By Samantha Williams

Anything for nothing is a bargain according to my old mum, in a way she is right, but we also have to remember that everything comes at a price. Online Casino Bonuses, may mean free chips, spins or money for the newly registered member, as well as existing players – but again, the rule of thumb is, everything comes at a price. Always read the small print.

In this instance the small print is Terms and Conditions, and every good online casino, makes these conditions clearly known to members. It is the sites which don’t make the T’s & C’s of their online casinos bonuses clear…that we really need to steer clear of. If we know what we are in for, we may opt in for bonuses or not, so, that the decision to take-up a bonus or not, also becomes an educated decision.

All casinos online offer bonuses as part of their marketing plan. They budget for these in their cash flow and this factors into the prizes paid out, as well as a whole lot of other conditions. It is for this very reason that the casino which offers the lowest bonuses, also offer the biggest prizes, and the best wagering requirements. Bonuses may consist of all of these factors, any/or various combinations:

? No deposit bonus
? First deposit bonus
? Ongoing deposit bonus
? Bonuses for using alternative payment methods
? Bonuses for taking part in promotion
? Friend referral bonuses
? Birthday bonuses
? VIP bonuses

Taking advantage of online casino bonuses means in essence – value for money. While this is true in the most part, we need to know what we are doing when we claim these free gift, and this is why it is so important to understand wagering requirements and how these work. Terms and conditions tell us what the wagering requirement is, and it is from this information and our budget that we determine how much money to deposit. For example; €/£/$10 is generally the minimum deposit and the maximum can go up to the thousands. The bigger and better-name a site, the more likely it is to be that bonus amounts are capped. In this instance; wagering requirements are either non existent or extremely fair.

On a scale of 1 – 10, we would say “no wagering requirements” is excellent, while 10 x is “good”, 20 x is “fair” and anything above that is simply outrageous. We do however see some sites which offer 50 or even 100 x wagering requirements. Why any sensible person would want to join any site with such ridiculous terms is completely beyond our comprehension. Making a small deposit and claiming a small bonus, means players who are not millionaires can get conditions met much more efficiently.

By Samantha Williams

One thing you are not going to get when you walk through the doors of a live casino – is a bunch of free chips, thrust into your sticky little, spend-thrifty paws. Play at no deposit casinos online and they can’t give you enough free chips, and we are not talking about the deep-fried kind, the sort that comes with battered fish! We are talking casino chips here and these are worth real money. Virtually every virtual casino hands a certain amount to every new member, as they take their first tentative steps through the doors.

For example, 888casino.com; they are one of the best no deposit casinos. They let you try before you buy, but not every online casino does this. What all other sites do, do however, is, give you free casino chips when you make a first deposit. There are definitely industry standards when it comes to handing out free chips. The absolute minimum is 100% and this is on varying amounts. There is a pattern we see which generally works hand-in-hand with brand faith, and the biggest brands never hand out the biggest bonuses. There is a very good reason for this, and it pays for the online casino player to catch onto the reason early.

Here is the thing about giving free bonuses at online casinos – they offer these as incentives, and every incentive comes at a price. In the case of bonuses, the price is wagering requirements. Wagering requirements are a multiple of the first deposit plus the bonus. This is the very reason why the best brands keep bonuses low. It enables the player to take advantage of the offer without getting their knickers in a knot. One can understand why a players knickers would get in a knot, when they aren’t able to make a withdrawal or cash in their bonuses until they have spent a million pounds/dollars first. OK, so, maybe not a million, but we are talking big bucks.

Look at this for an example – a casino offers a small bonus of up to maximum of £50 in a 100% cash match to welcome the new member. Their wagering requirements are 20 x deposit + bonus to clear funds/winnings from the account in the case of a withdrawal. This means if the player deposits £50 and receives a £50 bonus, they have to wager a total of £50 + £50 = £100 x 20 = £2 000 to clear their funds. When we look at it from this point of view, those free chips might start to lose their free appeal.

It is for this reason we always maintain, that when it comes to making first deposits at online casinos, biggest is never best. To coin a phrase – if it looks too good to be true – it very definitely generally is. We have seen anything like up to 50 or even 100 x wagering requirements on maximum deposits of anything up to thousands of pound/dollars. With numbers like this – we are talking really big bucks!