Are online casino bonus offers as generous as they seem

One of the most common marketing tools used by retailers to persuade us to part with our money is the Sales. Not that long ago most retailers would have one advertised Sale at discounted prices during the year, often starting on Boxing Day and lasting about a week. Nowadays however there appear to be Sales almost all year round somewhere on the high street, and some companies never seem to be without a Sale. Clearly we all love a bargain and it would appear that the offer of a reduced price does continue to appeal to us and persuade us to spend. This approach to marketing is of course more prevalent in a competitive market where companies are vying with each other for our attention, so it is no surprise to find a similar approach in the ultra-competitive online casino and online sports gambling sector. We refer of course to the online casino bonus offers and the free bet or money back deals offered by the sports gambling sites. Almost all the online casinos on our recommended list offer some form of online casino bonus to attract new customers, and many also operate loyalty bonus schemes to encourage us to continue playing casino games on their site. In fact currently the only exception to this is the aptly named No Bonus casino, which has chosen to avoid offering any online casino bonus deals in favour of an interesting cash-back offer which we will come back to later in this article.

The online sports gambling sites tend to concentrate their bonus offers on free bets for new customers, plus a variety of cash-back offers usually associated with a particular sporting event and or the outcome of that event. In most cases these bonus offers and deals are easy to understand and most of their customers accept them with no problems. Unfortunately the same cannot be said of most of the online casino bonus offers. With the notable exception of the No Bonus casino, all the other online casinos on our recommended list offer some form of welcome bonus to new customers. This usually means that they offer to match a customer’s initial deposit with a 100% bonus up to a fixed maximum. Some online casinos also offer a reduced bonus on the second or third deposit as well as the first, but they all come with terms and conditions which need to be understood. On the face of it any offer to double the amount of stake money we have available to play our favourite casino games is bound to appeal to our bargain loving instincts, and if it was that simple we would all head for the online casino offering the biggest welcome bonus. The problem lies in the terms and conditions associated with these online casino bonus offers, particularly what are called the play-through requirements. Clearly if the online casinos are offering to top up our online casino account by as much as 200 euros in some cases, they want us to continue playing casino games on their site for as long as possible and to risk a reasonable sum of money in the process. That is the reason for the play-through conditions to be applied to the welcome bonus offers. These conditions specify how much money we are expected to wager on playing casino games before we can withdraw any money from our account. They are normally defined as a multiple of the total of the initial deposit plus the bonus, and can be as much as 20 or even 30 times that figure. If we take a simple example of a player making a relatively modest initial deposit of 25 euros and deciding to accept a 100% bonus of a further 25 euros, that player would need to stake at least 1000 euros on playing casino games to satisfy the play-through requirement. There may also be a time limit on how long we have to satisfy the play-through requirement, and even a restriction on which casino games qualify. Some online casinos may not accept all of the money staked on roulette for example as qualifying for the play-through condition, because the winning odds on roulette are better than most other casino games.

There is no doubt that online casino bonus offers, particularly the welcome bonuses can look very attractive and indeed they are for some people, but they are not suitable for every potential new casino games player. Here at onlinecasino.ie we understand why the terms and conditions are necessary for the online casinos to continue to provide these generous bonus offers, but we want to ensure that everyone who is tempted to accept one of these offers fully understands what is required of them before making the decision. Some people may find the play-through requirements very reasonable and well within their proposed budget, whereas others would have their budgets seriously stretched if they wanted to comply. The decision as to whether to accept a bonus offer is entirely down to our individual circumstances, but don’t be tempted to exceed your budgets simply to qualify for a bonus.

Perhaps now is a good time to return to the approach being taken by the No Bonus casino to attract new customers. Instead of offering a bonus they have designed an interesting cash-back arrangement which applies to both new casino games players and existing players registered with the site. Let’s suppose a registered player makes a deposit today and starts to play casino games but has an awful run of luck and loses the whole of that deposit on the same day, a 10% cash-back will be repaid to their account the following morning. Their argument is that the time we need the most help and sympathy is when we have a terrible run of luck, so they decided to compensate their players under those circumstances. There are no penalties or hidden conditions and the money can be used in whatever way you want, including withdrawal if that is what you want to do.

One last comment on online casino bonus deals. Are these offers really a good reason to elect to play at a particular online casino or is the quality of the casino games they offer a better reason to make that decision.