer you a match on your second or even third deposits but the match is more likely to be 50%. This is not the case at some online casinos such as Casinocasino.com where both your first and second deposits are matched 100%. Be warned however that this is not free cash at any of the online casinos as there are various hurdles to overcome before you can get your hands on the bonus money.

The first thing that you will notice is that the bonus money is placed in a bonus account rather than your playing account and it is only money in your playing account that you have free access to. Money in the bonus account can be used to play any of the casino games but unlike money in your playing account it cannot be withdrawn. In order for the bonus cash to be transferred into your playing account there are requirements to be met the most common of which is to stake your bonus money a number of times which is often as many as 40 times. This means that if you deposit €100 you will need to play casino games and stake €4000 before any resulting winnings can be transferred into your playing account. Beware also those online casinos that quote a lower staking requirement of 20 times for example as this will probably apply to both your bonus and your original deposit. This is in effect the same thing as 40 times your bonus when the bonus is a 100% match. There will also be restrictions on which casino games count towards the play through requirement. It is quite common for example for what are considered low risk casino games such as roulette or blackjack to be excluded or at a very minimum to count for a very low percentage such as 10%. In the above example if you played roulette which was counting at 10% instead of having to stake €4000 you would need to stake €40000. This is of course a staking requirement so any winnings reinvested does count towards it. Generally speaking it is only slots and video slots which will count 100% towards the staking requirement.

It is not being suggested that casino bonuses are a bad thing but it is important to recognise that you might never actually see the money. It does of course enable you to play for longer which is extra enjoyment and when playing casino slots it is always possible to hit a big win that will enable you to reach the staking requirement and still and up with a profit. There is also likely to be a time limit by which you must have met the staking requirement which could be 30 days or so and there is always the option of not accepting the bonus if you so wish. It appears though that once you are signed up there are no more bonuses available. There is at least one known exception to this which is at All Irish Casino where casinos.ie has noticed that there are regular deposit matching casino bonuses which often appear from nowhere and quite often during the week. If you are registered with All Irish Casino they will send out an e-mail telling you about the promotion so you do not miss an opportunity.

There are also a couple of online casinos which have recognised that some may consider a deposit matching bonus for new players only as being discriminatory against regular players ad they have come up with alternatives which may be of interest to some. The first of these is aptly called No Bonus Casino which clearly is not hiding the fact that there are no bonuses to be had. The alternative however is cash back and it works very simply. If you make a deposit into your casino account on any day and play any of the casino games and are unfortunate enough to lose the whole of that deposit on the same day then 10% of your deposit will be refunded into your account the very next day. There are no claims to be made or forms to complete, it just happens automatically. There are no restrictions on which casino games you can play and the best thing about the promotion is that it is not only available to new players but is available to every player on every deposit they make no matter how long you have been registered. The other important factor is that the cash back is not placed into a bonus account but straight into your playing account which means that you can do what you like with it including of course removing from your account if you so wish.

Another alternative to the regular casino bonus can be found at  Freespins Casino. In this case every deposit from every player is eligible for a number of free spins on a selection of casino slots. The size of the deposit along with the chosen slot will determine the number of free spins available but it can be several hundred. There are staking requirements on the winnings from free spins before they can be withdrawn but as you are almost bound to be in profit after the free spins that seems quite reasonable