There is no doubt that almost all of us are tempted by what we perceive as a bargain, which is why all the supermarkets successfully use multi-buy deals such as ‘two for the price of one’ and ‘buy one get one free’ offers to encourage us to spend more. Providing you can afford it and you are actually able to use the extra product that sort of offer is clearly a good deal, but the same affordability test should also be applied to the increasingly common online casino bonus offers we find on almost every online casino site. Once again most of these online casino bonus offers appear very generous at first glance, but unlike the deals you find at your local supermarket all these online casino bonus offers come with a long list of terms and conditions, and this is where you will find the potential downsides associated with the offers. Almost every major online casino now offers some form of welcome bonus to all new casino games players who register with the site, and most of these bonus deals also follow a similar format in that they promise to match the player’s first deposit with a 100% bonus. Some online casinos also offer a reduced bonus for the second and even the third deposits, but as we have already pointed out they all come with a full list of terms and conditions some of which can seriously affect their suitability for some potential casino games players. Before we go on to detail some of those terms and conditions, we should make it clear that here at onlinecasino.ie we do not think that there is anything fundamentally wrong or dishonest about this type of online casino bonus deal, we are simply saying that it is essential that anyone considering accepting this type of welcome bonus fully understands what is required of them to satisfy the terms and conditions necessary to qualify for the bonus. All too often we come across examples of new online casino customers who did not fully understand those requirements before accepting the welcome bonus and then running into problems attempting to satisfy the terms and conditions, particularly the play through requirements associated with almost all of these bonus deals.
Of all the terms and conditions associated with this type of online casino bonus offer it is the play through requirement which is often misunderstood and as a consequence the most likely to cause problems. The play through condition defines how much money a new player is expected to gamble on playing casino games before being allowed to withdraw any potential winnings resulting from the bonus money. Most online casinos express the play through requirement as a multiple of the total sum of the deposit plus the bonus, with that multiplier usually at least a factor of twenty. If we put that in plain English, a new player deciding to deposit a relatively small sum of say 20 euros into their account and agreeing to accept a 100% bonus of a further 20 euros would be expected to gamble at least 40 x 20 euros, that is 800 euros before being allowed to withdraw any winnings resulting from the bonus. Clearly there are many potential new casino games players who would never dream of spending as much as 800 euros playing casino games, and that is where the potential problems become apparent. There are of course also many new players for whom that sort of investment is well within their budget, and for them this form of online casino bonus is a great deal because they are able to play casino games for a while using the site operator’s money rather than their own. The play through requirement is of course not the only condition associated with this type of online casino bonus, and many online casinos also apply a time limit on the play through requirement as well as restricting which of their casino games can be used to fully qualify for the bonus. To be fair to the online casino site operators the list of terms and conditions is nothing like as long or complex as are commonly found with many other agreements, and we understand why they are probably necessary when you consider that the site operators are allowing their customers to play casino games free of charge. The most important advice we can give however is that everyone must ensure that they fully understand all the terms and conditions before agreeing to accept this type of online casino bonus.
Online casinos are no different to any other business operating in a competitive environment and they clearly need to attract new customers, but whether the welcome bonus offers we have discussed here are the best way to do that is another matter. There are in fact very few online casinos who do not offer a welcome bonus of this sort, so it is arguable whether they do actually attract new customers to a particular online casino site. It is of course possible for some players to take advantage of the welcome bonus deals at more than one site if the play through requirements match their planned budget, but this type of bonus is unlikely to other players who are already registered with other sites. In the end it is surely the quality and variety of the casino games that each online casino offers on their site which should be the deciding factor when choosing an online casino on which to play. There are other differences between one online casino and another, with free spins, rolling jackpots and many other features but it is the casino games which should always be the most important element of any online casino’s approach to attracting new customers or even more importantly keeping those players they have already got. That is why most online casinos are continually updating their range of casino games and regularly introducing us to new games, particularly the slots and video slots which are the most important in appealing to new players.