Many online casino bonus deals are not as good as they may appear

There is no doubt that most major businesses put a great deal of effort into their marketing strategy, and also spend a considerable sum of money on attempting to attract new customers as well as holding on to their existing customer base. Almost all the popular internet social media sites we all know for example are totally dependent on advertising revenue for their very existence, as are most of our newspapers and magazines. In any competitive market most companies need to find a way to stand out from the crowd and then let their potential customers know what they are offering that is different from their competitors. That reality is not confined solely to the retail sector however, it is also true of the online casino sector. In the early days of online casinos they were all operated by the big bookmakers as part of their online sports gambling sites, but that situation has now changed dramatically as more and more specialist online casinos have come on stream. The online casino market is now very crowded and we the customers have far more choice than ever before as to where we play our casino games. We also of course now have a much greater choice of casino games, particularly with regard to the online casino slots games we can play online. Clearly the range of casino games offered by different online casinos is one of the ways that they can stand out from their competitors and we will return to that later in this article, but we also need to look at the other common marketing strategy used by the online casino operators, namely the online casino bonus. In the absence of any opportunity to compete with their rivals with the sort of price reductions common in the retail sector, almost all the online casinos have chosen to offer some sort of welcome bonus deal to attract new customers. As we have already pointed out the first online casinos were all part of online sports gambling sites, and all sorts of good bonus and cash back deals were already being offered by those sites so it was no surprise that the operators chose to try a similar approach to attract new casino games players. Unfortunately most online casino bonus offers are not as straight forward as the free bet or cash back offers for online sports gamblers, and come with a variety of terms and conditions which can affect their appeal and even their suitability for many potential new casino games players. The most common form of online casino bonus offered by the online casino operators is the promise to match the customer’s initial deposit with a 100% bonus, effectively doubling the stake money they have available to play casino games. Many of these online casino bonus deals also offer reduced bonuses on the second and even third deposits, but they all come with similar terms and conditions, the most important of which is what is known as the play-through requirement. At first sight this type of online casino bonus looks a very good deal, and for some new casino games players it is, but that is not true for every new player and it is important that anyone deciding to accept one of these online casino bonus deals totally understands the associated terms and conditions.

Let’s look at the most relevant of these terms and conditions, the play-through requirement. This defines how much money a bonus recipient needs to stake on playing casino games before they are able to withdraw any winnings from their account. It is usually expressed as a multiple of the sum of the deposit plus the bonus, and is normally at least a factor of twenty. That means that a new casino games player who decides to accept an online casino bonus of this type and makes an initial deposit of say 25 euros, will be expected to wager at least 1,000 euros on playing casino games before they can take back any potential winnings. That is a large sum of money for most people and may considerably exceed what they intended to spend on playing casino games, and more importantly may exceed what they can afford. There is also often a time limit associated with the play-through requirements, and may even be a restriction on which casino games qualify fully for the sum required. We fully understand why the online casino operators need to apply terms and conditions of this type when offering to allow new customers to play casino games without risking their own money, but we also think it is important to stress that this type of online casino bonus is not suitable for every potential new customer. It is also important to point out that these welcome bonus offers are not compulsory and not accepting the offer will not in any way affect your future relationship with the online casino site operator. If we’re totally honest, here at onlinecasino.ie we tend to think that whatever form of welcome bonus deal is offered by an online casino, it is their range of casino games which should be the most important deciding factor for any potential new customer when choosing their preferred online casino site. Not all of the online casinos use a deposit matching bonus to attract new customers, and the Free Spins casino for example is  an online casino preferring to offer their players a number of free spins on their slots games rather than a bonus. The aptly named No Bonus casino has also decided not to offer that type of welcome bonus and have in fact come up with a rather interesting alternative. Anyone, including existing customers who makes a deposit today and then suffers from a run of bad luck, losing the whole of that deposit today will receive a 10% cash back payment into their account tomorrow morning. There are no strings attached and the money can be used to play more casino games or withdrawn from the account with no penalty whatsoever.