A Comprehensive Guide For Evaluating Casino Bonuses

Casino Bonuses Explained

Casinos offer bonuses to reward new players. Claiming a bonus entails making a first deposit or signing up for a new account. 

Once you have successfully made one of these actions, the casino will provide you with free spins or bonus credits. 

With free spins and bonus credits you can eventually win real cash, but casinos aren’t going to just give you real cash – you have to fulfill the terms and conditions of your bonus. 

The T&Cs is a set of rules that usually includes: 

• Wagering Requirements – This rule is given as a multiplier (such as 20x). You times the ‘value’ of your bonus by the wagering requirements to find out the sum-total you must wager before you can cash out. 
• Game Contribution – This rule is given as a percentage (such as 100%). It indicates how much of your stake contributes to the wagering requirements depending on the game you play. 
• Win Caps – This is displayed as a monetary value and indicates the maximum you can cashout in real money using your casino bonus.

No Deposit Bonus Credits 

A no deposit bonus is a free bonus that you get when you sign up for a casino account. 

You will get site credits when you claim this bonus. Most are worth between $5-$20, but sometimes they are worth more. 

While it is possible to compare these bonuses by how many bonus credits you get, it is probably more reliable to focus on the wagering requirements and the withdrawal limits – which we will show you how to do below.

Wagering Requirements For No Deposit Bonus Credits

It can be difficult to meet the wagering requirements for most no deposit bonuses.

Typically, this rule will have you wagering your bonus between 30-60 times before you can withdraw any winnings. 

The difficulty of meeting these requirements is compounded by the notoriously short validity period of no deposit bonuses. 

It is therefore imperative you claim a no deposit bonus with low wagering requirements. 

We can illustrate why this is the case with a table: 

Evidently, Bonus A – even though it gives you fewer bonus credits – is superior to Bonus B. 

With Bonus B you’d have to wager a massive $3,000 with your bonus, whereas with Bonus A you only have to wager $400.

Withdrawal Limits For No Deposit Bonus Credits

Casinos don’t want to lose too much money by giving away free bonuses, so they put win caps in place.

Regardless of how much you win, you can only withdraw sums up to the withdrawal limit. The withdrawal limit can vary a lot, and might be anywhere between $5-$200. 

One way of comparing the real value of a bonus is to look at the withdrawal limits.

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Deposit Match Bonuses

A deposit match bonus is a generous bonus offered by casinos to new players. 

If you claim a deposit match bonus, the casino will take whatever you deposit and ‘match’ it in bonus credits by a percentage, such as 100% or 200%. 

For instance, let’s imagine you’re offered a deposit match bonus that is worth 100% up to $300:

• By making a $300 deposit, you’d get $300 in bonus credits. 
• By making a $200 deposit, you’d get $200 in bonus credits. 

Essentially, when a casino matches your deposit by 100% they are doubling your bankroll with bonus credits. 

While this is obviously very generous, it needs to be said that you can’t actually use your bonus credits until your real money has been used. 

Once your real money account has $0 in it, you can then start to use your bonus funds and start to fulfill the wagering requirements. 

Wagering Requirements For Deposit Match Bonuses

To understand how deposit match bonus wagering requirements work, you need to know that they can apply to either your bonus value, or both your bonus value plus the value of your deposit. 

We’ll show you how it works in both cases below:

Wagering Requirements When Applied To Bonus Value

Here’s how we can breakdown what’s going on here: 

• A deposit of $50 is made.
• The casino matches the deposit by 100%.
• You get $50 in bonus credits.
• You have to wager these bonus credits twenty times. 
• Once you wager $1,000 you can cash out your winnings. 

This is pretty easy to understand. In fact, it’s pretty much the standard way to work out the wagering requirements for most bonuses. Still, you need to know this because with deposit match bonuses it can be different, which we’ll talk about below.

Wagering Requirements When Applied To Bonus Value And Deposit Value

Let’s break down what going on in the table:

• A $50 deposit is made.
• The casino matches the deposit value by 100%.
• You get $50 in bonus credits. 
• However, the wagering requirements apply to both the deposit and bonus value.
• Therefore, the wagering requirements of 20x applies to $100 rather than $50. 
• You have to wager $2,000 with your bonus before attempting to cash out. 

Evidently, when the wagering requirements apply to the bonus value and deposit value the bonus is not as good as it otherwise would be. 
In this case, you’d have to wager double the amount (a whole $2,000!) than you would if the wagering requirements only applied to the bonus value.

Different Kinds Of Deposit Match Bonus

• Deposit Match On Multiple Deposits – If you want to be rewarded with bonus credits over a series of deposits, this is a great bonus to claim. You can also get your deposit matched over your second, third and occasionally fourth deposit. 
• High Roller Bonuses – If you have a particularly sizable bankroll, a high roller bonus will match you for deposits well over $1,000. 
• Reload Match Bonuses – This is actually a type of promotion casinos run for existing players. They work like match bonuses except they aren’t offered to new players.

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Casino Bonus T&Cs

There are a number of bonus rules you need to be aware of before you claim a bonus if you are to effectively evaluate them. 

Not all of them apply to all the bonuses mentioned in this article, but it is knowledge worth having at any rate. 

Max Bonus Conversion

This is also known as a win cap or a withdrawal limit and applies almost exclusively to no deposit bonuses. 

Basically, it places a limit on how much you can win in real cash using a no deposit bonus. 

The limits can be significantly different, with most ranging between $10-$200. You cannot withdraw more than the value stipulated by the max bonus conversion.

Game Weightings

If you are claiming a bonus that gives you site credit, you might find you are allowed to play high odds games, such as table games.

If this is appealing to you, you need to know about game weightings.

Game weightings determine how much of your stake contributes to the wagering requirements.

For example, if you were to play roulette with your bonus and the game weighting had been scaled down to 6%, only 6% of your stake will go towards the wagering requirements.

The rule is used to ensure the casino maintains a significant house-edge.

Here is an illustration of the immense difference a lowered game weighting can make:

The difference between $12 and $200 is not a small difference when you are trying to meet the wagering requirements as quickly as possible.