A Guide to Online Casino Welcome Bonuses
$5,000 Welcome Bonus
In recent years, online casino gambling has quickly become an increasingly popular form of online entertainment for adults. That has led to the creation of hundreds of online casino sites that are operating all over the globe.
With so many online casino sites from which to choose, it’s the players who are reaping great benefits. They are benefiting from the fact that online casino operators are being forced to compete for customers. How do they compete? It starts with the offering of lucrative welcome bonuses for new customers.
As you go in search of your new online casino home, you will find that the content from one site to the next is quite similar. The best way to identify the online casino or casinos that will suit your needs is to compare welcome bonus offers. To help you in that endeavor, you can use the following information.
The online casino community would be too generic if every operator offered the same kind of welcome bonus package. It’s great that each site works hard to create a unique welcome bonus that distinguishes it from other sites.
There are three primary types of welcome bonuses: The “No Deposit Required” bonus, the matching deposit bonus, and the free spins bonus. It’s worth noting that some online casino operators will combine two or more of these options to create one big welcome bonus. Let’s define each type:
Astute online casino operators are well aware that most new customers will be new to the online casino community. As new members, they won’t always know what to expect from their online casino gambling experience.
As a gift, some online casinos will offer new customers a small bonus without the need for the customer to make an initial deposit. They’ll do this so novice players will have a little money to explore the online casino site “risk-free” before committing real cash to the process. After running through the No Deposit Required bonus and fulfilling any listed wagering requirements, new customers will need to make real cash deposits if they want to continue on with the using site in question.
The Matching Deposit Bonus is by far the most common and popular option. The online casino offers new customers bonuses that are calculated based on each customer’s first real cash deposit. Sometimes, a Matching Deposit Bonus will cover a customer’s first few deposits. The best way to describe how the Matching Deposit Bonus works is with an example.
Customer A makes an initial deposit of $500. Per the terms of the Matching Deposit Welcome Bonus, Customer A is entitled to receive a bonus that is equal to 200% of their initial deposit. In this case, Customer A would get a Matching Deposit Bonus of $1,000 ($500 x 200%). It’s possible that a particular Welcome Bonus offer will cap the amount of bonus each customer is eligible to receive. If the cap in this example was set at $500, Customer A would only get $500, not the $1,000.
Instead of offering cash or wagering credits, some Welcome Bonuses offer free spins that can be used to play video slots. Many times, the free spins will be restricted for use on very specific video slots. Players might experience this with popular slot games on Limitless Casino. When restrictions like this are placed, the online casino operator will usually designate a slot or slots that have low “Return to Player” (RTP) percentages.
When free spins are awarded, they must be used within a definitive timeframe. Also, free spins must be used before real cash spins can begin.
Online casinos are not in the business of giving away free cash. If they did that, they would not survive. When they offer welcome bonuses, they do so with certain wagering requirements in place. New customers are required to meet all listed wagering requirements before any of their bonus monies will be converted to real cash. That matters because online casino customers are only allowed to withdraw real cash.
While other wagering requirements might be applicable, the biggest wagering requirement hurdle is almost always the “playthrough” or “rollover” requirement. These requirements work as follows.
The playthrough requirements will state that bonus monies must be wagered a certain number of times before any net winnings will convert to real cash.
Using the example from above, the stated playthrough requirement might be 20x the bonus amount. If Customer A receives a bonus of $1,000, they will have to place casino wagers equal to $20,000 ($1,000 x 20) before real cash is available for withdrawal. There is one more caveat. Only “net winnings” will be converted to real cash. That excludes the actual wagered amount of the free spins.
Conclusion: The best Welcome Bonus will usually be the bonus that combines a decent bonus amount with “customer-friendly” wagering requirements.
